vacation

The house has been very quiet lately. Duncan is away at the chateau for the week, and yesterday Malcolm left for a sleep-over, swim/baseball/golf session with the family of one of Maggie's colleagues. Last night Maggie and I were on our own, and so we made a nice little salade nicoise with a seared tuna steak, and had a quiet dinner here, just the two of us. Luxury.

I am fighting a bad sinus and throat infection, so there's no singing in the cards for me today, but I am taking advantage of the quiet to do some music planning instead. Dina and I have confirmed two performances of Die Schöne Müllerin in May 2011, and are planning additional performances, and I have several projects in December 2010 that are waiting to be finalized. As usual, there are scheduling conflicts with these performances, so I can't do all of them, but it looks like I'll have no shortage of gigs on either side of the ocean for the next eighteen months to two years.

As well I have taken a few steps back into the teaching realm. I used to give guitar lessons, and have done some conducting in my day, but this past weekend I gave my first voice lesson here in Brussels, and it looks like I will have a regular student in this young singer. As well, there is a boys choir in Waterloo that has approached me to assist their young soloists in preparing their pieces, so it looks as if I may have an opportunity there as well. Bruce has always said that someday I'd take on students, and I am very pleased to have a chance to try to pass on my (and his, and his teacher's) knowledge to other singers.

As well I need to start preparing the music for the next two BL!NDMAN concerts; one is in ten days in Courtrai, and the other in Amsterdam in May, so I would like to be in top form for those.