A quick update

I wanted to write a quick update, since a couple of new contracts have arrived.

It would seem that I'm singing with my old friends David Cameron and Melos on November 26th, in a programme that includes Purcell's Ode on St. Cecilia's Day; Cecilia being the patron saint of music, of course. In addition, the May 2011 tour of Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin is being extended into June, with the addition of a Kingston performance on June 4th to complement the other performances in Toronto on May 1st and Ottawa May 6th. I'm still negotiating with other venues to add more performances, and expand the tour outside of Ontario.

As for Brussels, I recently met a neighbor who is a concert promoter, and is quite a good friend of the head of the Brussels Conservatoire; she seems interested in helping me present La Belle Meunière here in Brussels as well. Peter and I are both very keen to perform it, so I'm going to keep pursuing it and see if we can't make something happen.

Tonight Peter and I had a nice long rehearsal, but not of Schubert; this was Cesar Franck music, in preparation for the first official rehearsal this weekend, and we rewarded ourselves afterwards with a run-through of Grosser Herr, O starker König! from Part 1 of the Christmas Oratorio, which I'll sing in December in Toronto. It really is very jazzy when you think about it: lots of syncopations, surprise dotted notes, lots of cross rhythms... I bet old Johann Sebastien would have loved to hear Charlie Parker solo on alto sax...