Lutherie - new performances added - mortgage signing - trail run

Thursday 18 May

Yesterday was a scorcher... the outside temperature was well over 30 degrees, so for sure I had the top down in the car for the drive out to Waterloo to pick Maggie up, so we could go to the bank and finalise our mortgage for the house in Wavre… we weren't just perspiring from the hot weather but also from excitement.  Already we are thinking about the many things to do to get the place sorted; which rooms need painting, how our furniture might be arranged, and more importantly who we need to come in and inspect and give us work estimates on renovating the attic and roof.  We are under no illusions about how long such work will take: “soon” is a long time in Belgium.

The world famous Councours Reine Elisabeth rotates through different instruments each year, and this year for the first time, it will be a ‘cello competition.  Our friend Catherine Janssens - who is a good friend of our landlord Michel, and in years past had her lutherie shop on the main floor of our current home at Avenue de Visé - is one of the organisers of the Ekho#2 festival that is running concurrently with the Concours Reine Elisabeth.  She currently builds violins in her shop Atelier Flagey and also plays in the orchestra de la Chapelle des Minimes.

The Ekho#2 festival has been going on this past week, and this morning there was a showcase of the work of luthiers and archetiers (this is someone who specialises in violin bows) from many countries.  Malcolm and I were planning on visiting another lutherie school near Antwerp in the afternoon, so in the morning we went to the Maison Malibran to look at the violins, violas, ‘cellos, and bows, and meet the luthiers…

There was lots of beautiful workmanship on display, and I was happy to see a number of violinist and violist colleagues from various orchestras that I have sung with in the past, there to try out the violins and bows on display.  We spoke at length with a Viennese luthier, Bärbel Bellinghausen, and a Quebec one, Isabel Wilbaux.  Both were very friendly and informative… Bärbel answered some questions about the black paper/pear wood/black paper inlay on the backs of one of her violas, and Malcolm admired the many beautiful instruments, each with their own special aesthetic interest.  While Isabel Wilbaux was listed as a visitor from Canada, she herself is Belgian and studied for a year at the school that Malcolm has already registered in, but now builds violins in Montreal.

trying out instruments

After a stop at home for lunch, we hit the road again and drove up to the Centrum voor Muziekinstrumentenbouw in Puurs, not far from the International Luthier School of Antwerp (ILSA) in the town of Boom that we visited before.  CMB Puurs is on a much smaller scale than ILSA, and looks to us to be more geared towards older students.  Malcolm felt more at home in the community and structure at ILSA, so the plan is still for him to go there in September.

As for me, this morning I very happily received an email from the conductor of the orchestra with whom I performed the Christmas Oratorio in the Netherlands at short notice this past December: he has asked me to return there to sing the role of Christ in the Matthew Passion, on Good Friday of 2018!  What good news: the Christus role is the last large Bach piece for me to sing: while I have done both the arias and the Christus role in the Johannes, I’ve only ever done the arias in the Matthew, and so this checks that box.

the church in Zieuwent

It never rains, but it pours... today also brought an email from Paul Dinneweth, a conductor with whom I have worked many times before: he will do three performances of the Johannespassion in 2018, in Antwerp and Brugge, and has asked me to do the arias.  I’m very thankful… that means the schedule now is:

• Orff's Carmina Burana with the Universiteitskoor Maastricht - Maastricht University Choir on June 17th
• the national anthems of Belgium and Canada (sung in French, English, Flemish and German!) at the Canada Day / Canada150 celebrations at the Royal Museums of Art and History Brussels on June 27th
• opera audition for the Théatre de la Monnaie June 28th
• Bach's Deutsche Orgelmesse for baroque orchestra and vocal soloists, in 30CC Leuven with the Hildebrandt Consort on October 13th, and again at the Cathedral of Saint-Michel and Saint-Gudule Brussels October 28th
• Mendelssohn's Paulus with Camerata Vocale in Brussels on November 30, December 1st, December 2nd
• Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium with BachWerk at the Eglise des Dominicains Brussels on December 9th
• Bach’s Johannespassion March 25th (deSingel Antwerpen) March 26th (Sint Carolus Borromeus Church Antwerpen) and March 31st (Concergebouw Brugge)
• Bach’s Matthäuspassion March 30th (Zieuwent NL)
• Brahms' Requiem in Toronto May 6th with the Toronto Classical Singers

Of course I’m hoping for something to come from my opera auditions this season, for more Passions here in Belgium and in the Netherlands, and to fill in some more things in Canada in April/May 2018…

Friday 19 May

Tonight Maggie and I are packing up the car and joining our running friends in Florenville, close to the Orval Abbey, to run the second annual Trail des Trappistes.  It will mark my anniversary as a trail runner; it was only a little more than a year ago that I started running at all, and then I had a few months off because of my ankle injury.  The weather will be not so good for camping, but it will be good for running: in the low teens and drizzly, which is much better than hot and dry for me.  This year I'll try the 19km instead of the 11km; I regularly run this distance now, and the vertical climb on this race is +365m, much less than the Cisterciens I ran two weeks ago with a +450m climb.

Fortunately Saturday evening looks as if it will be clear, so we will try to have a barbeque after the races.  And I'll definitely be enjoying my "recovery drink" after the race; I've chosen Westmalle this time.

Have a good weekend!