Busy weekend: AMIS music festival, Burns night

This weekend was a bit of a challenge for the Rose-Zadow family... it involved an awful lot of hard work...

Maggie was the head caterer for the Burns Supper fundraiser this year.  The guest list numbered seventy people, so there were many preparations to be done ahead of time.  On Thursday I went to the butcher's shop and picked up five kilogrammes of lamb shoulder and some extra lamb bones for scotch broth, the first course.  I don't know how many kilogrammes of potatoes and yellow turnips were purchased, but I do know that on Friday evening it took a large team of perhaps a dozen people at least an hour to peel and chop them all, and pop them into huge pots of cold water.  While that was going on, other volunteers (including Duncan and Malcolm) led the set up of the church sanctuary; this involved moving all of the heavy oak pews to the very front of the church, pushed together to clear a large open area for the initial reception, and the setting up of a bar to deliver the apertif.  Downstairs in the hall people were busy setting up tables and laying out tablecloths, napkins, cutlery, and hanging tartan and Saltires to decorate the hall.  The soup, potatoes, beans, and turnips are best cooked in boiling water, and the large presentation "chieftan" haggis is heated in the regular oven.  But we also have many of the smaller ordinary haggises, and the fastest way to heat them up is still the microwave method, so we brought in two extra microwaves to supplement the existing one.

Saturday morning was a very early start; I had to be at the International School of Brussels for 7h20, to have an introductory meeting with the rest of the adjudicators, and Maggie very kindly drove me to the school.  This was my third time at the AMIS solo and ensemble musical festival, and this year we had musical performers visiting from international schools in Munich, Madrid, Luxembourg, and other European cities.  There were every type of instrumentalist, but the largest group by far were the vocalists.  I had almost twenty students to listen to, and each one received around fifteen minutes of coaching from me, as well as some written assessments and an evaluation.  There were even a couple of extra musicians who didn't fit into the main groupings of violin, piano, brasses, etc.  There was an accordionist whom the piano teacher bemusedly agreed to hear, and there was also a guitarist, who they gave to the percussionist teacher, to his bewilderment.  I had a break at that time, and offered to help him with that student, which he really appreciated as he knows nothing about the guitar.  I am not of course a classical guitarist but do know the basics of posture, hand position, fingerpicking, and so forth.

There was a wide range of proficiency on view this year, as always.  I do understand that the most important thing for young singers is that they sing something that they connect with emotionally, and then they are likely to practice and learn the piece.  But I have to confess that I find that the pop music pieces and many of the more recent film and musical theatre pieces are useless.  Firstly, the accompaniments are badly written, boring, with little movement or direction, so the accompanist can do very little to support the singer.  Secondly, they are often of a weird range, way too wide, or uninterestingly narrow, so it becomes tiring, or indeed very difficult to sing the pieces well, even for a professional. 

So you can imagine my delight when one girl brought Benjamin Britten's Sally Gardens!  I was over the moon.  I also was lucky to have a Panis Angelicus, and then - wonder of wonders -  Caccini's Amarilli, mia bella, sung by Adam, a boy soprano.

Adam is maybe twelve or thirteen, and I remember him from last year.  He still has a beautiful soprano voice, although it has started to darken and become more mezzo-soprano in range and colour.  He surprised me, because he said that he remembered what I had told him from last year... I had suggested that he slightly exaggerate the rolled "r" in italian as an expressive element.  He explained that it had felt weird last year when I first pointed it out, but now he agreed it was valuable advice,  and he had used it in the preparation of this new piece.  Now that is a smart kid!  It's great to have a student who listens so closely; this year he was able to take one of my new suggestions and immediately put it into practice in the performance.

At the end of the day we three solo voice judges and the choral judge each selected two or three singers each from the day and asked them to sing some excerpts in the large atrium of the school.  Even though I had only just met these young musicians, I still found myself beaming with pride as they sang their bits in front of a large audience.  Teaching is an incredibly rewarding thing, and I felt a very strong sense of satisfaction that I could do a little something to add to their development as performers.

When the festival was over I headed over to the church to help Maggie and Malcolm with some of the last-minute preparations, and to get changed into my Macpherson kilt.  I have put on a couple of kilogrammes back on since I was at my very lightest weight a couple of years ago, and so if I cinch the straps as tight as they will go it actually will fit tight enought to wear.  That is a nice thing, as I love that kilt, and so I am happy to be able to wear it again.

Len and Maggie singing upstairs during the apertif

Burns Supper introductions

piping in the chieftan haggis

listening to the address to the haggis

the excellent kitchen staff

I lent one of my other kilts and one of my kilt jackets to Lawrence, and he was very happy to attend the supper as well.  He explained that one of his first experiences in the catering industry was helping his mother host large Burns Suppers back when he was a teenager, but he hadn't been to one in many years.  As it turns out his mother was catering one that same evening in London, so I'm sure she was happy to hear that he was participating in one here in Brussels.  He had a great time and I saw him deep in many conversations.  There were a great many people whom I had never seen before; these kinds of events are a great opportunity to make new friends.

As master of ceremonies I didn't give a large speech, but in the introduction I did talk a little bit about the history of Scottish-Belgian connections...

Scots have had a disproportionate influence on the creation of the modern world, not least in shaping the history of Belgium and the rest of the “low countries”.  Most obviously we stand (or sit) tonight in a Church of Scotland, here, in Brussels, the capital of Europe.  It has been clear at the very least from the time of the Auld Alliance of 1295, formed between the kingdoms of Scotland and France, that Scotland valued strong connections with mainland Europe, and saw itself as part of a larger European entity.
These connections were not only political, but religious, and, as befits the Scots reputation, economical... the European experiment is a very old and successful one... no one should be surprised that Scots and their descendants have a long history here.

I went on to illustrate these connections by making reference to the little town of Veere in Zeeland, which I blogged about back in 2015.

My emphasis on the long history of Scotland-as-part-of-Europe was echoed in the "Immortal Memory" speech; Jacquelyn MacLennan, a competition lawyer, used that platform to declare that she is one of many who are convinced that leaving Europe is a horrible mistake.  A reporter from Politico magazine was there, and he wrote a piece about our Burns Night, and the impact of Brexit on the Scots population here in Brussels.  He quoted Jacqui, and also quoted me...

https://www.politico.eu/article/for-brussels-scotland-scots-a-last-burns-supper-brexit-european-union/

By the time the dust had settled it was well after midnight.  Malcolm was a tireless worker the whole evening, and Maggie received many compliments for her great job in the kitchen.  (Duncan had stayed home with the dog and cats).  We made our way home and finally got to bed well after two in the morning...

Sunday was therefore a pretty lazy day, although we did head out to the Hammers for a later lunch, and a belated birthday celebration for Kiana.  We had a great time, but spent nearly all of the afternoon indoors as the weather was very wet.  But that didn't stop Osa and Yoshi from running after the tennis balls for as long as they had someone to throw them.  Bryan made sure all of the chickens were away in the coop so that Yoshi would obsessively herd them, but somehow he managed to get inside the coop, even with all of the entrances shut!  I'm not sure how that happened but perhaps he should have been called "Houdini" instead of Yoshi.  Either that, or "Gonzo" after the Muppets character who is completely fascinated with chickens...

Their neighbour Jean-Claude came by for a visit, and we sketched out the plans for a new wall that will divide the large room at the end of the upstairs hallway into two rooms, to be shared by Armani and Kenzo.  I am sure that I can help Bryan with that construction work; it looks to me to be relatively simple.  As well Bryan consulted with me on acoustical insulation; I have already done some research on the subject and so shared some ideas with him.

We made it home fairly early, as Bryan had an early departure to make his usual trek to London.  Malcolm was also looking at a six a.m. departure this morning to get his train back to school, and Maggie and Duncan had to leave a bit before seven a.m. as well.

It was bright and sunny earlier, but now it's bucketing down rain, and so I might forego my usual Monday long run until tomorrow.  My right shoulder is still bothering me, but I am hoping for some news on Wednesday when I see the doctor and we have a look at my NMRI scan from a couple of weeks ago.  But I am feeling well enough to look upstairs and do some planning, to resume my attic renovation. The consultation with Bryan and Jean-Claude has made me itch a bit to get moving on that work.

Lastly, I just received the airline tickets from the International Bach Festival in the Canary Islands... Maggie and I are going to travel together on the 15th April, and come back late on the 19th of April.  It's going to be a lovely chance for her to have a little holiday, and for me to sing, and we are both really looking forward to it!