Tuesday, 8 October 2019
some photos from Sunday
Here are some photos from the Bach B-minor mass coaching session on Sunday... it was great working with my Brussels musical "family" on some fantastic music... Bruce's (and Fleta's and Gigli's) singing technique works!
Sunday, 6 October 2019
Busy teaching weekend
Well that was a busy teaching weekend with a lot of different music. Four+ hours with the Hello Dolly! cast of about 85 singers, teaching them vocal harmonies in turn-of-the-century style 1964 Broadway music, followed by two guitar lessons for Bryan and India on Saturday that included music by Sam Cooke, Bob Dylan and Johnny Otis, with a little bit of Bo Diddley.
Then today brought an early rise for a three-hour working session coaching the wonderful Minimes Choir for their upcoming Mass in B-Minor, from the early 18th century. They are sounding great, and were very appreciative. They had another rehearsal in the afternoon with orchestra so I hope that the conductor will notice the difference, but I haven't heard anything yet.
I'll be happy to perform the bass solos with the Minimes when that performance happens November 10th, 2019. It's good to be versatile... but I am a bit tired.
This week Thom Graham the artistic director of Dolly is away on a school trip, so I am planning on getting some serious music work done with the Dolly cast. Later in the week I have the general rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem, prior to Sunday's performance in the BOZAR... but before that I have a trip planned to Westvleteren to pick up two cases of beer that I reserved for our special tasting session that is coming up perhaps around Christmastime...
Speaking of beer, we uncorked the two varieties of beer that Duncan and I brewed earlier this late summer. The Duvel's Nat is not so much to my liking, although Maggie does enjoy it; but the abbey style dubbel was a big success. Lots of bottle pressure, a nice creamy head on the beer, and a good taste. That is one to make again.
Then today brought an early rise for a three-hour working session coaching the wonderful Minimes Choir for their upcoming Mass in B-Minor, from the early 18th century. They are sounding great, and were very appreciative. They had another rehearsal in the afternoon with orchestra so I hope that the conductor will notice the difference, but I haven't heard anything yet.
I'll be happy to perform the bass solos with the Minimes when that performance happens November 10th, 2019. It's good to be versatile... but I am a bit tired.
This week Thom Graham the artistic director of Dolly is away on a school trip, so I am planning on getting some serious music work done with the Dolly cast. Later in the week I have the general rehearsal for the Mozart Requiem, prior to Sunday's performance in the BOZAR... but before that I have a trip planned to Westvleteren to pick up two cases of beer that I reserved for our special tasting session that is coming up perhaps around Christmastime...
Speaking of beer, we uncorked the two varieties of beer that Duncan and I brewed earlier this late summer. The Duvel's Nat is not so much to my liking, although Maggie does enjoy it; but the abbey style dubbel was a big success. Lots of bottle pressure, a nice creamy head on the beer, and a good taste. That is one to make again.
Duncan opening the first bottle
dubbel on the left; Duvelish on the right
looking promising
Tuesday, 1 October 2019
Clean bill of health - progress with Dolly - singing through Mozart and Haydn - voting
Maggie had some good news today: she had her checkup on the tenth anniversary of her cancer diagnosis, and everything came out fine. We didn't have any concerns ahead of the check-up, but it's great to have that news officially from her oncologist.
I also had some good news after a far more minor appointment with my voice doctor. After the Tongerlo concert I was nursing a sore throat that didn't seem to go away. I continued to warm up and sing but it was uncomfortable, and finally I saw my doctor yesterday morning. A scope of the vocal folds showed that they were in perfect health, which is a good comment on my technique, but she did say that there was some odour of acid, so that I should resume my esomeprazole for this week to try to reduce that, and to avoid eating certain foods in the evening. She also said that it probably was a virus that I sang through, and so that caused more irritation than would normally be the case. So it is nothing major!
Duncan had some sort of cold-like illness the week before my concert, and Maggie also has had a sore throat, so it would seem that I am simply dealing with the normal autumn back-to-school contagion.
Emboldened by the news I did a nice long warm-up for the first time in a week or so, and felt ok. Monday's Dolly rehearsal went well, and this morning I sang through the Mozart Requiem (familiar) and the Haydn Nelson Mass (a new piece) which I will be performing this month in close succession. They felt just fine; no problems there. Tonight at the Dolly session I had a good long rehearsal with the soloists, working with several of them for extended periods, which was great; there hasn't been as much one-on-one with the solo singers as I would like. But I also did some sectional work: I have refined my approach for teaching them the harmonies and it is going faster than before, which is a relief. They are making a nice healthy sound, which is quite encouraging, and I can actually start to imagine that they will make an even better sound when the times comes.
Other than that there is little else to report. On Sunday we had another morning run with the Hammers: Maggie and Kiana ran their 8km while Bryan and I did a 19km, which was nice. Fortunately for us the rain that had been forecast held off. Afterwards we had guitar lessons, and then a shared lunch before heading home.
Tomorrow is my day off from St. John's, and I am not too worried about the Haydn and Mozart, but I need to look over the Bach B-minor mass, because while I won't sing it until mid-November, the Minimes are already rehearsing, and they have asked me to give a workshop to the choir this coming weekend. It's really quite exciting to be invited to do so: I guess that I am kind of getting a bit of a reputation now as a teacher or coach! It means a lot to be asked by the conductor and artistic director, especially since they have given me so many opportunities to sing Bach Cantatas. I just hope that I will be able to help them...
Lastly Maggie and I did our civic duty as Canadians today, and voted as electors living abroad, by post. It is a great feeling to be able to do that again, as we haven't voted in a Federal election since we lived in Canada. As well, Malcolm will vote in this election for the first time, which is a very good thing.
I also had some good news after a far more minor appointment with my voice doctor. After the Tongerlo concert I was nursing a sore throat that didn't seem to go away. I continued to warm up and sing but it was uncomfortable, and finally I saw my doctor yesterday morning. A scope of the vocal folds showed that they were in perfect health, which is a good comment on my technique, but she did say that there was some odour of acid, so that I should resume my esomeprazole for this week to try to reduce that, and to avoid eating certain foods in the evening. She also said that it probably was a virus that I sang through, and so that caused more irritation than would normally be the case. So it is nothing major!
Duncan had some sort of cold-like illness the week before my concert, and Maggie also has had a sore throat, so it would seem that I am simply dealing with the normal autumn back-to-school contagion.
Emboldened by the news I did a nice long warm-up for the first time in a week or so, and felt ok. Monday's Dolly rehearsal went well, and this morning I sang through the Mozart Requiem (familiar) and the Haydn Nelson Mass (a new piece) which I will be performing this month in close succession. They felt just fine; no problems there. Tonight at the Dolly session I had a good long rehearsal with the soloists, working with several of them for extended periods, which was great; there hasn't been as much one-on-one with the solo singers as I would like. But I also did some sectional work: I have refined my approach for teaching them the harmonies and it is going faster than before, which is a relief. They are making a nice healthy sound, which is quite encouraging, and I can actually start to imagine that they will make an even better sound when the times comes.
Other than that there is little else to report. On Sunday we had another morning run with the Hammers: Maggie and Kiana ran their 8km while Bryan and I did a 19km, which was nice. Fortunately for us the rain that had been forecast held off. Afterwards we had guitar lessons, and then a shared lunch before heading home.
Tomorrow is my day off from St. John's, and I am not too worried about the Haydn and Mozart, but I need to look over the Bach B-minor mass, because while I won't sing it until mid-November, the Minimes are already rehearsing, and they have asked me to give a workshop to the choir this coming weekend. It's really quite exciting to be invited to do so: I guess that I am kind of getting a bit of a reputation now as a teacher or coach! It means a lot to be asked by the conductor and artistic director, especially since they have given me so many opportunities to sing Bach Cantatas. I just hope that I will be able to help them...
Lastly Maggie and I did our civic duty as Canadians today, and voted as electors living abroad, by post. It is a great feeling to be able to do that again, as we haven't voted in a Federal election since we lived in Canada. As well, Malcolm will vote in this election for the first time, which is a very good thing.
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