Summer time... and the living is... rainy

It's raining most of this week in Belgium, so I'm inside catching up on a blog post.

School has finally finished for the year.  The last day with the students was Thursday the 17th of June, and it's taken me almost a month to even think about sitting in front of a computer and writing anything.  There have been lots of other things to keep me occupied since classes ended, but I was also just bone-tired.  But now I actually have some free time on my hands to recharge, and so I'm free to write for the first time in almost two months.  Maggie and I are house-sitting at the Hammer's while they are away on vacation until the end of the week.

The last week of May was completely nuts, filled with regular classes, lunchtime lessons, and rehearsals for our musical "13" after school until 19:30 every day, as well as the last recording session on Saturday the 29th.  We finally managed to wrap all of the filming by 16:00; my work as musical director was basically over, and it was up to Thom Graham to do the film editing.

Then I had a few days to get ready for the "Groove School" workshop the following week.  This involved a visit from James Williams, another professional musician, based in Antwerp, who would come and help lead the grade eight music students through a two-day music camp.  Given the fact that I had around 40 kids in grade eight, and only about a dozen of them played instruments, I opted to have the instrumentalists work with James, and I would work with the rest as vocalists.  I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a good schedule for the two days so that the students were all together for some periods, and also broke out into two groups at other times.

We ran into a big snag the night before James was supposed to arrive, when he submitted the school's version of the COVID passenger locator form.  His wife and infant child had some COVID symptoms!  They were eventually to test negative, and that would normally have been enough for him to enter the campus, but the school had extra protocols in place, and demanded a negative test from James as well.  There was no way that he could have received the results in time to attend the first day of the camp, and so I had to make a decision: cancel it and shove those students back into their normal rotation at the last minute, or try to lead the workshop myself.  I chose the second option, and girded my loins for a difficult day.

Fortunately the two songs that I chose were relatively easy: "Mustang Sally" and Katy Perry's "Roar", but even with relatively easy material, leading forty kids by yourself all day is tough, and I was totally exhausted by the end of the first day.  When James' negative test came in that afternoon I was very happy to hear that I would not have to do the second day solo as well.  In the end it was a very positive experience, and we did a performance on the stage of the theatre with two drummers, two bassists, two guitarists, a violinist, some percussionists, and the vocalists singing three-part harmonies.  Success!

Once that was finished I began completing my evaluations for the year.  I ended up marking the recorded (which meant listening and watching to videos in real-time) and written assignments, and then writing indvidualised report card comments for around 100 students.  The last weekend before the reports were due I worked full-out: it involved a late night on a Friday after a full day of school, then a twelve hour day on Saturday, and then I worked straight through from 10:00 on Sunday until 3:45 the next morning!  I haven't pulled that kind of an all-nighter since I was a student myself.  But in the end they were finished and sent off.

The last week of school was mostly spent getting two other rock bands ready to play at the end of year assemblies: one group from grade six, preparing the White Stripes "Seven Nation Army", and my grade ten class that had prepared "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day.  On the day of the assemblies I came in at 8:00 to get the drum kit, amps, guitars, stage piano, and P. A. system set up in the courtyard, and we were just able to do our sound check before the first assembly kicked off.

It all went off really well for the first group, my superstar grade sixes.  The lead singer is a private singing student of mine, and she performed beautifully, while the the three boys who played bass, guitar, and drums were fantastic.  This was particularly satisfying because those three are often cutting up in class and many of the teachers find them hard to handle.  The fact that they could use all of that energy on stage made the teachers see them in a very different light.

Then we started to set up for the second assembly for the high school, and the grade ten drummer got overwhelmed with nerves and went A.W.O.L.!  I had to run up to the middle school at the last minute and grab the grade six drummer out of his class.  As we walked I explained the song rhythm to him, and then told him that I would conduct him from the front row, saying, "watch me".  He did!  It was really amazing and they played very well.  The director of the school was so impressed that she even sent the drummer a thank-you note.

It looks like next year they want me to expand instrumental music even further, so I am in the process of deciding which instruments to buy, and what next year will look like from a curriculum standpoint.

No sooner were we done with our own school responsibilites that Duncan and Malcolm's graduations unfolded.  Malcolm's was an extremely small affair with only a dozen or so students.  We had to sip our prosecco at our own table and stay masked otherwise while they received their diplomas.  It's hard to believe that he's finished the four years of study and is now a luthier!  His teachers were very compimentary about his enthusiasm and committment, and the independent judge who came to see the graduates' work commented that he was the most audacious builder among the students this year, making a lot of creative and imaginative choices, and was clearly not satisfied with just making a copy of some historical instrument.

Duncan was successful in obtaining his CESS, or secondary school diploma, after a lot of studying near the end of the year.  His graduation was a big affair with the entire class and their families outside in the courtyard of their school, and his professor of guidance was there to give him his documents.  Congratulations Duncan!  He also had another success: he tried out again for the Paratrooper Junior summer camp that happens later in July, and to his surprise and delight he was accepted!

The Para Junior camp will involve ten days at the military base in Diest, with a weekend break halfway through.  They'll be doing a lot of generalised phsycial training, and then they will learn how to land properly, starting on frames in the gymnasium, and then they will have the chance to do some jumping with a parachute from a large ballon.  It looks really cool... but also a little scary.

I've also been enjoying playing around with my 50th birthday present: the archtop guitar that Malcolm has been building for me as a side project for the last year and a half.  He finished it in time for his juries and I've been getting used to it.  It's a beautiful guitar, and the sound is great.

I've also received some news of performances: the first is scheduled in October with my old friends the Minimes, doing the Hunting Cantata (which was one of the first I performed in Europe) and a debut for me, the Coffee Cantata.  This is a secular work that is all about the joys of drinking coffee, and has three characters: a tenor narrator, the bass Schlendrian, and his soprano daughter Lieschen.  Schlendrian is very concerned about his daughter's misbehaviour, and attributes it to her addiction to coffee, which at the time of the cantata's writing was a controversial drink.  His threats and pleas are unsuccessful until Lieschen finally agrees to settle down and get married, as long as her new husband agrees to keep her well supplied with coffee.  Happy ending.  It's the closest thing that Bach wrote to an opera, and I've been wanting to do it for a long time.

As well we are in discussions to do the Coffee Cantata again at St. John's the week after the first performance, as a sort of educational concert, this time paired up with the famous BWV 140 Wachet auf!.  That cantata is the one with the tenor unison melody in the middle movement that is familiar as a hymn tune.  I'm thinking that I could have the music students learn that chorale melody and perform it with the Minimes choir and orchestra.As luck would have it, the Minimes concerts conflict with another two concerts that I've been offered, and I won't be able to do both!  The same is true for the Concertgebouw Amsterdam concert in March: it conflicts with a Johannespassion in Brussels, so I will probably have to let the Brussels performance go.  That's just how it goes: no gigs for months and then the first few conflict with each other.

I finally got the fence completed, and so the chickens are allowed to wander in the garden without fear that they will cross over into the next yard.  I haven't really had any time to plant anything this year, but might still put runner beans or snow peas in next to the fence.  But we are not without something to harvest: with the warm weather and lots of rain this spring and early summer the currant bushes were prolific, and Maggie collected something like seven or eight kilograms' worth of red, white, and black currants.  Most of those have been frozen until we decide what to do with them.

What else to report?  Maggie and I are enjoying the peace and quiet out here in Bousval.  She is pretty much done her latest quilting project (a bed quilt for Duncan) but is continuing with her current embroidery project and just relaxing.  We haven't done any housesitting for our friends in three years, so it's a bit strange to be here again, but we're getting used to the routine of taking care of all the animals: five chickens, two runner ducks, a hedgehog who lives in the garden, three cats, a hamster and a border collie.  Quite the menagerie!

It's probably good that this is happening now, however, because it gives Malcolm and Duncan some time on their own together.  At the end of June we moved Malcolm back to our house, and he's been working to set up his lutherie atelier in the basement, hanging pegboard and installing new lights and electrical plugs to make it a brighter workspace.  Duncan is planning to go to ULB in Brussels in the fall to study Psychology, so it's good that he has a taste of sharing accomodation with another person, alternating the cooking and cleaning up, and so forth.

On the COVID front, both Maggie and I have received our second vaccinations, and the boys have had their first ones.  We're hoping to get to our friends' country house for a week in Portugal in early August, and then we start up at school again with a musical theatre camp on the 16th August, and classes resume the following week.

Okay, that's all I've got for now.  Happy summer everyone!

So busy

I have been more busy that I can describe the last month and a half.  We really enjoyed the rest of our Easter vacation, and didn't do much that was terribly strenuous, physically, or socially: everyone needed the rest!  I read three or four books, and was happy to have the chance to lose myself in someone else's story.  But I also had another motivator: the school librarian started a reading activity for the students over the break, and opened it up to parents and teachers too.  For every book you read, a slip of paper was entered into the contest.  They drew one slip for each of the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and one from the adults, and I won!  So I got to choose a book that would be added to the library's order.   I chose one that I have been wanting to read for a while... The Invisible Life of Addie Larue.

There's a good NPR review of the book here, but I know several people who have read it already, including my Aunt Lorraine, so I am confident that it is good, and am happy to now have my own copy.

receiving my copy of Addie Larue from librarian 

and fellow Canadian Brandy Mowatt

Since I last posted we celebrated Duncan's 18th birthday with steak and caesar salad and frites...

... and chocolate pomegranate cake.  He's having a great time doing karate three times a week, and a couple of weeks ago he had a remarkable session during the sparring exercise, for the first time with one of the Belgian karate champions.  

He did so well that the sensei has encouraged him to try competitions for the first time, so I'm hoping that he will give that a chance.  He's also continuing to train for the paratrooper junior trials; these were to have happened last weekend, but were postponed to early June, and now have been postponed again to late June.  We're still hoping that he will get it top shape for that, and succeed at getting a place in the session.

The day after Duncan's birthday I ran the Trail des Cisterciens relay with Bryan, Kiana, and Lawrence, and Claire, Jan, Eric and Taggart formed another team.  Ordinarily the May 1st date wouldn't have worked for me, because of Saturday "13" rehearsal, but May first is the labour day in Europe, so I was able to take part.

It was our first relay race: Bryan ran the first bit (33km), then Lawrence the second (27km), then I did the third (23km), and Kiana the last bit (17km).  The three first runners also ran the last five km with Kiana, so in the end it was a much longer run than I've done for a long time.  The total vertical climb was around 2500m, of which my part was around 730m, a higher percentage of climbing than the other sections, which was challenging for me for sure.  I haven't been out since, but have a day off today and will take Yoshi out for a medium run today to get back at it.

In the waiting area, post-vaccination, to ensure that the danger

of an immediate allegic reaction to the vaccine has passed

In other news Maggie and I have both received our first vaccinations.  She got the Pfizer, and I received the Astra Zeneca.  The main difference is the interval between first and second innoculation.  She should have her second one in June, but I have to wait until the end of July.  Either way we are both on our way.  Maggie had no significant reaction, and I felt fine for the first twenty-four hours, but then had fever, chills and fatigue the following night.

Coronavirus daily infections in Belgium have dropped steadily since the end of Easter break, and we are now down by 30% this week, to a little more than 2000 daily infections, from a high of almost 5000 in late march.  There are still no cases of transmissions in our school despite us having remained mostly open for in-person teaching since middle November, which I suppose means that our masking, ventilating, and quarantine precautions are working.  The regular Belgian schools reopened to full capacity classes a week and a half ago and that seems to be going well also.

School has been very challenging for me, and I am really struggling to keep up with everything.  Because of the disruptions to regular classes, the handoff of the main music teacher job in November, the sharing of classes between multiple classroom music teachers, and the demands of developing curriculum "on the fly" this year, I realise that I'm coming close to the end of the school year, and in some cases haven't formally evaluated all of the educational criteria that I'm supposed to.  So that has necessitated some urgent lesson planning to get every box ticked correctly.  The practical aspects of teaching are not new for me, but the associated administrative burden is, and I am reminded why I grew to hate working in a big company in the past.  I didn't become a professional singer so that I could sit in front of a computer!

On the applied side, the singing students are progressing well, and I am really very pleased with the choral / ensemble singing that is emerging from the music classes, especially the grade 8s.  It's very satisfying to get them to learn to sing interesting "crunchy" harmonies.  The ensembles pieces from "13" are in a rock style, but are quite well-written, so there are lots of opportunities to use the material to teach them how to think about structure, harmony, time signature, rhythms, contrast, characterisation, interpretation etc.

In my off time I've been attacking the fence line between our house and Christopher's next door.  The fence that was there was pretty much destroyed, and while I had been able to "shore it up" against chicken escapes, Christopher and Isabelle recently adopted a dalmatian/border collie puppy, and he has been boisterously chewing away at the old coated fencing and knocking it down in his exuberance to cross over and play with Yoshi.  We also want to let the chickens back out into the main garden again so that I can plant the vegetables in the enclosed space that they are in now, so we need to get that fence finished up first.

I should have taken more "before" photos but these were taken midway through.  I had to dig out a lot of stumps, using pickaxe, spade, reciprocating saw, and other tools.  Some of them that had been there for many years and it took a long time and some serious brute force to get them out of the ground.  As well I had to take down or drastically prune back a number of elderberry and lilac trees that were in the way of the new fence line, and also dig up some very unwieldy pieces of reinforced concrete that the roots had deformed or cracked, and then re-level the earth so as to get the tensioning wires as close to the ground level as possible.

As well two of the old reinforced concrete posts were broken by the action of tree roots and trunks, so I needed to dig additional holes and pour concrete and set new posts, one of which will be used to make a gate between the gardens, wide enough to pass a lawnmower or wheelbarrow.  As you can see the fence hasn't been completely tensioned yet in these photos but it's already looking much better than it was.  I'm hoping that once it's done the neighbours on the other side agree to replacing that fence also.

Last weekend was actually a four-day one, because of the holiday of Ascension falling on Thursday, and Friday as a holiday in lieu of May 1st, so we had lots of time to celebrate Malcolm's 22nd birthday.  He was back and forth quite a bit that weekend to see his girlfriend, and we had his birthday dinner early because he had a rehearsal for his band Strawberry Storm.  Amazingly, they have been invited at short notice to perform again in an outdoor festival, this Friday!  It's their first performance since late 2018, I think, and also their first gig as a trio.  It's great that they have a gig again; unfortunately I have to teach private lessons until 17:30 and probably won't have time to make it, but I hope that someone will take some pictures.

On my performing front, I've had some good news.  The Johannespassion in Brussels with Bachwerk had already been rescheduled for April of 2022, and they have started singing rehearsals again (masked and distanced).  I have recently been contacted about some other productions: The Choir of the European Union/Ensemble Orchestral de Brussels, with whom I have performed Haydn's Creation, the Mozart Requiem, and Mendelssohn's Paulus, has asked me to do a Johannespassion with them in March in the Conservatoire.  Secondly, La Petite Bande, the Flemish group that invited me to Japan has confirmed that we will likely be going in 2024, but in the meantime, they have been asked to perform Matthäuspassion in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam in April of 2022!

This is widely regarded as one of the finest acoustical spaces in the world, on par with the Vienna Musikverein or Boston's Symphony Hall.  I've performed with musicians from the Concertgebouw orchestra, in Amsterdam and the Canary Islands, but never in the big hall itself, so that will be a thrill.  At just under 2000 seats, it's more or less the same size as the Salle Henry LeBoeuf in the BOZAR.

Lastly, Jurgen Petrenko has indicated that the Toronto Classical Singers are hoping to finally do the Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony and Five Mystical Songs on the first of May, 2022, two years after it was originally programmed.  I guess it isn't time to hang up my spurs just yet?  We'll see what else comes up, and hope that these latest reschedulings are the last ones, and that there are more gigs coming up as we gradually return to performing again.

Easter vacation

The shadowy origins of the Easter Bunny finally explained

After truly gorgeous weather last week with temperatures regularly around the 20 degree C mark, it grew suddenly colder over the last couple of days, and we had snow yesterday afternoon, and more overnight.  This morning the lawn was completely covered with white, and so the reflected light through the back windows was lovely to see as we ate breakfast.  So far today the weather has changed every ten minutes, between snow, wind, dark clouds, and bright sun.

During the warm days last week, I bought some tomato and pepper plants, but I'm happy that I decided to keep them inside in the back verandah, because I'm sure the near-freezing temperatures would have done a number on them.

It's now Tuesday, so we've been off work since late last week.  After all of the stress of the last several weeks it's been nice to not have to think about school at all!  It's been incredibly tiring for me to have to try to keep on top of the different classes, and juggling the priorities of classroom, private teaching, and music directing, and the administrative parts of the job.

And all classes are not the same.  You might think that there's not a huge difference between classroom management techniques for grade 6, 7, or 8 music students, but you would be wrong: the energy is completely different in each one, and the level of self-discipline and participation in classroom activities can vary widely between the age groups.

Up until now all three grades have been occupied with tasks related to the musical "13", including memorising text, learning their harmony parts, preparing an audition video clip, and auditioning for the roles.  What is great to see is the change in confidence level for all of them: when I took over music last November a very large portion of the students were horrified at the idea of auditioning in front of more than one person, and many were totally freaked out by the prospect of auditioning in front of their peers.  But over the weeks and months of singing together, then singing in alternating sections, then in smaller and smaller groups, pretty much all of them were ready to audition for roles.

There were lots of surprises: as the kids are always masked in class, and singing in groups, we didn't always have the sense of the skill of every singer before we started solo auditions.  Some of them are my private students, so I at least knew what they sounded like, and some of the others were standouts in group work so we had a good idea that they would audition well.  But auditioning on the main stage with lighting and their masks off, you see a whole different side to them.  There were a couple of big surprises, and we were really scratching our heads to try to figure out who to put in each role.  We could have cast this show several times in the 8th grade alone, so it was inevitable that there would be some disappointed actors.

After the creative team made our collective decisions, I had a couple of free periods, so set out to print out and assemble the cast lists, and managed to get them posted on the hallway bulletin boards by our planned deadline, Friday the 26th of March.  While I was in a private lesson I could hear the shrieks and OMIGODs from behind the closed classroom door as the students came to see the results.  Very exciting!

To be truthful, the whole experience was a little bit anticlimactic, as the preceding Wednesday we had received news of a tightening of restrictions by the health authorities.  This meant that the Saturday rehearsal (meant to be the first real rehearsal after auditions) was cancelled, and furthermore the next week of classes would be held via teleconference.

"Betty" magazine circa 1997

For us that meant a return to the tedium of online instruction, with each class starting with a reminder that video cameras needed to be left on to ensure that the students were actually attending.  Interestingly I came across this "Betty" cartoon from 1997 that more or less predicted online classes almost a quarter century ago.  Notice the sign saying that the video monitor has to be uncovered?

Another consequence of the tighter restrictions was that the St. John Passion that I had been asked to perform at the Cistercian Monastery in Ottignies (very close to Bryan and Kiana) was cancelled.  It wasn't that surprising to me, since the number of cases had been rising by double-digit percentages weekly for at least a month.

The current week seems to show a bit of a leveling-off in the growth rate, which is promising, but we still are at almost five thousand new cases per week.  We hope that the extended Easter break will lead to a further slowing of the rate of new infections.

One of those new infections is Malcolm's room-mate Antoine, who, while asymptomatic, tested positive late last week.  That meant that Antoine couldn't return to Paris to be with his family over the vacation, and also Malcolm needed to stay in Boom and quarantine until he received two negative tests.  The first one came in negative on the weekend, and we should know by next weekend if he continues to be clear.  That meant that we had to have Easter dinner over Zoom...

Easter lamb leg and ratatouille with Malcolm (in Boom) and Bruce (in Toronto)

I wrote earlier about the nice weather, so thought I would show you some photos of the many flowering plants that we've been enjoying.

 

big Magnolia tree outside my second-floor music classroom window

Tulips in our front garden - a souvenir of
Johannespassion in Amsterdam two years ago

Chinese Quince (Chaenomeles speciosa)

Wild Cherry (Prunus avium)

Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna)

Oregon Grape (Berberis auifolium)

The elderly couple a few doors over dropped off a little sachet of easter chocolate for us, so in return I went to the pick-your-own flowers field just out of town and cut them some tulips.

I have bought flowers from them before, and want to support their enterprise, which operates on the honour system.  There is a cash box for coins and bills, but you can also pay using your banking app, or by making an instant QR code payment.  I'm happy to use this service because there's no packaging, it's a local business, the tulips are fresh, and the carbon footprint is essentially zero.

What else is going on?  Well, I sold one of my Fender Princeton Reverb amplifiers to Jonas, a lutherie student friend of Malcolm's.  And I found an inexpensive acoustic guitar at the Cash Converters around the corner: this is a Godin "Seagull" cedar top acoustic, made in their factory in La Patrie, Quebec, in 2003.

My red acoustic guitar has developed a small problem with the metal truss rod rattling in its channel in the neck.  I took it to Ben to have him fix it, but who knows how long that will take.

In the meantime I'm really enjoying getting to know this very light and bright sounding guitar.  It's obviously been much played, which given its balanced and very pleasant sound isn't surprising: if you find an older guitar that has no signs of wear, then maybe it's a dud.  I have to wait my turn sometimes though, because Duncan seems quite keen on playing it.  He's waited a bit longer than Malcolm or I did to take up the guitar (I started at 14, and I think Malcolm was maybe 15 or so) but he's learning pretty quickly.

Maggie has been working on a new bed quilt for Duncan... here's the top mostly completed.

Happy Easter, everyone!

p.s.
We heard about a new programme that lets people get on an early vaccination list.  It would seem that in Flanders and Wallonia they want to minimise spoilage of open vaccine vials, so have asked people to register with their availability.  That way if there are open vials near the end of the day, one can be contacted and come and get an injection that would otherwise be wasted.

It seems to be popular: I opened up the application at around 11:00 this morning... so far there are still about 125,000 people in the queue ahead of me, and in the five hours since I joined, they have processed around 12,000 people per hour.  Unfortunately that means that I might have to make a guess and set my alarm for... 2:30 am?  If I miss the ten-minute window then I would have to start again...  what to do?