London in the summer

London in the Summer - What could be better!
First port of call, The Oval, naturally... the only disappointment being that England were beaten by Sri Lanka!  However, the match was excellent; we batted well & they batted better!

Also in the crowd near us, was tenor Richard Edgar-Wilson - too far away for me to bellow over the crowd, & they were so very careful about everyone being in the correct section of the ground... but belatedly hello, Richard, should you read this!

...and what else might one do?  Go to a summer concert of course.
July 9th we are very much looking forward to... we will get to perform two things that need greater forces to occur... Brilliantly we are joined by St Edmund's Canterbury's choirs...

Love Makes the World Go Round - David Cullen's sparkling arrangement of the jolly Noel Gay song, in 22 parts!
&
Over the Rainbow - Andrew Pryce Jackman's excellent arrangement from A Tribute to Hollywood for 2 of each of the group, so we can do it with the school's vocal group...

Come to the Grosvenor Chapel on July 9th - not to be missed!

Yorkshire idyll

Beautiful weather greeted us at Ilkley station, where we performed at the excellent Ilkley Playhouse...
Delightful, as ever, to work in the UK, and also for me to meet again my English teacher (from when we were both very much younger!) Walter Swan, who is in charge of the Playhouse.
We were looked after tremendously & despite all the railway companies best efforts, our journeys were excellent.
Lots of old friends who have escaped up north were in the audience - hooray; and of course many local people too.
Ilkley is clearly a place with a great deal going on, lots of choirs, venues & arts are in evidence as you wander the town...
Our audience showed the northern warmth we would expect, and a glorious time was had by all...

Off back to Romania next, but don't forget our London outing with St Edmund's School...
...July 9th, btw...

Ilkley and Central London concerts

8th June - Ilkley Playhouse - a great trip to God's own county in early June (hopefully the rain might have stopped by then... Luckily it is as yet not raining today at Headingley, as we try to finish off the New Zealanders!)

9th July - Grosvenor Chapel, central London - an excellent joint concert with the wonderful school:- St Edmund's, Canterbury... some great pieces from our large-scale repertoire will get an outing, as we are joined by the school choir, & vocal group.... marvellous...

Love Makes the World Go Round in 20 parts, anyone?

Horsham Music Circle & two gigs to come

Splendid evening at the Capitol, Horsham, as part of the Horsham music Circle's 71st season - they started (keeping the home front's pecker up, no doubt) in 1942...
Wonderful of course, that they are still going and that we can be a small part of it.

Of course, we were treated very well by the people who run the Music Circle, & lots of food was available for us... & we sold really quite a lot of our new songbooks - which is always good...

Easy trip home on a fast train too - amazing to be home at 11.10 & see the last of Denmark's winning of Eurovision.

A couple of gigs to flag up - should anyone be in the environs...

8th June - Ilkley Playhouse
9th July - Grosvenor Chapel, central London - an excellent joint concert with the wonderful school:- St Edmund's, Canterbury

Cornish Riviera

Delightful trip to Cornwall in the splendid sun (tho' a day earlier we would have been drenched!) to the terrific Fowey Festival  - that's pronounced FOY, for those who do not know)...
When we came here at the end of last year there was torrential rain and land-slips, so the journey took about 10 hours each way; great to see it, and travel to it, in glorious sunshine.
The Festival Village & stage is built (under a marquee, of course) each year on the cricket pitch, just by the excellent Fowey Hall, and the Festival has a wonderful range of music, comedians, author talks & Cornish arts, crafts and... beer!
Hoping that not too many of the audience came a day early for the next night's gig, and had the terrible disappointment of our not being Bond...

Just 18 hours in Cornwall not quite enough...

Next, on to Horsham on Saturday!

Fabulous evening

Truly splendid time in Vercelli; lovely playing form the orchestra, excellent audience... and all was happy...
Indeed, Steve sang Skyfall especially brilliantly too!

Hopefully the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship with this delightful NE corner of Italy.

Husband and wife team Guido (Conductor/Director) & Cristina (Manager, & pianist too) were wonderful company and a delight to work with...

On the way home via Turin airport, I had a terrific afternoon in the Turin Egyptian Museum - more antiquities than I could really take in - quite fantastic & spellbinding.  Then the alps which were sitting there gloriously as we approached Turin were in tremendous light as we flew over them home...

Italian Job

 

Already having a glorious time in Vercelli - equidistant between Milan and Turin, should you wish to know - and have had a day of rehearsal with the strings of Camerata Ducale under the guidance of Maestro Guido Rimonda.... splendid. 
Today, the sun even came out.
An evening of  many composers including Tallis, Vaughan Williams, Warlock, Schubert, Holst, Walton, Dankworth, Lennon & McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Michel Legrand & Adele... wonderful mix, and very much looking forward to this evening... beautiful concert hall, and a large crowd expected...