Llangollen - it's easy for you to say!

I'm off to the Llangollen International Music Eisteddfod again this week. Hoping to edge up the placings from my 5th spot last year. I feel a lot more prepared for what to expect that I did last year, and am looking forward to the spectacle of the thing as much as performing and competing.

One of the best things about Llangollen is that it's one of the few Eisteddfods where you don't have to sing or speak in Welsh - I've always been glad about that. However, I then decided to sing Rusalka's Song to the Moon by Dvorak, which is in Czech.

Yep. Czech.

All you can do is learn it phonetically and hope for the absolute best. I did sing the song once, only to find out that there was a Czech speaker in the audience. Fortunately she reckoned she could understand me. Maybe there's hope for me yet.....

Miaow

I have had a most mad, whirlwind month! June and July are prime singing season and that's what I've been doing, alongside the teaching and other work!

My best groupies ever, Mum and Dad, were at last weekend's gig - a fantastic outdoor concert in aid of Cancer Research UK. Dad got some photos, including this lovely shot of Penny Turnbull and I singing Rossini's Cat Duet. The cattiest of catfights.....

I think I've got a touch of the Les Dawson about me here. Not sure how I feel about this......

Lifelong learning

That's what I used to advocate as part of my day job and yet it's rare I push myself hard on the learning front these days. The most learning I tend to do is song words!
However, I got the opportunity to go on a 2-week training course for an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts teaching in April, and it seemed too good an opportunity to miss.

So I packed my bags and went away to Surrey (leaving my endlessly long-suffering husband with the boys on their Easter hols!). And I had the most amazing time. We had fantastic input from theatre and opera directors, dancers, singers and musical-writers. We even got to create a musical from scratch in 6 hours.

This was so much more than simply classroom management. It was about how you inspire young people to want to learn and develop their skills in the performing arts. And the focus was very much on the teacher as inspirer, performer and enabler. I left the course having found skills I didn't know I had, as well as being very clear about the things I'm not so good at (frankly, I'd already had my suspicions, but the dance class confirmed that Fonteyn or Darcy Bussell have nothing to worry about....!).

I've just been preparing the work for Stagecoach this term and, whilst it's not completely different to how I planned last term, I feel like I'm putting something coherent and worth attending together which I can defend and which will stand me in good stead for the 10 weeks in question. There's a confidence to my planning which I haven't had before.

So, all in all, a fortnight well spent, even though I was so tired I could barely speak by the end of it! I'm just waiting to hear about my exam results for this unit and then it will just be the last exam to do. It doesn't just feel like a piece of paper, however. I've learnt how to do things better and how to be more confident in getting young people enthused about using their voice. This is exciting stuff!

I've also come away feeling like a better performer as well as a better teacher, which is a welcome and unexpected by-product.

In the words of the great Hannibal Smith - "I love it when a plan comes together!"

Fame at last

Well - 10 seconds of it, anyway. I was on the 6 o'clock news on the BBC last night - for all of a few seconds, talking about losing my job at Becta and trying to sing for my supper. Fortunately there was more footage shown of me singing than speaking - I'm much better at the former than the latter. This is all part of a BBC project that's just launched, following the fortunes of public and private sector workers in Coventry over the next year. I even ended up in a panel discussion on local radio yesterday morning! And I have my own BBC News article. Think this counts as my 5 minutes of fame? This all tied in with me also getting a part-time job at Holy Trinity. I start as Parish Manager on Monday! Beginning to feel that this leap of faith I took on leaving Becta without fixed full time work to go to might just have been the right thing to do!

And...1, 2, 3, 4

The singing season of 2011 starts in earnest next weekend. I'm guesting at a concert near Dudley, with Radio 2's Nigel Ogden. Good way to start the singing year.

Next up will be Rutter's Requiem in April, which I'm looking forward to as well, and then they start to come thick and fast. This is good.

And for my next trick....

So life at Becta is done and dusted. It had to come sooner or later. I'm actually not missing it one bit so far, which I'm taking as a very good sign that I was ready to leave.
I don't really have time to miss it, to be honest, as I'm not exactly languishing in a life of leisure. No sooner had I finished, than I found myself working as a supply woodwind and vocal teacher, a singing teacher in a Stagecoach theatre school, a private singing teacher, professional soprano and freelance comms consultant for the Church School Awards. This is all good. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I'd be doing so much so soon.
I am blessed to have an amazing and varied and interesting career opening up in front of me, friends and family who have never faltered in their support and love and the chance to start afresh.
I am happy. Busy, but happy.

And the valleys shall ring!

I've just heard today that I've been selected to sing at the International Eisteddfod in Llangollen this year.

Highly over-excited about this now, not to say more than a little nervous. However, I have a repertoire, I have a voice. I reckon I can probably hold my own and it will be such an amazing experience just trying.

This appeals greatly to the bit of welsh that's in me. Just hoping that they won't expect any Welsh-language singing. Italian, French, German - even the odd smattering of Czech: all great. Welsh is simply a clearing of the throat...

The camera never lies....

unfortunately. A spin off from doing a big high-profile gig like Armistice Day is that you get your photo taken and then some kind soul sends you the photos. There's a reason why I don't sing in front of a mirror very often and this is it:

Not a pretty sight.

Coming up for air!

It's been a while! Loads happening over the last month so the blog hasn't been as active as it would normally.
Singing has been pretty busy, as has the day job, which is my excuse for no blog entries for nearly two months.
I did a recital last Saturday. First time I've ever held a whole concert down on my own (with the astonishingly good accompaniment of Chris Howard, of course). It went really well and I loved every second. Even managed to make a bit of money and get a spread in the local paper. All very exciting.
I've also made my debut in front of royalty, on Armistice Day at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas. Earl of Wessex was a lot better looking in real life that he is on the telly and was extremely nice to wait in the bitter cold until I finished singing to say thank you. Clearly very well brought up....
Only one more big concert before Christmas and only a couple of other much more low key gigs and then I can kick back and enjoy the yuletide festivities....

Living up to my not-name?

I've been practising hard for singing at Mike's cousin's wedding next Saturday. One of the things Lindsay and Ben have chosen is the Mascagni Sancta Maria from the Intermezzo to the Cavaleria Rusticana. This is lovely and very well-known, which is immediate incentive to make sure that I do it justice. However, it also happens to be a piece that my not-namesake, Katherine Jenkins, performs regularly.

I've found myself feeling vaguely competitive about this, which is quite stupid, as I'll never be in a position to be seriously compared with her on anything, let along one of her signature tunes. However, this hasn't stopped me having to resist the urge to check how she does it and make sure I do it better!

This competitive streak in me seems to get wider as I get older. I used to be a lot more sanguine about how I compared to others but no longer. I have to be doing as well as, if not better. I realised that I was taking this to extremes, when I found myself completely determined to better my own score on a Wii game the other day. To be competitive with others is one thing. To be competitive with yourself is something completely different, not to say a little bit odd......

It ain't over til the....

...much-less-fat-than-she-used-to-be lady sings! Or at least, that's what I'm currently telling myself.

Having toyed quietly with the idea of trying to turn the singing "career" up a notch for quite a while now, I'm beginning to get the sense that it might all be a bit late. I watched the Cardiff Singer of the World last weekend and was really pleased to see a great Russian soprano win. Interestingly, she sang much of the repertoire that I had done for a Fellowship diploma a couple of years ago. This got me to thinking.... Am I good enough to do this full-time? Or would I only ever be a pale imitation of someone like that?

I think that I could stand a chance (as much as the next soprano, anyway) but age appears to be working against me. The Cardiff Singer of the World website gives the rules on age that I would have been 6 months too old to enter this competition and therefore will be 2 and a half years too old next time around. Other competitions and opportunities remain open to me and I'll go for these but it's all starting to feel like it might be now or never.

The irony is that, had I gone for it a few years ago, I genuinely don't think that I'd have been good enough. My voice is constantly changing and developing but is in the best shape it has been ever at the moment. But as the voice matures, so do I and that might be enough to stick a spanner in the works....

Making music

It's all about the music here at the moment.

Number one son has successfully charmed the brass teacher at school and is going to start his much longed-for trombone lessons this week. Doesn't sound much but this is at least 2 years earlier than the school normally puts children forward to learn an instrument. Credit to them for supporting what could have been misinterpreted as pushy parents and letting him try!

Number 2 son did some charming of his own on Saturday afternoon as he donned a miniature band uniform and joined Mike on stage for the first half of a band concert at the Central Hall. he did amazingly well and was quiet and still while the band played. He only conducted once! Once we arrived back from the party the oldest had been to, he joined us, but not before many an old lady had winked at him and told him that he was a "bobby dazzler".

I sang in a concert on Saturday night, in memory of a lovely man's late wife. The lovely man in question is Harold Rich who is a musician of real experience and skill. He worked at the BBC for many, many years and was musical director for Pebble Mill at One (for those of you too young to remember, this was a kind of forerunner to Richard and Judy, just at lunchtime and on BBC for a very long time).

He's the kind of person that is so unassuming that you forget the kind of life he's led. I sat deep in conversation with him one day and (being the wrong side of extremely old) he couldn't remember the name of the person he'd accompanied on a particular song. He kept going over and over, trying to remember, and kept saying that he was a "Spanish chap". I could only think of one and, jokingly, asked if he meant Jose Carreras. He did. I shut up.

The concert on Saturday was in memory of Joyce who died a little while ago. She was also a very lovely person. My one abiding memory was the first time I ever met either of them. I turned up at their house to rehearse for a concert and, not having been able to find a babysitter, had a very small boy in tow. Joyce played and played with my little chap while I sang and was so charming and generous about it. A lovely lady. The concert was a great tribute and as there was literally standing room only left, a good deal of money was raised for charity too. That's a good way to spend an evening.....

Town Hall debut

Been meaning to post about this for the last week but events have overtaken somewhat.

One of the great treats I get in my musician guise is to be able to appear in the same performances as Mike. I guess that it shouldn't be a surprise, as we met through musical things, but it is a lovely thing to be able to do. It's made even more special these days as it's such a rare occurrence, because one of us is generally babysitting.

However, last Saturday was one such occasion and a great experience to share. WMP Brass Band played in a Coppers for Kids concert at the recently re-opened Birmingham Town Hall and I was asked to sing a "number" with them. The Town Hall is absolutely amazing and one of the more intimidating places I've sung in as the balcony seats just feel like they rise up right in front of you and keep going up.

The Hall has been very beautifully finished. The ceiling is glorious but, to improve the acoustics, they have had to put sound "buffers" (not sure of their real name) in. However, they haven't lost the beauty of the ceiling as the buffers are simply made out of clear stuff (technical term is quite beyond me, sorry) so you can see straight through them to the intricate work underneath.

This isn't the ceiling - obviously it's the organ....

All in all a great treat. The band played well, I got to sing in an amazing venue, the choirs we joined were very good and the good folk of Birmingham were treated to the sight of the drum corps, bagpipes and fanfare team practising outside the stage door in Chamberlain Square. Let's just say that they've had more private rehearsals.....

A January serenade

Had a lot of fun tonight in Ladbroke, near Southam, where me and a gang of others did our now traditional "sing from scratch" Gilbert and Sullivan show.
We are a merry band (and the numbers vary, according to the show), who sing and act the principal parts and the paying audience get to sing in the chorus parts. It's always a huge laugh - often more so for us than for the audience! - and tonight was no exception. My sides ache from laughing during rehearsals and offstage and stifling giggles whilst on stage.
Tonight's effort was Trial by Jury and I was the jilted bride, complete with veil! The guy who played the judge is a truly funny, funny man and he knows he can make me and another couple of our regulars laugh just by how he says something. He is merciless and yet so understated that nobody who didn't know would guess it was him causing the hilarity.
This sort of thing always reminds me that being musical offers so much more than just the music. It brings friendships and giggling. It introduces like-minded people who can instantly find each other's wavelength. And, more than anything, it's a chance to air a gift that gives pleasure to you but might also be loved by other people.
I just love it.