I cannot believe that it has been several months since I added a blog post. So much has happened and I got caught up in the tidal wave of teaching, weddings, laryngitis and Christmas. (Not to mention a significant Birthday in February shhhh).
So I am back to the final term of the 2015 and 2016 year, boy has it come round extremely fast! The past few weeks have been an amzing whirlwind of jet setting and performing.
My first trip was to New York City to perform as part of ‘AiR’ (atmospheric Irish recital) on St. Patricks day at the Lincoln Centre. This was a very exciting trip and I am extremely grateful to have been apart of this unique experience. Alongside the main performance we also had work to do including a photoshoot in Time Square (see photo), a cultural exchange with Lawrence Highschool, a performance for the MET Childrens chorus, and a photoshoot/filming day on Fire Island. The performance on St. Patricks day was the highlight. The Rubenstein Atrium is a cool high ceilinged space and to be able to command the space and perform the live soundtrack was very special.
After a strangely quiet Easter it was off to the Costa del Sol with Madrigal 75. This holiday for the choir was not all cocktails and sun loungers. No, we had rehearsals and concerts in amongst the free time that did consist of the odd glass of Cava and some sun bathing. The two concerts that we performed were in two contrasting settings. Our first concert was in the beautiful mountain town of Mijas. This town looks out over the Mediterranean and consists of whitewashed buildings and cobbled streets with the mode of transport including Donkey taxis. The church that we performed in was a lovely stone church with a fabulous acoustic, the audience was small but responsive and it was a positive start to our tour.
On the Saturday we headed to Malaga to perform at the church of John the Baptist. It was a slight adventure to find the correct church as there a several in the City and none appear to have the name of the church outside like you would find in England or Ireland. A few of us arrived at the church around the corner to hear an Organist warming up with the Wedding March and some of the guests cheering seeing singers arrive. Oops! This concert was a very different experience! The priest locked the doors to the Church whilst we did a quick rehearsal and just before the concert was due to start a great stampede of people came towards us scrambling for the front pews! We were blown away by the crowd that had arrived to see us perform! It certainly raised our spirits and resulted in a most enjoyable sing. The crowd showed their appreciation and this resulted in two encores and a little networking outside the church afterwards. To have such a positive experience away from Ireland was very humbling and made all the hard work really worthwhile.
Last night we had our first rehearsal after our successful tour. We have another concert happening in two weeks time and it will be fun to perform on home soil.