To Drive the Cold Winter Away Concert 2009

The words I love to hear: "It was the best concert EVER!" And my friend Judy wasn't the only one to say it this year. Everyone loved the French music program, the tales of my Paris adventures, the arrangements for the band, the atmosphere, the presentation.

I loved it, too.

Half the time I felt like I was in two places at once: in Paris dreaming and composing, and in Mankato singing my experience. The concert was a dream time of getting to relive so many Parisian memories through music. And the audience was so responsive and so appreciative.

The band played beautifully.
All my creative arrangements and markings
came together perfectly that night.

And as Prima Vox, Sara and Ann and I
sang down the Angel Gabriel.
We also performed my new piece I composed in Paris,
"Fire & Ice."

I ended the concert in tears. The emotion of performing that song, the success of the concert, the bliss I saw on audience members' faces, the memories of Paris...it was all too much to hold in.

I stood afterward in my fabulous green taffeta dress,
accepting applause, smiling through tears,
blowing kisses to my audience.
The cold winter was definitely driven away.

photos by my good friend Tim Madsen