10th Anniversary Concert - it was beautiful

Driving the Cold Winter Away, for the 10th year in a row.

(photo: Mark Braun)

It was beautiful. Perfect, really. I couldn't have wished for or planned for or dreamed of a better anniversary concert.

Despite the fact that the temperature had dropped 40+ degrees in less than 24 hours. Despite the fact that the Tuesday before the concert I was diagnosed with "bronchitis that would have been pneumonia if you'd waited a day". Despite the fact that, as a result of the diagnosis and the loss of 4 pre-concert productive days, I had to cut two songs from the set list and forgot to arrange for an official photographer and nearly forgot to arrange for a videographer (videos coming soon) and forgot to arrange for ticket takers and CD sellers. Despite the fact that the dress I wanted to wear hadn't arrived by the Wednesday before the concert and I had not even a clue about shoes yet...

Yes, inspite of allll this, I'm so happy with how everything turned out.  The weather was frightfully blustery outside, but inside, the church was warm and cozy. The antibiotics worked in record time (so did all the over-the-counter remedies recommended by my wonderful pharmacist and the hot whiskey prescribed by my mother). No one noticed the two missing songs - in fact, the concert probably would have been too long with them. My friend Tim saved the day with the video, my Mom and Dad and friends stepped in to sell tickets and CDs (Dad would like you to know he sold FOUR CDs, all by himself), some audience members snapped iPhone photos and shared them with me.

The Second Half Dress. I hear it looked like a disco ball when I moved.

Awesome.

(photo: Freddy Madrigal) 

And my dress - it arrived and Mom altered it in record time. It was the first time a dress I wore at a concert got applause of its own. In the first half of the concert, I wore the legendary red ruffled dress that's featured on the cover of my All Hayle to the Days album to represent where I've been, all that I'd dreamed of, who I was when I started. And then after intermission, I changed into a short, silver-sequined, ultra-shiny number (with matching silver shoes, yes indeed) to say: "This is who I am now, and I'm loving being me!" People gasped when I walked out - applauded like they normally do, but then sparked up the applause just for the dress.

I haven't even talked about the music yet because, miraculously, every single song went off perfectly, without a hitch, without a vocal waver or a missed note or a missed cue or a slipped pedal (silver shoes = yay!). I have no idea how I did it, how my voice rang out so strong and clear, how my band followed me in my half-sick state, but we did it. And it was magical to be there performing and experiencing it all myself, to follow that path from the very beginnings, to perform the songs that meant "holiday concert" to me, many of which ended up on my All Hayle to the Days album. To move into my new compositions, to tell of my travels to Ireland, and Paris, then Ireland, Paris and Ireland and how they inspired the new me, the new music and art I make.

My good friends Ann and Sara, out of hiatus as Prima Vox.

On my "Fire & Ice" - oh, Paris memories.

Oh, those girls and our voices...

 

I'm a very happy harpist, a very grateful girl, grateful to everyone who performed with me, helped me, hauled harps and CDs and candelabra and music stands and harp benches and music bags and candles for me, made things happen behind the scenes, set up sound for me (Ann Rosenquist Fee, that would be you)...thank you.

Happy, happy, warm start to the winter season!

Harry goes to Paris

If ever a cat should have been a Parisian, it is Harry the Many-Haired One. Harry, he loves cookies. He loves sweets and chocolates. He loves pretty boxes and fancy things and silky ribbons. And he loooooves ladies who wear black and smell like Chanel No.5.

My friend Carol Gillott of the blog Paris Breakfasts saved Harry the indignity of a trans-continental flight (what? no fishy cat treats on silver trays in airplane cargo??) and painted him at Paris's grand tea house Laduree.

If you look closely, you'll see 

that he's surrounded by sparkles, 

and he's licking his lips over his

personal pyramid of tasty macarons.

(The way it should be, if you ask Harry.)

Thank you, Carol, for such a beautiful painting. And for boosting Harry's ego, which was quite brusied after having escaped when the softener salt delivery guy came last week and after having to sit in the vines under Ethel's tree for hours waiting for me to come rescue him. I can just see him out there, "This is great! I'm eating grass! I'm barfing it up! I'm smelling everything! I'm over at Ethel's! Wait, um, it's hot. I'm hungry. Where's Momma? I'm tired. I miss snuggling with Sammy. Where is she?? I want to sleep on the couch. I even miss Jingle Belle. Mommmmmma!" He hasn't gone near an outside door since.

Best to enjoy that portrait as an inside cat, Harry.

P.S. Want to see YOUR livestock or pet in a painting at Laduree? Contact Carol here!

Hear and see Fire & Ice...in surround sound

When I composed my piece Fire & Ice in Paris last year, I wrote it for three voices: Me, Ann and Sara (a.k.a. Prima Vox). Performing it with them, and with the harp, has always been so gorgeous, so fulfilling.

But in the back of my mind, I've always wondered what it would sound like with more voices on the "Ann" and "Sara" lines. Like, with a whole choir of women singing with me. A girl can dream big, right?

That dream came true last Sunday. Dr. David Dickau, conductor of Minnesota State University, Mankato, concert and chamber choirs, invited me to perform at their holiday concert. He'd asked me to accompany the choir on a couple of pieces (I broke out the metronome to rehearse those...tick, tock, tick, tock...) and also to play a solo set. One of the pieces I proposed to him was my Fire & Ice...with all the women's voices singing with me.

He agreed. (He's a composer, too, and understands these things, I'm sure.) The rehearsal was a total overwhelm of sound and clash and release and just complete soul fire for me. And the concert...well, you can see and hear for yourself right here.

Ann (of Prima Vox fame) was at the concert and agreed to be my videographer. God bless her for capturing everything I'd wanted to see: my hands on the harp, the candles lit in that icy cold, blue-lit church, the girls surrounding the sanctuary and singing, the audience listening with eyes closed, Dr. Dickau's smile at the end. (I cut out the part of the video where I come back to my seat after my composed bow and put my head on my Aunt Sheila's shoulder and cry.)

But I think you'll get the idea. Enjoy.

I'm in my office

I've been procrastinating about writing. I hate hauling the computer around, having to share my "work space" (a.k.a. the couch) with three cats, having no desk and never a pen or a certain book or a picture when I need it.

So I made a decision. The cute little room next to my bedroom, which I've used for a dressing room and a reading/relaxing room for years, was going to go through a transformation.

Before: couch, rug, mirror, armoire.

After: a real office.

In it is my vintage desk I had stored away, my Paris mementos, a sassy red lamp or two, my books, my papers, my pens, my scarves from Paris and a new rug that I miraculously found to fit my specifications: pretty, with blue and red it.

I love it. I'm in here all the time. Everything I need is within reach. I have a radio to play Minnesota Public Radio, a few candles I brought back from Notre Dame and all around me is Paris. I even held my first important meeting in my office the other day...

...with my assistant, Harry.

I had to write him up for sitting in the boss' chair.

And back to France she went

It's been quite a summer. My arts year. My year of following my bliss. First there was the Minnesota State Arts Board grant to go to Ireland to study traditional harp music, then the acceptance into the Writing en Plein Air course in Auvillar, France, with Jamie Cat Callan.

Writing? you ask. Yes. Writing. While I'm best known for my harp music, I'm also a professional writer. I have a B.A. degree in English with a concentration in writing and Mass Communications. I've been an advertising copywriter at my day job for more than 15 years. I write blogs for product lines, email and web copy, direct mail catalog and product copy, and print advertisement copy. My advertising writing has appeared in major publications like Modern Bride and Martha Stewart Weddings. I've also written as a freelancer for local organizations and Minnesota State University, Mankato, publications.

But I write for myself, too. This blog, for example. And also poetry, non-fiction essays, and now, memoir. Which is what I wanted to work on in the writing workshop in France. A story has been brewing for a year now. A big one. I'm ready to write it. And write I did in France...

I wrote with the rest of my ultra-talented and inspiring classmates.

(Water for refreshment and toilet paper to wipe tears 

— we were all criers.)

I wrote alone under a tree on the grounds of a chateau.

I wrote on the balcony of my adorable little hotel room,

late into the mild Southern France night.

I wrote in quiet alleys in medieval villages.

I wrote in a vineyard (and yes, I drank a little wine, too).

I wrote in the 400-year-old restored Moulin a Nef in Auvillar,

which housed our studio.

I wrote about blue.

I wrote about chocolate. 

(This was dinner one night. Bad Amy.)

And then I donned a dress (with detachable armwarmers)

that I bought in a tiny village not far from Auvillar

and read what I'd been writing all week.

This reading was much less stressful than my last one...

I adored Jamie Cat Callan's teaching method. So supportive, so insightful, so inspiring. She's so sharp, so smart and such a wonder, and I took volumes of notes and kept all of her comments on my writing.

Since I was in France, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend a few days in Paris, retracing my steps from last year and revisiting some emotional places. Taking lots of notes. Taking lots of research pictures. (Big surprise: the story I'm working on has to do with my Paris experiences last year!)

I spent hours in Notre Dame...

in the Cluny Museum communing with

the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries...

(doesn't the unicorn remind you of Harry the Cat?)

and following my favorite street: Street of the Harp

(there's a great creperie just down from here...mmm...).

It's going to be a busy winter. I have my holiday concert on November 27th, and all the December harp events that I love, PLUS I'll be writing. Writing and writing and writing. I'm a little shy about sharing details of my story project, but maybe as it all forms and flows, I'll overcome my shyness and take you on part of the journey with me.