It’s roundabout 30 degrees outside, the sun’s shining and the neighbour’s kids enjoy the last days of vacation. I’m not a summer person, but I’m happy for all the others who are.
Still, in summer, there are festivals, and there’s always time for music.
August has been a rather musical month so far. I’ve played four Sunday services (organ), the choir rehearsals started again after a short break and I had the pleasure/challenge to be our only soprano in two rehearsals – so it was kinda being a soloist getting a full choir to accompany you 😉 This week Saturday, we’ll meet with all the choirs our MD is conducting and there will be an evening full of singing and probably lots of laughter.
At the beginning of August, we went to the Rheingau Musik Festival and listened to Randi Tytingvåg, Dag Sindre Vagle and Erlend Aasland. The concert was in a wine-grower’s yard – a laaaarge yard, and it was sold out, as far as I could see. Standing ovations at the end of the evening, and well deserved.
One week later we were in Nieder-Moos. In case you haven’t heard of this place yet, each summer the local church hosts a music festival and the trip is well worth it. We met with two friends and had the enormous pleasure of seeing and hearing the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Now, these guys and gals are just amazing and if they’re playing at a place near you, don’t miss them! Not everyone in the audience seemed to speak enough English to get all the jokes, but you don’t need language to enjoy good music, and it was standing ovations again.
Those who read my blog regularly or follow me on twitter know that I like a variety of styles and listen to more than one kind of music. So I was very happy to see that two of my favourite Icelandic musicians had new albums coming.
One is „Ypsilon“ by guitarist Andrés Thor and his trio: https://andresthor.bandcamp.com/
and the other is „constant movement“ by bassist Toggi Jonsson and his quintet: https://toggijonsson.bandcamp.com/releases
You can listen to the tracks online, but I’m all for supporting fellow musicians, so of course I will recommend that you go and buy the albums. 🙂
Last but not least, I’ve finally set a date for my organ concert next year. It will take place on the 2nd of September 2017, however, it’s not clear yet which organ I will have available. I will let you know when I know more. In addition to the official public recital I will also play a smaller concert for a different audience: I was invited to play for the inmates of the local jail, so this will be a new and interesting experience.
Coming up is a concert with two choirs and me doing one or two organ solo pieces and maybe also singing a solo or duet, so watch this space and/or my twitter account for details.