Thursday- meeting Amy Burton!

Thursday- another busy day at SongFest!  I had to remind the SongFest administration that I am leaving early in order to get all my coachings scheduled when I'm actually here!  But it has happened- yippee!

At 9:00 we had a fabulous Lecture/recital on Debussy's "Fetes Galantes" with my friend Lock reading the poems in French-he wowed everyone with his sophisticated readings.  Unfortunately, I don't have a picture.  Nathan Wyatt song the 3 songs, remarkable after his performance last night.  It blows me away how much and how well the professional group of singers are singing-every day they have something different.  At noon, a nice concert of Wolf settings of Moricke, coached by my roommate Liza Stepanova.  Several pieces I didn't know that I will give to my students!  Went for a search for taco truck with Lock, but we couldn't find one (the trucks in front of the Omni were a hotdog truck, a Japanese food truck (which had tacos, but we were a little afraid of trying that) and a Greek place.  We tried to go to Ocho and the line was really long, SO...we ended up back at the cafeteria.  The food is pretty good but we've tried pretty much everything there, so blah.  I wasn't feeling great, so I actually took a nap during the Faure class (I need to get some notes from it- reminder to self) and then warmed up and had a great lesson with Amy Burton.  I told her I was open to absolutely anything she had to say including technical, so I got a lot of good stuff.  We totally reworked "Bonne humeur" of Chaminade and made it more charming and less "Teutonic."  It was fantastic to work on it from a new angle and I asked her a lot about accent assistance, which I have never been taught before (accenting unaccented syllables for emphasis) but now that I know about it I can hear it in great French singers.  We also worked on nasals as being resonant nasals rather than cut off nasals.  Nice!

We hit it off so well that she invited me to attend the dress rehearsal she had to go to of Musto's (her husband) music.  This was great b/c I got to hear the pieces before the concert the next day and so got much more out of it on the second listening.  I really like John and Amy--real people. Johnathan and "Shadow of the Blues" with Musto at the keys and Kate Tombaugh and "Penelope" are pictured below.

Because I went to the dress, I wasn't able to go to the MOCA Contemporary like I had planned, but as time is growing short, I am trying to choose one-time opportunities over those I could do another time.  At 7:00, a really excellent Graham Johnson class on Spanish Influence on French and German Music, vs. actual Spanish music.  The "idea" of Spain is more about the freedom and warmth, and lack of inhibition of the "South." I learned two new songs I really liked- "El retrato de Isabella" by Vives about an unpopular Queen, "Seguidilla" of de Falla, and "Las currutacas modestas," a duet by Granados that has got to STRUT!!!  It was fun to see Johnson having so much fun and strutting around!  He was in a very good mood, and he even cackled a few times!  Caught the end of Francis Young's class on Bach and Handel--she invited me to sing, but my Handel wasn't completely memorized so I didn't.  She teaches with such joy and casualness and sets up a great atmosphere for learning.  She works basic technique ideas and stages the arias so the singers can see the the situations that cause the arias.  Excellent!

 Roomie Jihae brought me a taco from an authentic taco truck- num!  Slept hard!