Hello!
As we've just started the Spring break, I thought it would be a good chance to sit and reflect on what I've been doing and think about what's to come, in form of a blog post as I've not done one for a while...
In my last blog post, I was getting ready to go back to Alicante for the X Alumni Congress. It didn't disappoint! It was so nice to be back again with the friends from my generation and to meet all of the students from the previous 10 years of the Master. It was such a special few days! I also got to perform at the congress: 'Sailing' and 'Dark Eye' from Three Ships by Errollyn Wallen, Kinkachoo, I Love You by Phillip Houghton, 'A Tide of Living Water' from Four Miniatures by Clarice Assad, and Gracias a la Vida by Violeta Parra (arr. E. Sowicz).
My main focus for the new year was preparing for my week as Artist-in-Residence at Finding A Voice 2023 in Clonmel, Ireland. The week-long festival celebrates the work of women composers so it was an honour to be asked to spend the week there sharing repertoire I'm so passionate about.
I spent my time doing some outreach work in the community and a gave solo concert, Música Latina, and played with the brilliant ConTempo String Quartet on the final night of the festival. We played Claudia Montero's Luces y Sombras which was a very special moment for me: Claudia composed the piece after being inspired by her visit to Ireland some years before and this was the Irish premiere of the work. [Video to come soon...]
I'm so grateful to FAV for such a fabulous experience. I met so many amazing people and heard so much incredible music by women. It was also a highlight to finally meet up with and see a performance from Antonio Oyarazbal after many years of being in touch online! I also found time for Guinness and whisky...
After a Hot Toddy (or 10), I came home and played Música Latina again in the closing concert of the Sunday Serenades series at Heswall URC. This was also recorded and submitted as part of my college work, so I'll be sharing some snippets of that on my YouTube channel in future too, I hope.
Over the Easter break I'll be working on repertoire for my Performance 1 module which includes chamber music: Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro estaciones porteñas with string quartet, and a solo programme: I'll be focussing on nineteenth century repertoire and playing music by Aguado, (Emilia) Giuliani, and Mertz arrangements of Schubert songs.
No rest for the wicked, as they say...
Ciao for now!