Pressing Pause

I am in need of a well-deserved vacation.

On March 4, 2020, I had a chat in FB Messenger with a friend and she asked what I was up to. I told her I was a little overwhelmed because, at that point, I had the following on my plate:

1. Five more performances of Don Giovanni with WNO at the KenCen;
2. A world premiere performance of a song cycle I had commissioned Garth Baxter to compose for me, based on poems by Irish poets, to be done in a house concert by an area impresario;
3. Writing a cabaret show for several of my students to be performed at Germano’s Piattini on March 29;
4. Holy Week;
5. Leaving for the UK to visit my best friend and her husband, who were stationed at the U.S. Embassy there.

She said, “Wow! That’s a lot! But it sounds like a fun lot!” and I agreed.

Well. I think you know what happened then.

So this is what became of that:

• There were three more performances of DG before the KenCen closed (although AGMA negotiated for us to be paid for one of them, we lost payment for two);
• The house concert was cancelled (although I am recording two of the songs in a project scheduled for June 3);
• Germano’s has closed permanently (really upset about that);
• No Holy Week services were held with singers (this cost me nearly $1000 in income);
• No trip to the UK at that time

BUT

I’m going this weekend! My friends are there for another two months and then they’re returning back to the DC area, but we’re staying with them and, for two weeks, we get to explore London and Oxford and whatever else my husband has planned.

Because I just sat back and said, “You know what – plan whatever – I will go along gladly with whatever you want to do as long as I don’t have to make any decisions.” (Hopefully he hasn’t scheduled bungee jumping from the Tower of London or anything like that.)

There will be many decisions to make when I return. I will be in the throes of preparing for our June 5 studio showcase, for which I’ve already assigned music and created rehearsal tracks. I will be preparing for the recording of the two Irish songs. I will be organizing a program for two of my graduating seniors to be done in late July/early August. I may be hosting a house concert in August (artist TBD).

But for now, I’m going to press pause. For the next two weeks, I’ll be re-posting some things (which I may tweak over the weekend before I leave to go with more of the style and format that I’ve developed since moving to WordPress).

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I haven’t forgotten about the summer lesson offerings;
those will be dropped before I leave. If you’re interested, contact me at christine@mezzoidvoicestudio.com.
I will answer emails as time permits.