12 Feb 2009 - Back to Blogging!

Hello there! Many apologies for the delay in writing my next blog. Computers aren't really my 'thang', and there were complications and hoops to jump through before I could get the webiste up and running again. But here it is, alive and kicking. Well, they say that January's a quiet month... this one has been anything but: I’ve been from Liverpool to Birmingham to Swansea to London to Amsterdam to Bruges to Oxford to Holyhead, and sung more dots than there are stars in the sky. My 2009 began in Liverpool, where I was performing a post-Christmas Messiah with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by David Hill. Then, with Handel still fresh in my mind I sang in the Songs of Praise ‘Messiah Special’, filmed in Birmingham Town Hall ready to be aired on Easter Sunday. Two dress-changes and a nice interview with Aled later, I bombed down the M4 (at no more than 70mph of course) to finish off a television documentary. This year being a big Haydn anniversary, it’s a potted biography to be shown on S4C and I am singer/presenter, which has been fantastic and an eye-opener too – I didn’t realise how little I knew about ‘Papa’ until I delved into his life. From there it was into central London, to rehearse music by James Macmillan, and at the end of the week I flew out to Amsterdam to perform his Seven Last Words from the Cross, conducted by the man himself in the Konzertgbouw. Now, it’s not often I come away from a concert exhilarated to the point of tears, but last night was one of those occasions. It is simply one of the epic works of our time, and to sing it for James himself was a stunning opportunity, something with which I shall bore my grandchildren in years to come. January was rounded off by a baroque concert in Llandaff Cathedral with students from the RWCMD, and it was a heartwarming and uplifing event. It's just so nice to perform fabulous pieces with young people who are so enthusiastic about them, and the enthusiasm infected the audience too, I'm glad to say. So all in all not a bad month, though I must admit to looking forward to sitting down for an evening, and catching up on Top Gear…