Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?

 

After my brief stay in Ann Arbor it was back to the campgrounds at Blue Lake for one more final round of concerts.  Sabrina and I were fortunate enough to get to stay with Leah and Josh as our host parents!!  Leah was technically my boss (though I do consider her a friend now) and was responsible for hiring me last year for the Elijah tour. Truth be told the only reason I returned this year to do the Brahms was because I failed to get one single picture with her in 2011—and you all know how much I love a good photo op!

As I feel I have already exhausted myself on talking about the camp itself I’ll just focus on all the fun we got to have in North Muskegon… starting with THE FOOD.  Bernie O’s is a local pizza joint that has been ranked nationally and even appeared on the Food Network (did you hear that, Jan?!).  One of their claim's to fame is the Firebird pizza, which isn’t so much an homage to Stravinsky as it is to the fact that it uses ghost chili peppers.  There is a competition to eat the pizza (at the third level of crazy heat) within a certain time limit and if you win then you get to go on the wall of FLAME!  Josh and I joked about doing it but you need a third person and neither Leah nor Sabrina were up for it.

 

Please notice how the wall is completely empty :(

 

We, however, opted for a couple of more sane options and they. were. DELECKER!!

 

Before Sabrina and I had to part ways again we needed to get a picture we’d been talking about taking for the whole summer.  It was noticed very early on that our computers appeared to match our respective sizes and here is the evidence to prove it:

Yeah, I’m pretty sexy in argyle sox and shorts.

 

Now, some of you may notice a certain toy of the equine persuasion trying to get in on the photo action.  Sabrina found it in the basement and naturally neither of us could resist a good opportunity to prove our ages.

 

 

Apparently we’re not very coordinated… It looks like I’m trying to speed up while BriBri is slowing down

 

There aren’t really words to describe how appreciative I am for Leah over these last two years doing the international tour.  She didn’t go to Europe this summer (she was busy coordinating all nine of the Blue Lake tours while concomitantly organizing over twenty European groups that were coming to the states to do tours themselves!) and was greatly missed by everyone.  I’ll never forget last year when sweating my way through 3 hours of Elijah in the summer heat every other day she was always there on the front row acting as our cheerleader.  I’m pretty sure she was contractually obligated to do so, but she at least did a good job of pretending to enjoy it each time ;)

Finally, as is customary for the last picture of these such posts, we got a family photo!

Leah and Josh: host family first timers NO MORE! I finally got to get my picture with yooooouuuuu!!!

 

Artist: U2/ Album: Achtung Baby

A Sort of Homecoming

 

One of the parts of the whole tour I was looking forward to the most was the return to Ann Arbor for a series of concerts appropriately entitled “Experience Blue Lake.”  An overwhelming swath of campers for the program comes from a 100 mile radius of Ann Arbor and one of the feathers in the tour’s cap are the performances at gorgeous Hill Auditorium. This was my first time being back in my home for four years since I moved last August and it was a treat to be back.

 

Just like last year (LINK), the Brahm’s Requiem was broadcast live on Blue Lake’s very own public radio station (LINK) for the entire WORLD to hear. 

The back of Hill with the satellite and equipment trucks parked in full view (with a bit of bell tower in the background thrown in for good measure)

 

Joining us once again to conduct the Requiem was Carole Dr. MaestrA Ott.  She had the thankless task of preparing the choir and orchestra for the European tour without the benefit of actually getting to conduct us while overseas.  Needless to say it was an immense pleasure to get to work under her baton again, not only because her musicality and expression were unrivaled by any of the guest conductors in Europe but because I consider her a dear friend as well.  Even though she conducts and teaches in North Carolina I am dependent upon the very small musical world that we live in to bring us back together collaboratively in the future. 

Three very content divas

 

Sabrina and I were also joined by a very special guest in the audience in the form of John Nevergall, who long time blog readers will remember was the tenor soloist in last years Elijah (broken glass during his aria, anyone?!).  Though he lives in Ohio he drove up for the concert and I am so grateful to have gotten to see him, if only for a short time after the performance.

“Bist du’s Elias?!?!?!”

 

I also must give a special shout out to my host “moms” for this portion of the tour.  Mom of course being in quotation marks because they were actually my friends Kristin (who, though a mom in her own right, is absolutely nowhere near near near old enough to claim that title over me) and then later Cynthian. 

Like John before, some of you may remember Kristin from our sharing the stage in Le nozze di Figaro, Armide, and Albert Herring as well as, you know, being kind of a kick ass friend.  Unnnnnfortunately I was stupid and failed to get a picture with her and her darling Alyssa before getting away so I leave you with a picture I pilfered off of her facebook profile. 

 

Cynthian and I have also had the pleasure of performing together in Albert Herring and Eugene Onegin and is also a member of that wundermusical family the Brundages—as in, Julia of the Singing Seargeant’s fame and Mary Anne and David of my utterly fabulous vacation weekend to Washington D.C. this past February.  Cynthian actually commented that I had basically seen everyone in her family more recently than I had seen her, so I’m glad we could rectify that situation!

Enjoying sangria at Ann Arbor’s popular summer drinking destination, Dominick’s

 

Artist: U2/ Album: The Unforgettable Fire