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It is hard to believe that it has been 18 months since the inaugural Bach Music Festival of Canada! Let’s re-cap our successes:

  • sold out concerts!
  • phenomenal World Class artists
  • week long music making for Youth from across the country
  • Mass Choir, Orchestra, Soloist performance of the Mass in B Minor
  • Bach Festival at the JUNOS! Yup, we were co-presenters of the Classical Music Showcase – a most memorable experience for all of us!

We have made significant announcements this week regarding the Youth Program and  the Mass Choir, Orchestra and Soloist Final performance. Further guest artist announcements are to be made in the coming weeks. We can’t wait to share the news! 

Visit our website at http://www.bachmusicfestival.wordpress.com to see more of what the Festival staff, Board of Directors and Volunteers are planning for 2013! In a glance, here is what you need to know:

Bach Music Festival of Canada  July 14 – 20, 2013

Tickets will be on sale early in the New Year!

(HINT FROM THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Get your tickets early – they are inexpensive, will sell out and include THE BEST after-party! Don’t take my word for it, at the last Festival the Guest Artists were always the last to leave.Music, Summer, Party, – what could possible go wrong?!)

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I was recently engaged by a  private client who we’ll call ‘Jan’. (Jana is the Goddess of Perception. Jana’s totem is the peacock, and it is said that the eyes on the peacock’s tail are Jana’s, which are like mirrors that intuit to you the right path to take…) Any-who… Jan wants assistance with ‘finding her voice’ specifically when she ‘talks about the elements of her work that are the most precious, creative, closest to her heart’.  Her concern is that when she gives a flustered, halting, small-voiced answer to questions put to her about her work, she does herself, the work and her company a disservice.  “When I talk about myself and my work, I practically lose my voice!” she lamented. Jan wants some breathing techniques, vocal exercises, posture work and how to best deliver her message. I find this  client work extremely rewarding – streamlining the message, voice work, a pinch of performance…But here’s the thing. I know this woman through reputation, being in the room as she works, watching how others respond to her presentations , and I am surprised by her perception of  herself. I see a well  respected, beloved, strong person whose performances are articulate, gracious and humble. Regardless of what I perceive Jan feels that when making  public addresses her connection to her life’s work misses the vital communication link between her heart and her voice. And since what we perceive, is, – and this is so true when we turn that gaze to ourselves – then indeed there is a bump in her creative highway. This is going to be an amazing journey!

Is it only a matter of  verbal cues and sculpted gestures that will give Jan the elusive connection between message and heart? I’ve not found it’s that easy. Our work began with ‘what is playing in my mind when I am on the stage presenting my work?’ In Jan’s case it was a voice sending old destructive messages: ‘who do you think you are? why would anyone be interested in your work? what do you have to say that is more important than anyone else?’ A compilation of criticisms from her years of forging her own unique path – messages that she intellectually could reason were spiteful and ultimately insignificant. Yet when she was in that vulnerable place on the stage ready to share her life’s work, those voices not only came back  they consumed her performance moment with a vengeance. A disconcerting rift between her inward struggle and external stage presence exists.

What do we do if our perception of ourselves prevents us from living the life we want, from achieving our goals, from living to our utmost potential? In many ways we have written our story before its begun. Whether an old insecurity, negative voice from our past or perhaps a less than stellar moment that we just can’t let go of, it is time to be much kinder to ourselves. We need to rattle the cage holding that stale opinion so that  fresh air can swirl renewed energy around us. Take a look at what we perceive to be truth, entertain the idea that perhaps the negative perception is indeed false and then dare to challenge these subjective thoughts. A talented, perceptive and creative person like Jan deserves to be fully present in her performances. Miss Piggy, yes Miss Piggy!, says if  “(it) is in the eye of the beholder it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.” Especially if that ‘beholder’ is ourselves!

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Celebrity Jeopardy! Love that SNL skit and I was looking for a  title for this post. Originally I had – October! Not quite as catchy. This post really is about October. My favourite month – a shedding, a leaving, a releasing happens every year at this time. Folks around me are serious and busy. New projects and frontiers are opening. Life is continuing to evolve as it will. And there have been changes. No surprise there!

I have updated my site, specifically in the Today’s Big Plans section. I am grateful to be collaborating on the phenomenal projects and productions listed. Each has its own team of dynamic people, creative and engaged. Just as I like it! There are a few more yet to be announced and I can’t wait to share. I love hearing from you, so thank you for sending me emails as well as commenting on the posts.

Arms wide open singing ‘AHHHH’ in my most operatic mezzo-soprano voice!

 

 

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In June, I determinedly announced that this was going to be the ‘summer of Louise’. Unexpectedly in my hometown for the long summer months ahead, I was eager to spend precious time with my university aged son and daughter , take short trips to visit out of town friends, lounge in the parks at summer festivals, outdoor concerts, impromptu dinners, the promise of some time for deep introspection and the shifting towards the next important phase of my life. All this was going to be punctuated with the visiting of my dear friend Danielle. A friend since high school, Danielle’s life of adventure and accomplishment had taken her from undercover work as an RCMP officer in British Columbia, to working in orphanages in Thailand and Malaysia, travel throughout much of the world, media work with the RCMP, and policy analysis in Ottawa, now her summer was also anchored in our hometown. Five years ago, this phenomenal woman was given the most cruel news – a diagnosis of ALS ( Lou Gehrig’s disease).

We had kept in touch sporadically since high school, sometimes going 2 – 3 years without hearing from each other. About 12 years ago she contacted me, we enjoyed a rare long visit, reconnected, and determined to stay in better touch.  And we did. Emails, visits on the odd occasion we were in the same city, letters and photos. As the disease ravaged her body, Danielle’s big life was increasingly diminished in mobility although never in scope. She may have become less mobile, lost her independent living, but never her expectations for herself or others. As the disease unjustly took over her body, Danielle had no option but to move back to our hometown and be in the care of her extraordinary family. And yet, her  joie de vivre was not lost. For ALS robs your body of mobility and function, but not your mind. Your essence is left intact, to witness your physical decay. When I was in town, we would go out – her hands/arms were the first to be rendered useless; initially she could walk aided, then needed assistance with a wheelchair, too soon could not leave her wheelchair, speaking became difficult and finally no longer able to breathe on her own, was mostly confined to her family home – a sanctuary they created for her with gardens, paintings, a vibrant blue Buddha, photos, colours, laughter, underscored by all  the traditional and non-traditional medical communities options available.

A wonderful and true friend Barb, part of our Grade 10 triumvirate, was also keeping in very close contact. In mid-June, Barb and I began our soon to become ritual of Sunday morning coffee with Danielle. Barb and I would meet at Starbucks, get Danielle’s favourite Americano, and head to Danielle’s for our weekly visit.  Between offering Danielle sips of coffee through a straw that one of us would hold up to her, the three of us laughed hysterically, talked in hushed tones, cried together, discussed our pressing concerns – in some ways things had not changed since Grade 10! Barb and I also continued to visit Danielle on our own. And as July progressed, these visits became more frequent, and longer. The last Thursday in July I took dinner for all of us, and spent a luxurious visit with Danielle and her family. Even after many hours I had a very difficult time pulling myself away.  I was on my way to NYC for a week and was really going to miss her! As I walked home, I reminisced about how the summer was unfolding and realized that it had become the ‘summer of Danielle’.

I landed in Toronto after my week away, to an urgent phone call from Barb; our Danielle was in crisis. Learning she had been taken to the hospital, we waited throughout Friday for news, and Saturday received a call on behalf of Danielle, asking Barb and I to come to say good-bye. And we did. Our final intimate moments will remain private,  but I will reveal that in this most darkest of times, Danielle still remained the truest and sweetest of friends. In the worst moment of her life, at the instant she knew that it was her time to die, she looked to all of us who loved her and gave us the opportunity for a bit of peace.

An architect of her life from the beginning, Danielle managed her final years with the same tenacity and heart that had propelled her throughout the world. She not only fought to live, she fought off death. An incredible amount of strength that I will forever be in awe of. Courage, heart, truth, that resulted in an example of how it is to really live in this world. Nora Ephron determined at the end, that she wanted to ‘write her own story’. And so it is with Danielle.   Thus, on this Sunday morning, I am sitting in Starbuck’s, having an Americano, missing her greatly and deeply. Treasuring in the privilege of my summer of Danielle.

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This hot hot hot July weather has insisted a slowing down of the pace of the past busy months. Leaps of Faith require rejuvenation! And I have found it with some dear old friends – namely  Emerson, Whitman and, today’s favourite, Thoreau. Truly, there is something quite meaningful about sitting in the cool shade of a tree, pondering ‘what the heck does it all mean’ and reading this excerpt, almost as if for the first time:

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

This is the point, isn’t it? This is what keeps us searching, looking, testing, trying, because to leave it un-turned or untried, means that we didn’t rout all that was not life. Digging deep to find the truth, the core, ‘its’ and therefore, ‘our’ reason for living. The idea of ‘sucking out all the marrow of life’ resonates with me – I’m the kind of girl that gnaws on the bone of a particularly delicious steak or pork chop, to be sure to get every last bit of yummyness. Don’t be offended, I do the same with a salad. I love my salad. See what I mean? It’s all delicious!

From these marrow-sucking experiences we learn what we like, what we don’t, where we succeed best and what makes us the happiest. We learn to live sturdily, and  Spartan-like as Thoreau states. This resonates with my love of beautiful things – both in nature and man-made, like art in all its forms. I no longer have a lot of ‘stuff’ but what I do have seems excessive in its abundance because of its meaningfulness to me! ‘Less is truly more’ if there is meaning in the ‘less’.

Hot summer days spent in the shade of a tree or with my feet in the cooling edge of the beach seem like the most sublime way to enjoy the marrow. Especially when shared with a sturdy stalwart friend. Thanks Thoreau for once again being there. You’re the best!

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Since early in the New Year I have been awoken almost every night, with terrible nightmares – vivid, violent, anger filled, not my typical sleep pattern. The final and most jarring was  a couple of weeks ago.

I was sitting on a moss-covered rock surrounded by a metre wide swath of water that was rushing towards a waterfall in front of me. It was dusk and getting darker. I looked up to see hundreds of thousands of forms falling from the sky. As they fell closer they began to take shape – looking almost human.  Were they aliens? Spirits? They landed on the ground on the other side of the water, on top of each, more and more, falling and falling. Not humans, not aliens, but locusts. Hundreds of thousands of locusts. Dark grey grasshoppers with big eyes, that now sat poised and waiting. I was freaked out and woke out of breath. What was going on? Why was I continuing to have these very unsettling dreams?

Needing some sort of clarity, I researched the elements of my dream knowing already information about water, rocks, waterfalls: it was the plague of locusts that I was most curious and unsure about.  With great relief my research on locusts/grasshoppers as totems revealed that the beliefs say they are a very positive message to be receiving. And should I be surprised to learn that their message is ‘leap of faith’… OK, wait a minute. Have I not been pondering and writing about leaps of faith for the past 6 months? Am I not getting the message, or am I fooling myself into thinking that my present state of living is the leap?

A week ago I attended the  wackiest wedding in gorgeous Myrtle Beach SC. The weekend of miscommunication, no wedding rehearsal, and all around hilarity culminated in half of the guests, the groom, and the groom’s family, arriving one hour late to the evening beach wedding.  (Note to those heading to the altar – GPS without a proper address will not work, most especially for a beach wedding) The convoy of cars arrived in a frantic state rushing to park, calm the frazzled nerves of the bride, everyone doing their best to keep it all together. We traipsed over the dunes arriving at the most extraordinary  setting; the ocean and grey soft sand, framed by the bluest of skies with the moon already in orb above. As the officiate spoke in calm meaningful tones, I drew closer to listen to the exchanging of vows. All the rushing ended. There was a ‘pause’ in the comedy of errors that had defined the weekend, as the waves rolled, children kicked up sand, guests laughed and the couple kissed.  It struck me, yes their wedding had the craziest ride to get to this moment, but then, so did their relationship and why should I have expected anything different? With the same abandonment and carefree spirit that had defined their life, together they took perhaps the biggest leap of faith possible. (God love them!) Seriously though I am lucky that I got to witness that moment when saner heads did not prevail.

I suppose that leaps of faith shouldn’t really be measured by anything other than what it means personally. Each leap leads to the next, and while perhaps my leaps in contrast to this crazy couple, are baby steps, they’ve given me a bit more courage to each time,  jump again. Not because they turned out as I expected, but because I leapt, landed and lived to tell the tale!

Leaps of faith have been my focus for a few months. I’m looking forward to a new perspective – perhaps it will be ‘the view from mid-leap’ or ‘I’ve leapt and landed, let the games begin!’… time will tell, but what I do know is that I am eager to see what unfolds. I’m taking my cue from two nutty newlyweds who live moment to moment without much of a plan. I will still be my same disciplined self – there are some things that just can’t be changed, but there will most definitely be times when I will lighten up and just go with it.

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Much has been written about the power of intentions, what you put out in the world you get back, how our personal intentions have a huge impact on our lives.  The Rolling Stones said it best:

“You can’t always get what you want 
But if you try sometimes well you might find 
You get what you need”

What you ask for comes back not in the form you expect, but likely, in the way that you need! 

You don’t have to agree with this, yet if we look to the Universe the example is there. We cannot exist in this world without some sort of engagement with it. Our very being, our living, is in co-existence with the Universe. We breathe, we eat, we build, we take, we give…this exchange is mandatory. The Universe demands it. So if this is the reality, then our  choices lie in how we engage. I don’t have a lot of time nor patience for another list of things I have to do to be ‘good’ or to get what I want or even to think about justifying why I make the choices I do. Yet understanding that resisting the energy of this world is adding to my fatigue, then I have some changes to make.

This photo by the renowned Yann Arthus-Bertrand illustrates how the desire to be pink in an all-green world is possible!
This photo by the renowned Yann Arthus-Bertrand illustrates how the desire to be pink in an all-green world is possible!

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote”Once you make a decision, the Universe conspires to make it happen’. (This is just one reason why he is one of my all time favourite authors!) Physical, spiritual, personal, communal, the energies we expend are received and returned. It is up to each of us to decide how we want participate. I try to choose  joy, generousity, humour, love, knowing that grumpiness, anger, fear at times creep in. My spring and summer intentions are going to be mindful of this.

The Universe demands our participation – so heck, why not be brave enough to see how far this welcoming partnership can take us? After all, it is a big wide world of possibilities out there and I kinda like the thought of knowing the Universe has my back…

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Many of you know I have the great pleasure to work with a number of extremely talented creative private clients. Together, we bring their stories to life in whatever genre they desire. In the case of Andrea Nair, the obvious outlet & clear choice is writing.

This month marks the ‘shout out loud’ launch of her most recent work, ‘stripped down running‘. The early accolades are in and are out of this world enthusiastic!  I was the very fortunate ‘editor, artist developer, friend along the way’. Andrea’s first fictional novel is a tale of awakening, as the young heroine struggles to find her place in the world, while her life is continually mired in difficulty and hopelessness. Outwardly, Hannah Friesen appears to have a wonderful life. She is intelligent, funny, adventurous, attractive… but she is far from happy. What shows outwardly masks an inner personal turmoil. The narrative moves along at breakneck speed, as Hannah tries to outrun her past, finding that no amount of distance covered can let her escape what she ultimately must face. Trust me, this is the perfect choice for spring and summer reading!

Although a fictional story, the character and her challenges are inspired by the clients Andrea has worked with in her years as a psychotherapist. All personal elements have been changed of course, but the struggles of this young woman convey very real lessons to the reader about how disconnection can lead to heartbreak and also, how building relationships of value are still possible for those willing to try.

Consider this your invitation to join us at the launch. Seriously, we would love to see you! 

Wednesday April 18 between 7pm – 9:30pm

Fellini Koolini’s at 155 Albert St (upstairs) London, ON Canada

Of extraordinary note: 10% of all book sales to May 31st go to Save Bethesda Centre!

Please drop in, congratulate Andrea, share our excitement, and if inclined, buy a book! Besides at the launch, the book will be available at Oxford Books (new location on Piccadilly near Richmond), through  Andrea’s website and online as an e-reader. http://www.andreanair.com


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Holy Smokes! What a Saturday night Gala!

Security, stars, (and the rest of us) mingled at the limo surrounded Ottawa Convention Centre having a chance to meet, greet, sip, nosh while waiting for the Saturday Big Event to start. The great news about the JUNOs is that having been at the Friday night Welcome Reception, you see the same folks – and they see you too.

Which means you always have someone to talk to.  We are a friendly bunch!

The event got right down to business – welcome by Jian Ghomeshi who was funny, didn’t take himself too seriously and kept the numerous awards moving. The food was delish, cocktails tasty but the real lip-smacking goodness was the sheer talent in the room all to celebrate one another.

First act up was Lights! Here she is with Jian.

As the numerous awards were presented, the life long achievers given their due, the receptive crowd continued to cheer their colleagues in a truly Canadian celebration.

JUNO Nominees & Winners who I hung out with (because, you know, that’s just how the Bach Festival of Canada rolls….) can be seen here:

Stretch Orchestra – 2012 JUNO Winner for Instrumental Album of the Year Matt Brubeck, Jesse Stewart & Jesse’s fabulous partner in life/crime Michele McMillan.

Nominee Susan Hoeppner with me at the Dinner and Awards Gala.

Liz Parker, phenomenal Publicist (especially for you Classical musicians and organizations out there!) with Canadian music ‘darling’ Susan Aglukark. If you look closely behind Susan and Liz, you will see London’s own Joe Vaughan and his beautiful wife Carol! (This photo was taken at the Saskatchewan After Party, raising the bar for the 2013 JUNOs!)

Canadian Music Centre’s Atlantic Representative Shawn Bostick, also sitting at the table with Susan, Liz and I.

This is Socalled, seen here from their Friday night 1:00am Showcase (yes people I said 1:00am!!). Nominees in the World Music category they are a klezmer hip hop high energetic band. The reason for this photo is that this sax player is actually playing 2 saxophones at once!!

The Good Lovelies are all that and more! Lovely Kerri Ough and I ran into each other numerous times – she is a UWO grad and all around terrific talent!

And just to end the evening, here Liz, Susan and I after agreeing to take on the world through Classical Music!