I got back from the wonderful Femusc festival in Brazil this week, and I am still amazed at the fact that we managed to stage and rehearse the whole opera Carmen in ten days. It was a huge amount of work, difficult at times, but the energy and optimism of director Gino Quilico, the singers, and all the team, made it possible in the end. I had a wonderful class of conducting students at the festival, who also contributed immensely; not to mention some of my fellow faculty members who helped out in the orchestra! I am extremely grateful to everyone involved!
In the next few weeks I will be concentrating on contemporary music in Germany (very different!). I have concerts with Ensemble ilinx, a newly-formed group of students at the University of the Arts, Ensemble ascolta in Donaueschingen and Ensemble Resonanz in Hamburg, which I am looking forward to very much. I will also be rehearsing with Ensemble Musikfabrik in Cologne for the world premiere of a new opera by Liza Lim. And then at the end of March it’s back to Brazil again…
Life after Carmen
