It has been a busy summer and I have been lucky enough to go to some beautiful places, Riga, Mechelen, Tours, all because of EVTA. The European Voice Teachers Association, of which I am the secretary is involved in the LEOSings project and we are exploring the diversity of singing practice in Europe which might sound a bit dull and irrelevant but it is actually really important and we have several productive meetings discussing how we use language when talking about singing and choirs and vocal music. We have been sharing best practices, learning from a huge variety of workshops and trying to find out how each country trains, voice teachers and choir directors. We meet and work together and part of the great benefit of this ongoing ‘process’ of discovery is that we make good friends and we open up our ideas and generously share our expertise.
I am principally a solo singer and singing teacher, though I do run my own little community choir and I also sing with an amazing choir. However I have learnt so much from seeing choir leaders work with singers and I have used some of their ideas in my own teaching. It is such a great opportunity across Europe to work together in groups that perhaps haven’t had the chance to network before.
Riga is the place for Eurovox 2015 so look out for that website. Mechelen where we had our annual council meeting, was very beautiful and we heard about some great presenters from our Belgian friends that we are inviting to Riga. Then in Tours for the 3rd LeoSings, we were able to enjoy glorious weather and the amazing city but also some great presentations sharing some of the events with the AFPC, the French singing teachers. The highlight for me was the concert on Tuesday evening from Mikrokosmos, a highly gifted creative French choir.
So now it is back to work at the University and the writing up of reports and getting ready for Eurovox.