Philadelphia

Hello! A lot has happened since we wrote to you last. First, Brenda performed a beautiful recital at Carnegie Hall with her friend In Sun, and many of our dear family and friends (and blog readers) were in attendance. Thanks so much to all of you who came to the performance. It was a wonderful evening.

Second, we both got the flu, but luckily Brenda's symptoms didn't fully hit until the day after the recital. We're both on the mend now, and it seems as though Rowan somehow managed to avoid getting sick. I'm very thankful for that.

Next, we travelled to Philadelphia for Brenda's upcoming engagement with Opera Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love will be our home for the next five weeks, and we're really looking forward to staying in one place for a while. We've been on the road a lot over the past two months, and we could use a break from packing our suitcases.

Finally, Rowan crawled for the very first time today. He's still getting his technique down so he's moving cautiously, but he'll no doubt be zooming around the apartment in no time. I'm going to nail all the furniture in place tomorrow.

It's fairly early yet, but Rowan has been getting up around six recently, which means it's my bedtime. I hope you all have a great week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

NYC

Greetings from New York! Rowan & Co. arrived in the the Big Apple yesterday after a smooth but long flight. Our little guy took two short naps on the trip but was awake the rest of the time. I usually try to catch up on recent bad action flicks on long plane rides, but that isn't an option now that we're busy trying to entertain Rowan. He did quite well considering his age and that we're forcing him to sit in one place for over eight hours.

Brenda is currently at Carnegie Hall preparing for her recital on Friday. She's put together a beautiful program, and I've enjoyed little previews of the performance as she practices around the apartment. And thanks to BBC Radio 3 I've also been able to hear her sing Lulu again. BBC recorded one of her Lulu performances (just audio) and recently posted it on their website. It's available on demand for the next 25 days or so in case you'd like to check it out. Here's the link.

One huge perk to Brenda singing in the U.S. is that it's easier for our families to come to her performances. We're getting to enjoy time with family this week, and we will again in Philadelphia next month when Brenda performs there. We're really fortunate and thankful that our loved ones are willing to travel to see us.

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

queen for a day, or four

Hey all! It's our last night in Munich, and Brenda is out celebrating after her fourth and final performance of The Magic Flute. The performances went well by all accounts. I even got to see the third one, thanks to some of Brenda's very sweet colleagues. Brenda wasn't on stage all that much during this opera (around 15-20 minutes total), so when she wasn't needed Rowan was with her in her dressing room, and when she had to sing some of the nice folks at the Bavarian State Opera kept an eye on him. Rowan wasn't thrilled about the arrangement. He's quite attached to Brenda and me (in that order), but he'll probably get over that by the time he's a teenager.

Thanks to all of you who voted for Brenda last week. Unfortunately, she did not win, but she was named runner up! If you'd like to check out the results for yourself, you can do so here.

We're off to Frankfurt tomorrow for a few days before flying to the U.S. next week. While in Frankfurt Brenda will be working with her friend and Carnegie Hall recital accompanist to polish up a few things on the recital and to get those mysterious French vowels sounding just right. (Just kidding. If you know Brenda, you know her vowels are already perfect.) Also, Brenda will probably do a little work on her next opera role, Amenaide in Rossini's Tancredi with Opera Philadelphia. The notes in that one move a lot, so she just needs to make sure they're moving in the right direction at the right time.

I hope you are all having a nice start to the new year. Until next time, have a great week!

vote for Brenda

Hey all! We're in Munich, and Brenda is getting ready to make her role debut as the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte tomorrow night. Brenda had her first and last day of rehearsal today, which is a short rehearsal period even for her. If I remember correctly, she sang the title role in Lucia di Lammeroor for the first time with just five days of rehearsal, but that is a much longer role. The Queen only has two (very challenging) arias, a quintet, and several lines of dialogue. The performances are close together by opera standards (four in eight days), and after the last one we'll head back to Frankfurt for a brief stay before flying to the U.S.

You may recall that Brenda sang the title role in Berg's Lulu at English National Opera earlier this fall. The performances went very well, and the website What'sOnStage nominated Brenda for "Breakthrough Artist in UK Opera" in its 2017 opera poll.  It appears that anyone can vote for the winner, so even if you didn't see Lulu (or any of the other operas that received nominations), you can still make your voice heard. If you'd like to cast a vote for Brenda, you can do so here. Voting closes at 11:59 PM (UK time presumably) on December 31, 2016.

In other news, I'm sick. It's been years since I've felt under the weather, and I'm being a big baby about it. Some hot tea sounds nice, so I think I'll play the sick card (again) and see if Brenda will go make me some. I hope you all have fun ringing in the new year, and we'll talk to you next week!

Merry Christmas!

Hey folks! We're back in Frankfurt and enjoying a little time at home before hitting the road again. We took Rowan to the Christmas market for the second time today, and even though we only intended to have some raclette and a cup of glühwein, a couple other tasty treats grabbed our attention. The surprise hit of the evening was Baumstriezel, which is a fried, tube-shaped pastry coated in hazelnut deliciousness. It's good to know that after nine years of visiting German Christmas markets we can still find something new (and tasty).

Our flight from London to Frankfurt last Wednesday marked Rowan's tenth flight. All that flying with our little nine-month-old has taught us something: people are nicer to you when you are traveling with an adorable baby. Oh, you're carrying a baby? Go ahead and skip to the head of the line. You're traveling with six bags each and most of them are overweight? No problem. You have a baby after all, you can't be expected to both parent and follow the rules. You need to check into your hotel room three hours early? Well, your baby does look sleepy so we'll go ahead and check you in and give you a free upgrade. Huh. Who knew that babies came with such perks? We should have had a child years ago if for no other reason than the travel benefits. OK, maybe not, but all the kind treatment has certainly made our frequent traveling with Rowan over the past several months a lot easier.

Our time in Frankfurt is brief and packed with friends and Christmas celebrations. On Saturday we travelled to Biedenkopf and had a lovely day with our friends the Schuberts (minus Andi who we will see later this week). On Friday we will have our annual Feuerzangenbowle evening with the Plocks, and on Saturday we have Christmas Eve dinner with the McCowns for what, I believe, is the eighth year in a row. Believe it or not, we are also doing some things that don't involve hanging out with friends and/or eating Christmas treats. Last week we went to the foreigner's office and got Rowan his German residence permit. He is now able to stay in Germany (and, according to his permit, even work) for the next five years. We're going to have to find him a job that allows napping.

Next week at this time we'll be in Munich for Brenda's role debut as The Queen of the Night in Mozart's The Magic Flute. I hope you all have a wonderful week and a very happy holiday season, and we'll talk to you next Tuesday!

on time arrival

Hey all! Brenda, Rowan, and I are settled in for the night in London after a very relaxing flight from Minneapolis. We fly to Frankfurt tomorrow and are looking forward to being back in our apartment for the first time since late September. Our stay in Frankfurt will be brief (less than two weeks), but we'll definitely have enough time to visit the Christmas market. Brenda will be very busy in the coming weeks as she prepares two new opera roles and a recital for Carnegie Hall. Meanwhile Rowan will no doubt be busy trying to figure out how to crawl, which means I'll be busy child proofing the apartment. So as you can see, we've all got our jobs to do once we get back to Frankfurt.

Our past few weeks in the U.S. were wonderful, especially because we were there during the holiday season. We celebrated Christmas with our families a little early this year (which has me wondering why there are still Christmas decorations everywhere), and Rowan definitely liked opening presents. In fact, he enjoyed every part of the present. He'll happily chew on the gift, the box it comes in, and even the wrapping paper. We have more Christmas celebrating to do in Frankfurt, including buying a small Christmas tree and our annual Christmas Eve dinner with our friends Barb and Michael. I quite enjoy spreading Christmas out over the whole month of December.

We hope you're enjoying the holiday season as much as we are. Until next time, have a great week!

very happy holidays

Whoops, another late blog entry! So late that we get to combine two entries into one! Sorry about that! We are literally on the road right now. Chad is driving, Rowan is sleeping, and I'm doing a bad job at entertaining the driver. We just finished up a week at my parents' home, where we enjoyed lots of delicious food, cozy fires, Christmas carols around the piano, fun outings to local libraries for baby story times, and even some beautiful snow! It was a truly wonderful family time. We're so looking forward to continuing the fun family times with Chad's family for our final days in the States before heading back to Germany!

When Chad last wrote, we were enjoying some time with my twin in Minneapolis. It's always a great time, and he really spoils us! Gives us his bed, cooks for us even though he's working full time, is a super fun uncle... You get the picture! We also usually get to see some good friends while we're there, as well as my aunt and uncle, so we pack a lot into those few days! It's lucky that our immediate families are in three neighboring states so we can just drive to see everyone! Rowan is a great little flyer but it's so much less stressful to drive! Although we'll be happy to be done with the car ride soon! Speaking of which, I think the drive is soon coming to an end, so I'll sign off here! Next week at this time we should be in London for one night, after flying across the Atlantic the night before, so we'll see if we can do an on time blog entry. Until then, have a great week!