Jacob Heringman's Diary


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15 June 2003 - 17:14

I've been a bad boy and not written in my diary for ages!

A little summary run-down of the last couple of weeks is in order, I think, connecting the last entry with today.

4 June

Zan and I went to a lawyer to have our wills drawn up. Very exciting! We'd meant to do it for ages!

5 June

I accompanied one of my students from Trinity College of Music in her final recital. Almut is one of the singers I gave some lute song coaching to a while ago. She did well, despite the added stress of being made to wait for a long time because her external examiner failed to turn up, and another one had to be lined up in a hurry!

6 June

We flew to Madrid with the Dufay Collective and about 72 instruments (that's what it felt like, anyway!). From Madrid, we were driven to Burgos where the gigs were to take place. The drive took over four hours, because we were stuck in standstill traffic as we tried to head north out of Madrid. The distance from Mad to Bur is 235 km. Why didn't we fly to Bilbao, from which the distance to Burgos is almost exactly half that Madrid to Burgos? I don't know. Probably, the answer is that it was much cheaper for the promoters to fly us to Madrid.

7 June

The first gig: Cancionero: the repertoire can be heard on our Cancionero CD, see discography pages. This was in a beautiful (if somewhat too reverberant for this repertoire) medieval church. The concert was followed by some excellent eating and drinking.

8 June

The next day, I was driven back to Madrid airport by taxi (!), while the others stayed on to do another concert, in a stunning fifteenth-century space: the programme was made up of Cantigas, as heard on the Dufay Collective's wonderful CD Miracles (see the discography pages on the Dufay Collective's website), and also on their new disc, to be released later this year. I arrived home again in the middle of the night,

9 June

and got up after a few hours to go back to the training course, for the first day back after the half-term break.

10 June

another day on the course (which continues to be a wonderful and challenging journey, now nearly 2/3 over!), followed by an evening of being an external examiner at the Royal College of Music, listening to two guitar students giving their final recitals, one on guitar, the other on lute. It's encouraging to hear young talent, though in general I would say that I've not heard of many up and coming first-rate young lute players, sadly. (I'm sure there's a handful out there that I don't know about.)

11 June

Course continues, plus daily preparation for a concert next week with the BBC singers, called "Two Elizabeths", marking the 400th anniversary of the death of QE I, and the 50th anniversary of the coronation of QE II. The concert consists of vocal music alternating with lute solos. It promises to be fun, and will be broadcast in late July, on the eve of a big Prom concert at the Albert Hall at which HM the Q will be present. Also, Zan's parents arrive today for a 3-day visit. I cooked a meal for us all.

12 June

Course continues, plus an afternoon in Abbey Road Studio 2 (yes, the studio now legendary because of their majesties the Beatles), recording with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, on a new CD they're putting together. A long and tiring day, made even more tiring by the terribly draining effects of severe hay fever, which has been pretty bad at the moment. Must get some freeze-dried nettles to imbibe.

13 June

Missed school to do another session at Abbey Road. Came home, practised, had dinner party with Zan's parents and other dear friends. A very nice time was had by all, though Zan and I were pretty out of it. Two very small girls, Kate and Anna, met for the first time that night, and got on like a house on fire, wreaking delightful havoc along the way.

14 June (yesterday)

a bit of teaching, quite a lot of relaxing, seeing Zan's parents off, and a certain amount of practising and desk work

And that takes me to today. Again, practising and desk work, and making lots of phone calls, not to mention hanging out in the paradise that is our garden, enjoying the blissful weather. It's a rare quiet weekend when we're home alone together. Miri it is.

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