An Operatic Debut!

September and October were extremely busy. I have now two different teaching jobs in Dresden which I mentioned in the last blog post, as well as a small Trumpet class on Wednesday evenings at the Wir Sind Paten centre in Dresden. Wir Sind Paten is an amazing place which provides free tutorials and assistance in German, English, and Law amongst many other things for refugees and others who are in need of assistance. I recently gave a small concert/introductory workshop to brass instruments to some attendees of the centre with the offer of weekly trumpet lessons, and can now happily say we are on our 6th week of classes and are making great progress every week! On the Musaik front we are now sitting with approximately 15 participants in the wind and brass group. We had a huge two week recruitment drive in September where we went to various schools and performed workshops and taster lessons for those who are interested. The picture above is the team advertising one of our concerts outside a school after a workshop. The staff are really fun and dedicated and it is a pleasure to be involved with such an awesome team and project.

On the performance front:

In September I performed with the Follow Me's in Frankfurt and also made my debut in the Semperoper Dresden in a new chamber opera by composer Liam Wade called "Bua verliert's Madl." There were 4 singers in the Chorus, two solo parts, a tuba and piano. So it was quite an exposed gig! Not to mention my incredible costume I wore when on stage... The work was performed as part of a relaxed Friday night series in Semper Zwei. The October Fest opera (hence my costume above!) lasted 30 minutes and there were several traditional trinklieder performed by the cast before and after the performance. The tuba part was non stop, and at the one moment of having a blissful 29 bars rest the director had me up dancing with the rest of the cast. It was definitely one of the more fun gigs I have done in a while!

Thats in enough for me just now, I need to practise before teaching later!

Cheers

F :)