Weekend Warrior

Here are some of the things that I've been up to this past weekend:

• On Saturday morning at the Glenn Gould Studio, I was the pianist for the Toronto auditions of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. The singers I played for were Julia Raphael Morgan, Leslie Bouza, Maria Krywaniuk, Gerrit Theule, Simone Osborne, Chantale Nurse, Eve McLeod, and Allison Arends. Competitors representing each country on the audition tour will be announced in early 2009 and then move on the next rounds in Cardiff.
• Saturday evening I played a recital with soprano Susan Tsagkaris at the University of Toronto for a conference for psychoanalysts. Our repertoire included works by Wagner, Richard Straus, Gershwin, and Puccini. Susan is a wonderful soprano who is able to sing with ease much of the dramatic repertoire (such as Strauss' Befreit and Wagner's Liebestod) that is off-limits for most singers.
  
• Sunday afternoon I attended a College of Examiners workshop put on by RCM Examinations to discuss changes to the Piano Syllabus for 2009, as well as watch a sample Elementary Piano Pedagogy Certificate exam given by Janet Lopinski and Jennifer Snow.

This week I get a few days of respite before the next round of master classes, auditions, and concerts begins...