Concert day: La Biennale di Venezia! The climax to this whole project, and one of Europe's biggest annual arts festivals. The concert space was brick and stone with big windows looking over the central laguna. What a feeling to arrive at the day of one of the most prestigious and exciting concerts of my career!
We rehearsed in the morning, Nicola was super distracted by calls, Max/MSP mysteries and a talk he was giving to a school group, (my lack of Italian got me out of that one!). But I’ve learned not to worry about Nicola. I know when the people are there and it’s showtime, he gives 125% every time The concert was at 5, so we arrived at the space at 4, did a pre show talk with Ivan Fedele the Artistic Director of Biennale Musica. The concert began, the house fell silent, I waited for the first sounds from Nicola's computer onstage.
Nothing
Nothing, I remained calm, tried to think of a joke...
Nothing
Then Nicola suddenly cried out "Oh Yes!" opened his Max patch on his laptop, made an adjustment, and there was sound.
Whew
Then we began, and the show went really well! We were both at 130% I think! The large audience enjoyed it. They clapped, the composers were over they moon, I was relieved, and happy my partner Sue was with me, and in Italian fashion we went to a celebratory dinner.
This project was largely the work of Nicola. He took a chance and sent a proposal to La Biennale (he was as surprised as I was to get the gig, lovely man), which grew to more shows when Lawrence Casserley invited us to The Colourscape Festival and so on.
The whole project wasn't a result of celebrity or a good manager, it was born from friendships, mutual admiration, sharing and collaboration. A fact that made it all more real and substantial to me. I did manage to get support through suddenlyLISTEN from Nova Scotia's Department of Tourism Culture and Heritage, Creative Industries Fund. This allowed me to travel, work on more touring opportunities like this for me and for other Nova Scotian artists like Derek Charke and Jerome Blais. Bringing them to Venezia to hear their pieces played, also gave them a chance to meet new artists from around the world, to and to share in this prestigious festival and big adventure! Many thanks to NSTCH, and the composers for that privilege.
Nicola and I will continue to work together, to harness the power of these concerts, and share more time and music together, as well!
Oct 11, 2018 at 21:24
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