2023 was an amazing year of travel and singing for us – Making Music in Italy was a brilliant success, Portugal a wonderful holiday where I heard some remarkable music, Fiji was a revelation, Bali equally wonderful, and the many events in Australia and NZ were fully subscribed and fully joyful.
2024 looks to be more of the same, which is good news. We’ve kicked off the year with Summersong (see pic above) — always an incredible event, where everyone (including the staff) find new creative juices — and the annual weekend of song at Richmond, glorious as ever.
Next, it’s NZ in April (Mana Retreat Centre, Christchurch and the Wanaka Autumn Arts School), Fiji in May, Bali in July, Fiji again in August, Italy in September. Bookings for another Queenscliff retreat (November) will open in March. I’m back in NZ in November at Arrowtown and Mana. And all this in between workshops all over Australia. Surely being such a blur of motion is undignified for someone my age?
Back home in Sydney, the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation is working on its program for the year, while I work on some new repertoire, as well as reviving some of our earlier songs from those heady days of 30 plus years ago when we sang a lot of traditional gospel. We’re lucky enough to have some excellent new members and it promises to be a great year the choir. Looking forward!