Grade 8 Singing, a leading role in Iolanthe, school exams and a busy end of term.......if you want something done ask a busy person !

It was a long old day today.......a full timetable plus a lovely extra lesson with M who is now home from boarding school and madly working for her Grade 8 in three weeks. I was pleasingly happy with how well her pieces went in her lesson. I haven't seen her for two months as she has been deep in her school exams, and sorting out her university course and accommodation ! She will be fine in her grade, but as with all else little habits creep in, and M needs to sing in front of a mirror to help the muscles remember to bring the lips and tone forward and to drop the jaw ! She had learnt the pieces very well indeed, and even the complicated French in the Habanera from Carmen was more settled and secure - given all the exam stress over the last months she has done very well to bring the pieces on as far as she has ! It is great to think she will complete her lessons with me by achieving Grade 8, after approximately 10 years of lessons from the tender age of 9. It comes full circle - a good job done ! 

It is such a satisfying feeling when what one set out to achieve actually happens. M is a planner, she ( rather like moi) likes order and a path to follow which leads to an end product, and before she went away to school we discussed where she wanted to be by the time she left school....and here we are, on course to complete that plan which was formulated more than two years ago ! Now that is organisation !

She is also playing the 'trouser role' in this years show, and will make a delightful and sweet Strephon, complete with a straw hat and knickerbocker trousers. She managed her first rehearsal this evening, and true to type, throws herself into the role and space with immediate gusto ! 

I will miss her when she moves on to university to study something extremely scientific, but I know she will always love singing, Gilbert and Sullivan and Flanders and Swann. She will be a wonderful audience member for the rest of her life, and that is equally as important as teaching the future members of the profession. Singers need audiences and the audience need a performer, neither being completely fulfilled without the other !

Well done M - I am so proud of your dedication, hard work and fine achievements !

A Picture history of young M !

A very young lovesick maiden - M is in the centre

A disgruntled Kate in Pirates, with the folded arms

A rich and spoilt New York school girl in The Mikado sitting on the left

A lovely Tessa in last year's Gondoliers

Now a place for the first male role photograph watch this space........