(Over-)Enthusiastic Musician present

This is the first photo I've taken in RAW, edited, converted to JPEG, and had printed

Goodness, what has got into me? It seems that on top of the usual happening with people asking me to sing or play for various things, I have now taken it upon myself to add yet more stuff to my calendar! Still, it is all good experience...

One of the more interesting things I'm gearing up for is the new Peter Donohoe competition in the Conservatoire. The watchword is 'versatility', and among the entries suggested was accompanying oneself singing - perfect for me! I'm quite the Peter Warlock fan, so I'll pick a few songs that I like  - including a solo version of the popular 'Bethlehem Down' - and get to learning them as best I may. Another awesome thing is that I'm playing a piano concerto! Well... a theme and variations, at least. Ernst von Dohnanyi's wonderfully cheeky set of variations for piano and orchestra on the 'Twinkle, twinkle, little star' tune often involves 'wrong' notes, arguments of key (not bitonality, just blatantly silly writing), and even goes whole-tone at one point. And then, a lot of semiquavers, and then, an amusingly abrupt ending. Up until yesterday I was using music from the library, but as they only had one copy I've had to buy my own music so that my accompanist, with whom I'm currently living, can learn it. I'm intending on entering the Concerto Competition, which should be enjoyable.

On a more vocal note, I've done a silly amount of singing in the past few days: a rehearsal on Tuesday evening with the City of Birmingham Chorus, with whom I will be singing Britten's War Requiem in Belgium three times; a rehearsal this morning with the conservatoire Chamber Choir, an All Souls service tonight at St. Albans singing the Fauré Requiem, and to top it off, another rehearsal tomorrow with the conservatoire's Camerata! Still, I will get paid for tonight's gig, which is always good for morale.

Now that I've procrastinated for a wee while on my computer, I need to head to bed, although only to rise again (hopefully) in less than eight hours time. I'm just going to add a picture, because I like pictures.