Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Sweden - January 26/27/28

After a busy week (and a couple nights with short sleep) I crashed on Saturday. Kathryn, meantime, was working (shopping/preparing) a dinner party for some of our friends for Saturday evening: Arne and Birgit Lundmark (Arne's manager of RK, Birgit works in the administration for the orchestra), Eva Wedin (RK alto and librarian), and Mikael Engström (RK accompanist). It was nice to return the favor of nice meals at their homes last visit. All are really delightful people with a wide range of interests, so conversation ranged over lots of subjects and Kathryn's Indian-inspired dinner was a hit. We didn't think Birgit could come, since she was about to leave with the orchestra for the Canary Islands, but luckily her flight wasn't scheduled until Sunday. Birgit had lived with an Indian family when a student for a time in South Africa, so she knew quite a bit about Indian food, and Mikael had recently gone on a vacation to India, so also had interesting observations as well. It was a lovely evening.

Sunday was a fairly lazy day, with some preparation and writing.

Monday was mostly a prep day for me, Kathryn again cooking, this time a beautiful fish soup for dinner with Eric and Monica, and Gary Graden (Gary's wife, Maria, was in "end of project" mode, so couldn't come). Again, a lovely evening with lots of reminiscing, since Gary sang in EEKK for quite a few years. Fun to hear Eric talk about various tours and projects, and Monica, too. It's always amazing to imagine what Eric's schedule was for many years (and the preparation for all the works he conducted). He and Monica were married in 1976 and Monica said at the time he always had RK Monday, Wednesday, Friday; Chamber Choir on Tuesday, and Orphei Drängar in Uppsala on Thursday. Of course, that doesn't include the Conservatory Chamber Choir, or teaching, or . . . And of course, ALL of those choirs were touring, so the calendar was very full (and masterclasses and guest-conducting . . . ).

So, two lovely dinner parties with dear friends and colleagues.

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