I’m glad I managed to grab a bit of R&R after the December Gauntlet of 2018, since 2019 is off to a rip-roaring start! I’m working up four sets of repertoire for three different choirs, my day job is in high gear through March, and this is that wonderful time of year when people who dwell in the frozen parts of the country come visit me in San Diego, which is one of my favorite things about living here. Beyond that, I’m reading ALL THE AWESOME BOOKS, have been taking Clara and Hildegard (the Long Low Ladies, pictured below mid-excavation) to Fiesta Island for digging and splashing whenever time permits.

In writing and book-related fun, I’ve been invited to the kick-off for the San Diego Public Library’s 53rd annual Local Author Showcase this week, and the showcase, which features books by local writers (including my book  RISK A VERSE: A Year in Daily Sonnets) and will run for the entire month of February at the Central Library downtown.  I’ve also approached a composer friend about a potential upcoming collaboration, in addition to trying to figure out which of the umpteen writing projects I want to be working on to focus on first. Though my handy-dandy spreadsheet of submission deadlines will hopefully help with that. Fingers crossed!

Singing this month has been a joy. I got to take part in Cornelius Cardew’s experimental work The Great Learning at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego as part of the San Diego Symphony’s Hearing the Future series, curated by composer and MacArthur fellow Matthew Aucoin. I’ve sung three Evensongs at three different houses of worship already, including one with the St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral Schola and a collaboration between the section leaders of All Souls’ Point Loma and St. James-by-the-Sea, during which we recorded Ruben Valenzuela’s Preces and Responses, which will be published later this year! I’m singing in a solo quintet on Tim Brent’s “Peace Song” on San Diego Master Chorale’s upcoming High School Honor Choir concert, and we’ve broken ground on Puccini’s Messa di Gloria, which we’ll be performing with the San Diego Symphony in March under the baton of Speranza Scappucci. Most of all, I’m beyond thrilled to be singing on the concert series eXchange next month, wherein SACRA/PROFANA will give three performances with the awesome L.A. Choral Lab in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Chula Vista. And the icing on the cake is that we’re going to be performing two of the pieces for which I wrote text! *happyflail*

So yeah, that’s plenty to be getting on with. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Smooches to All!

Lib