April through July 2008 [2008-10-28]

Dear friends,
I have been very negligent with my editorials since the spring so I thought that I would try to catch up a bit.

April

I was in Denmark with a mix of recitals with Love Derwinger, and orchestra concerts: opera arias with a brass orchestra and a chamber orchestra with Samuel Barber and Mozart Sacred arias as well as a jazz concert with Magnus and the quartet. After more than five years working and touring all over the world with the quartet, we went into the studio at the Swedish Radio and recorded our first recording together and my first Jazz recording for my label Arte Verum. The new album, BARBARA SINGS THE BLUES is dedicated to the blues, includes some Bessie Smith standards and features songs written by Billie Holiday and one song“My Man” that was a standard of Edith Piaf. The album will be released on CD as well on vinyl. I am thrilled about this because I have been grieving the loss of the superior analogue sound that vinyl has.

Food crisis in the world due to higher oil prices, ethanol fuel, climate change are affecting the poorest in this world. They already spend the majority of their income on food.

What in world is going to happen to people of Zimbabwe? When many fled to neighbouring South Africa, they became the victims of intolerance and total lack of a sense of solidarity. So many South Africans fled the apartheid regime, like Miriam Makeba and were welcomed and protected in other African countries but the mobs that threatened and killed their Zimbabwean neighbours was a sad and tragic moment in the history of Southern Africa.

May

I was happy to be back at La Folle Journée, this time in Tokyo. Of course Tokyo has a population of more than 20,000,000 so it is normal that the size of the festival in Tokyo is larger than in Nantes. There were more than 1 million people coming to the concerts during the four day period and more than 200 concerts. I sang three recitals with Love Derwinger. The theme was the same as in Nantes this year, Schubert.

On my return from Japan I managed to squeeze in this year’s Women for a Better World Conference in Niger between more recitals in Spain and a tour in France with Orchestra D’Auvergne singing Berlioz Les Nuits D’été and les Chants D’Auvergne.

The conference is organised by the Spanish government, an initiative of the vice president of the government and the women leaders of Africa. Normally this would have taken place on International Women’ Day but this year it had to be postponed from the usual 8 March date due to the Spanish elections. This year the conference took place in Niger and as usual I was privileged to meet many dynamic African women and to learn how they are working to solve so many of the problems confronting them in Africa. I have made some friends from the previous conference in Madrid and I was very happy to meet them again.

A cyclone hit Burma and as expected the junta preferred to preserve its power over its people intact to allowing the world to come to aid of its suffering people. How long can the world allow this to continue.

June

I went to the Caen Memorial in France dedicated to Peace in the world and to heroism and sacrifice of the soldiers who landed on the shores of Normandy on D Day. My concert was dedicated to and in memory of children, victims of conflicts.

I have been president of the international singing competition in Strasbourg for the second time. It is so difficult to judge budding young artists. I hope that my presence can inspire them to strive to become artists and not stars. On the day off for the singers to prepare the finale I sang a concert of Handel and Purcell with Drottningholm’s Baroque Ensemble.

I had a free day during the Competition and went to visit the “College Barbara Hendricks” in Orange, France. The students chose the name of their new middle school more than ten years ago from a list consisting of me and of white, dead men. Orange had just elected a mayor from the far right. I invited two extraordinary French women, one Jewish and the other of Arab origin to speak about prejudice and tolerance. It was interesting to listen to the comments of the students about their preconceived idea about “the other”. Often, as soon as they verbalised their ideas, they themselves seemed to realise how ridiculous and untrue some of their ideas were. It was clear that many prejudices that the boys have about the girls and vice versa was an issue that affected their daily interaction and needed follow up sessions.

The end of the month found me in Holland for the jazz festival in the Hague an outdoor concert in sunny Helsinki dedicated to International Refugee Day and up to the north of Sweden, Piteå for a recital of Schubert and Strauss and an orchestra concert with the orchestra from Oulu in Finland. I sang Sibelius songs, the first time that I have performed them with orchestra.

July

The clarinettist who should have performed with me in Piteå in Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen cancelled and I asked Magnus Lindgren with whom I have been performing jazz concerts all over the world, if he would be willing to learn the piece and perform it with me. He had never performed a classical piece and he did a great job. I was impressed that he dared step outside his comfort zone and take the risk. The clarinet is one of the many instruments that he plays. Everyone was enthusiastic about his classical debut and no one more than I.

A few jazz festivals in Milano and Nice and a little time at home meant that I slowly slipped into my vacation with one recital in San Sebastian, Spain.

I am following closely the election in USA I found the Democratic Convention to be inspiring and hopeful. The Republican Convention was full of angry speeches and the introduction to the world of the one and only Sarah Palin. WOW!!!!!

More to come on the US elections.

Best regards
BH