Bi-Monthly editorial
	May and June 2007 [2007-07-15] The Drottningholm Baroque orchestra and I finished the recording of Purcell and Handel in Järna south of Stockholm at the beginning of May. The Handel and Purcell CD will be the next release from Arte Verum. Love Derwinger and I returned to France for two recitals in L’Orient and one in Paris at the Theatre de Champs Elysées .We performed a program of songs by Mahler, Schumann, Fauré, Poulenc, Kurt Weill and Arnold Schönberg. I construct my recital programs like I make the menu of a good meal for my family and friends and like an interesting voyage at the same time. I try to organize the songs so that there will be evolving emotions within each group of songs and from one group to another including the encores. It is clear that the Ave Maria of Schubert that I sing as on of my encores would not have the same impact if it came at the beginning of the program. I enjoyed the concerts in L’Orient and in Paris. Both audiences were appreciative and responsive yet different. The Parisian audience has a great choice of concerts and singers to choose from throughout the year, although a real “liederabend “ today is rare even in the big cities of the world. In L’Orient the audience was first of all appreciative that I had accepted to come to them to sing and their enthusiasm could be felt even before the concert began. I have not fallen in to one of the traps of celebrity that assumes that that one needs only to perform in the big cities and can ignore the rest of the world. My program was certainly made up of songs that the audience was hearing for the first time but they were attentive and receptive, they came to hear the music behind the printed program. I have always needed the balance of singing in small towns and festivals as well as in the major cities and festivals of the world. I could not survive on a steady diet of Paris, London, New York, Tokyo etc. I need to go to meet the people where they are and to have the contact with people from different places and cultures in the world. In any case my approach to the audience and the music does not change. I come to share music that I have chosen because of my desire to sing it and share the emotions that the music conveys to me. My daughter Jennie finished her university studies in London and the whole family, grandparents included descended on London for the celebration. JUNE: President of two Juries for singers I had been invited to be president for the Klaudia Taev Competition for singers in Pärnu Estonia in 2005 but as I had mixed feelings about being in a jury let alone being the president I was dragging my feet about answering and when I finally did they had engaged someone else. So I felt quite guilty about it and accepted for 2007 immediately. I cannot say that I was looking forward to it because I had done this once before and I found that I was not very good at it. It turned out to be a very pleasant experience, my daughter Jennie accompanied me and we compared notes at the end of the day.Pärnu reminded of some seaside towns in Finland where I have performed during many summer festivals. The style of the houses was very similar and part of the beauty was they have not had the soul renovated out of them. There were many good singers and many came from the other Baltic States as well as Bielorussia and Russia, two sopranos from Canada, one from Israel, one from China and a glorious tenor, Ji-Min Park from South Korea who received the first prize. The second prize went to Veronika Dzhioeva and the third prize was shared between Ilya Silchokova, Belorussia and Oliver Kuusik, Estonia. I also sang a recital on the evening between the semi-final and the final with Love Derwinger. At the end of the concert after our usual four encores the audience would not leave so I sang my arrangement of Oh freedom and We shall overcome, a cappella, when I returned to the refrain Oh Freedom at the end of the song I heard the noise of a seat closing as it was on a spring, then another and another, slowly the entire audience stood one by one so when I opened my eyes (as I often sing this with my eyes closed) I saw every one in hall standing up, some with tears in their eyes. It was evident to me that the people in this audience understood the true meaning of Freedom. Later even some of my fellow jurists came back stage in tears. This was an unforgettable and moving evening. I had only one day to do my laundry, repack and to travel to Strasbourg, France to be the president of the jury of the 1er Concours International d’art Lyrique de Strasbourg. As this was their first competition I was happy to arrive with my experience as president of the jury of the Estonian competition. There were singers from all over the world but this time more singers from France as well as the Strasbourg region. I did not get to speak to the singers before the beginning of the competition as I did in Pärnu but I took the opportunity after the first elimination to say what I had said to their colleagues in Estonia about competition and artists. Competing with others is not what artists should do. Young tennis players and many other athletes prepare to compete against others during their entire career but the great athletes are great artists also and compete against themselves. For those who enter competitions these are moments in the life of an artist that can just awful or be a positive learning experience, present the opportunities to further a career make new contacts and even to win some prize money. But afterward there is nothing about competition that should be a part of the artist’s baggage. It was difficult to eliminate singers especially after the semi final for the final. The final was the day after my recital with Love. It was a good concert with an enthusiastic audience. On the day of the finale I went to the maire of Strasbourg to receive the key to the city and in the afternoon received the Prix de la Tolérance Marcel Rudloff 2007 at the Palais des Droits de l’Homme. I was so proud of all the singers for the finale. They all surpassed our expectations. I was as proud as if they had been all my students. There was one soprano from Strasbourg, a Mexican baritone, an English soprano, a South Korean soprano, Soo-Joo Lim who received the audience prize and the second prize, two young Russian sopranos, Evgenia Grekova ,who was one point from the second prize winner and Marina Zyatkova, a very special and individual artist who received the first prize. I went to Sweden to prepare for Midsummer with my family. The weather was rather unstable but we did manage to go out with the boat to visit friends who had moved to an island to which one can only get to by boat. It was wonderful to feel the no-car atmosphere. At the end of the month I went to Tällberg, Sweden to participate in the Tällberg Forum, which began on the 28 June, but I will give more details in the next editorial. Have happy environment-friendly summer BH
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