27
Jun
We have finally reached the Emerald City of LUTE! The Lute Society of America Seminar, to be exact. I am currently writing from a dorm room at Case Western University, in Cleveland, where performers of the concert series are being housed.
Lets see… where had I left off before? Oh yes, we were on our way to the Ann Arbor Downtown Library for a 7pm concert, which went swimmingly. They have a great performance space and community to support it. We also had time to tour the University of Michigan campus and were lucky enough to be there during Ann Arbor’s Restaurant Week. Yum!
Friday night we performed at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Toledo. That was the rowdiest crowd yet! We brought the audience into fits of giggles and down right guffaws. The Sanctuary was breathtaking, huge, and a pleasure to sing in.
On Saturday, before our concert in Port Clinton Ohio, we had time to check out the Lakeside Marblehead Lighthouse, on Lake Eerie. We’ve really lucked out with weather on this tour and it was a great way to relax before another show. That night we performed at Firelands Presbyterian Church, who host a concert series and were very interested in our unique program.
Today, we performed the first concert at the Lute Seminar and I am so happy with our performance and the great turn out. We had a large audience, of people who are either experts on early music or just big fans. There were many familiar faces and everyone was delighted with the addition of all of the theatrics to our set. (We had performed two years prior at this seminar, a different concert without dialogue.) The entire tour was created leading up to this final show and we nailed it!
Well folks, we did it~ 9 concerts in 9 days. I have a strong feeling that at around 5pm tomorrow I’ll grab my costume bag and head to the practice room to warm up, get there and realize, “Ha! I don’t have to perform tonight.” Instead, I can just enjoy the seminar, including a master class by soprano, Ellen Hargis and a concert by lutenist, Robert Barto.
I’ll be flying back to Brooklyn Tuesday morning, back to the routine of the modern city. It was so nice to step out of that for a while. Though, I’m sure I’ll be stepping back into my costume again soon. There are many more performances of this program on the horizon!
Fare thee well,
Erika Lloyd
