One chance.... one moment to enter!

So, while many courageous souls assert there human dignity and thirst for change around the planet, there is also a horizon for a more personal kind of exploration - a sojourn en France...!
Miryam and I will accompany Monique, Dominique, and Amber to the land of the Huchets...next month!
Besides much walking in Paris, there will be a special visit to the fountainhead of the medieval Labyrinth tradition at Chartres Cathedral, a "homecoming" tour of the Loire valley from west to east, and then South to Bourgogne, where a pilgrim of monastic infirmary music will connect with the beauty of Cluny and Taize....

I will be bringing a good-sized lyre (the reverie harp) with me as well, as that is the only harp-like instrument small enough for the overhead carry-on compartment of the plane. I fully intend to play wherever possible, and for whomever may benefit- be they infants... or bedridden elders....
It is a dream coming in to being, on this our 25th wedding anniversary year...!

We invite and look forward to a Bonne Voyage!
Grosses Bises!

Cooling Down to Autumn

What a summer!
Never as brief as what I imagine an Arctic bloom to be- some day I would like to get to see that! But summer for many of us Canadians is lamentably short. This one was sweet nonetheless. I am thankful for a generous helping of time in nature, with family, friends... but also many wonderful musical moments that included a pre-natal invitation to a new member of the family, several bedside vigils for elders on their end-of-life journey, memorials, funerals, and even a wedding thrown in there for good measure!
Now it's time for projects that bring me back to building inner resources, and to making good on a long-held dream of "laying down some tracks": a CD of Harp, Voice and other offerings that have lain dormant for too long. There seems to be a critical mass of motivation arising, and perhaps more importantly, a recognition that the time has come, and the right alignment of supportive souls and resources are present!
On to the studio!

Ensemble Laude Lauds

Thanks to Elizabeth and all the ensemble who put their hearts and souls into the tones that washed the walls in this last Sunday afternoon's Viriditas concert in Victoria.
The "surround sound" from behind our seats in the balcony sent shivers up and down my spine, and I felt nourished by the solo and multiple voice renderings that reverberated the very flesh and bones of St. Andrews' Presbyterian Church that day.

If you love Early Music delivered with passion and joy, then don't miss this groups' next offering- a matinee performance on Mother's Day (May 9th), at Providence Farm in Cowichan Bay. check them out:http://www.ensemblelaude.org/concerts.html

Heya!

The Love that Moves the Universe!

Thanks to Paul N. who gifted Miryam and I with tickets to a Good Friday Vancouver Chamber Choir concert with members of the Vancouver Symphony orchestra, in the glorious Orpheum Theatre! We were irrigated with waves of tonal substance in our upper balcony seats, taken on a marvelous journey with a Schubert mass, Mozarts' Vesperae solennes de Confessore, and the world premiere of Canadian Composer, R. Murray Schafer's "The Love that Moves the Universe". This latter performance roused a standing ovation, with the composer himself emerging from the wings...

Based on several cantos of Dante's "Commedia" (Paradiso), Choir Director John Washburn arranged the choir and orchestra in two semi-circles of singers and instrumentalists respectively, around the stage. This technically-demanding piece, full of call and response, echo, and wide-ranging dynamic interplay between voices and instruments created a moving soundscape that was both familiar and novel for this composer.

The text itself (from over 7 centuries past) can still pull at the very soul of the listener in ways that renew and restore right relationship to our very place in the world and beyond...

From canto 33:

"O luce eterna che sola in te sidi
sola t'intendi, e de te intelletta
e intendente, te ami et arridi...

O light eternal, dwelling within yourself alone,
understood and understanding,
smiling at your own intents! "


Bella, Happy Spring!

Online Symposium for Palliative Care

For anyone interested in webstreaming current issues and practices for Palliative Care, you might want to check out The 2nd Annual International Telehealth Palliative Care Symposium. I will be signing in for several sessions over the 3 days of April 27~29.
From "Traditional Healing among the Inupiaq" to "Are you at Peace", there is much to gnaw on here for my work, and anyone living with dying...

Bon appetit!

Philipp