One day I'm going on holiday to Argentina to learn argentinian tango in situ. I'm about to post on our theology blog about a post which included this picture, and it's such a beautiful picture I thought I'd put it here too. For no oth

Had an exceptionally nice evening out last night, and have just been naming the new Flatbread Cafe as definitely a contender amongst my favourite restaurants in Newcastle. Right next door to my number 2 favourite, Pani's , it's a new persian

Had a couple of days off in London this week. Went to St Paul's and marvelled at the space, was miffed it was Monday and no evensong, amused that they forget to dust the top of the pulpit, and couldn't help feeling it was more like a place of

Have just realised Paul uploaded his photos from the miniature book exhibition in Boston Library. iPhone 1, kate's digital camera 0. Mine are all out of focus, which is very annoying, but only by lying the camera on the glass can you take pi

My lovely blackboard friend Arthur in setting off shortly on a trek of which I am exceedingly envious. having spent part of my year abroad in Jaca, on the Camino de Santiago in a holy year, I've always wanted to go back and do the pilgrimage, pre

Sage Chamber Choir sang the Ascension service at Brinkburn Priory on Thursday. A very beautiful place indeed. A little further north than we thought, a whole page of the mapbook nearer Scotland than was expected, but traffic was good to us, so we arr

Oops, meant to find time for this straight away, since it's only there till Weds, but anyone needing a good bit of Englishness, here's the BBC Phil and Durham Cathedral Choir doing evensong for the University's 175th anniversary. The reco

The voices of angels... well maybe not, but not bad, all the same. I'm so NOT listening for THAT bar! Abenlied (Rheinberger) and Beati Quorum Via (Stanford), as massacred by the Sage Gateshead Chamber Choir.

Had a bit of a hectic week last week. Never seemed to stop, but got to enjoy a quick trip to London. I'd bought mum and dad tickets for Sound of Music at the Palladium for Christmas (part of my attempt at ethical/non-carbon-footprinting/non-buying-cr

Um, it seems to have been a while. Sorry about that, have been at my parents while my mum got back on her feet after a hip replacement. Lots of things to blog about (mostly rants, actually), but never quite had time, so one day soon there might be a

Teehee. I know you're not supposed to take photos, but someone did, and though it's a shame it's a cameraphone so probably not clear enough to use on publicity materials, it's great to have these pics. Obviously as I'm in shot I have a completely cle

Well, ok, not much of a holiday. Or at least, not gone anywhere. But am having fun attending (apart from today, when I'm working, boo) the Saga Conference hosted by the CMRS in Durham. Had even greater fun on Sunday, singing Compline in the Norman Ch

'bout time I showed you all the monastery I've been hiding in. Rolduc Abbey, at Kerkrade in the Netherlands, in the bit that you didn't realise stuck off the bottom right corner pretending to be Germany. Actually some of it is in Germany. You can be

Humph. Gnash. Wail. Swear. End of. I did neither the football nor the singing justice yesterday, getting texts of the penalties into my phone in the middle of the concert. Lovely church to sing in, St Ann's on the Quayside. Had a rather bizarre expe

Saturday 28th sees a second performance by Durham Choral Society of Will Todd's work commissioned for us and premiered last May.

Terrible things happen in "El Crimen del Padre Amaro," but the movie ultimately has no tragic dimension. So says the New York Times review of El Crimen de Padre Amaro. I'm not sure that's fair comment on a film where the young catholic prie

Mozart's Requiem Mass as a eucharist for All Souls Day in the Cathedral. With the cathedral choir, the consort of voices and the Northern Sinfonia. Fabulous. Hardly anything more to say, really. Not sure that it wasn't, not spoilt, but almost had-th

or, a lesson in cathedrals! When I was a little girl (or it seems so long ago now), ok, as an undergraduate I studied the art of medieval France with the unforgettable Brian J Levy (how sad, his obituary seems to have disappeared from the web, but th

From the sublime (Michael Owen's first home goal in a toon shirt) to the ridiculous. Yesterday I went to the Theatre Royal in Newcastle to see Maureen Lipman in 'Glorious', a play about Florence Foster Jenkins, a 1940's soprano who managed to sell o

Well, the Proms is over for another season. I started off listening to quite a few of them. but ended up actually catching less of them than I meant to. But the last night was pretty good. I made the effort since it included Constant Lambert's Rio Gr

Ho hum. Back to choir tonight. Which would be great, cos I miss singing in the summer, but you know what, I already dislike the Walton. I know I shouldn't be prejudiced before I get to know it, but the fact that in three little bits tonight there wer

Very enjoyable evening, spent at Brancepeth Castle watching Heartbreak Productions offer a version of Much Ado about Nothing meets the end of WWII. Tenuous re-situation of Shakespeare, though it gave potential for good dollops of wartime music, and a

Mozart RequiemElgar cello concertoMozart clarinet concertoBruch or Mendelsson violin concertoRach 2Concierto de AranjuezTchaikovsky 1812Carl Orff Carmina BuranaVivaldi conc for four violinsMozart symphony 32 or 36

With no disrespect to Edward Elgar, whose writing for cello in the Enigma Variations and Cello Concerto I adore, and whose Pomp & Circumstance would be coming to my desert island, not even the Hallé with the Hallé Choir & Youth Choir and th