Lady Cove Hits It Out Of The Park

Hi everyone,

It´s about an hour after our performance in the all-crucial semi-finals and the Ladies gave THE best performance at the most critical time. The Hungarian audience gave us the loudest possible ovation. In Hungary, instead of a standing ovation, they clap thundersously in unison and for a VERY long time when they love what they see and hear. That´s the ovation we received. It felt a little weird for me to bow with them having played five notes, but I´m proud of the way I played those notes. I gave those pitches with feeling.
But seriously, what I´m most proud of is to be here with this extraordinary group especially as they have peaked musically higher than ever. They´re giving better than their best.

I´ve been asked a lot about my role as the accompanist for Lady Cove in a year when (because of CBC rules and the regulations here in Debrecin) there is no accompanied repertoire permitted. In fact, my role is as intense as ever because I have to be on my game in other very specific ways... giving pitches at a moment´s notice immediately and on the correct beat in the correct measure when time is not on our side. The Ladies have also been very graciously accepting my (hopefully) constructive musical comments in rehearsals.

So here we are with a few hours on our hands until the results of the Women´s choirs category are announced this evening (6:50 here, 2:20 PM today in Newfoundland).

Am I rambling a bit? It´s because I have tons to say in very little time and I haven´t had a chance to express my thoughts until right now. Suffice to say that Lady Cove is serving Newfoundland and Labrador very beautifully over here as the finest representatives of the qualities that make Newfoundlanders so proud. It´s truly amazing to be here with them all and to feel as though I´m also contributing a little. I must also say that this morning´s performance was given on only a few hours of sleep at best as the weather here is very warm, the rooms small and without air circulation and the corridors quite noisy. I´m rolling along today on a combined 5 hours of sleep over two nights, but that`s okay under these exciting circumstances. Just another excuse to enjoy the local cappucino... over and over.

Kellie´s husband Rob arrived in the nick of time to watch our performance and will be with us through the rest of our journey. My far, far better half... heck... she´s at least my better two-thirds... will be in Budapest to greet me and the choir when we arrive there post-competition on August 4th and then enjoy a week of relaxed, casual travel.

Next up for Lady Cove (assuming the results are in our favour this evening...) is the final round tomorrow. So.. another VERY early rise and a race to the shared showers and toilets. It´s not as bad as it seems, really. It just means a daily wake-up at about 5:30 to race everyone else to the showers. Those choirs sharing the building with us are up very early. Before 6:00 this morning, the Japanese choir was jogging around the basketball court below my window while a Swedish singer was doing Tai-Chi for close to an hour. I don´t have much choice but to get up when I do because we have to leave the windows open for some air and we´re alongside a busy street which is humming with traffic as early as 5:00. I´m getting used to it, though. I think it´s amazing that we´re just 25 km from the Romanian border. In the centre courtyard of the concert hall where the competition is taking place, there´s a gigantic statue of Josef Sztalin (as spelled on its base) as a not-too-subtle reminder of how near to them that era of history remains.

Well, time to sign off. Sorry if this was too wordy, but my very tired head is spinning. It has been such a wonderful journey so far and we´re just getting started. Believe me, we´re all wearing our pride for Newfoundland and Labrador on our sleeves. I´ll try and check in with another post in a few days. Thank you, everyone, for being so supportive.

David.
(please forgive any typos you spot. The keyboards here are very different...)