Where to begin with such a gigantic milestone for the East Kingdom. My home. This is the place where it felt safe to sing in public again. What else could I do for the Kingdom I love besides give it back the gift it gave to me?
I decided I would give everything I had to singing this weekend. It was too hot to do anything else. I think the heat this year was as bad as Pennsic 2 years ago where the heat won more bouts than the fighters. I’m glad no one was too seriously injured from heat.
With that being said, although I had transitioned to late period garb, the heat beat me in that battle for the weekend. Saari not Saari. Thats right, I ran around … well, walked around as a proper Indian woman should. It was a new feeling for me as I, in general, don’t show off this much skin. I’m a pretty modest dresser.
I bring this up because it has a lot to do with how I perform. Confidence is key in your performance. If you are not confident, your performance will suffer. Another point being is that when you practice to perform, you should, for all intents and purposes, rehearse in garb and shoes similar to what you will wear in performance. This was not the case for my 3 concerts I did over the weekend.
I was, however, blessed to be surrounded by performers and family of whom I respect immensely as performers.
In the first concert,Bards Ease, I collaborated with my good friends Bird the Bard and Sáerlaith íngean úi Duinnshléibhe (with Guest performances by Mistress Sabine and Mistress Margreatta) We would sing solo, group performances and some off mix of whatever we felt like was a good for the audience. Typically, I’d plan a concert one one genre. However, the 3 of us are so eclectic of performers, I really wanted to showcase that.
The next day we did a showcase of the Sing for the the East CD (which if you purchase this CD to support the East Kingdom Travel Fund, you can hear the track of Ceder San Barefoot and I performing that track. The rest of the concert was the original vocalists performing and the rest of us harmonizing.
The final concert was a sneak preview for the upcoming performance in April, The Decameron. We will be performing a a day of stories and music all from the 14th Century Italian literature. This happy little quartet was again, Myself, Bird, Sáerlaith and Margreatta.
If this wasn’t enough singing, we had our own camp of Bards who withered the night away with song till the wee hours of the morning.
I’d call this a success.
Meddlings of the Minnesinger 