New Voice to me

Just had to write about Sarah Bettens this morning.
Had no idea who she was until this morning.
She is Belgian too. She lives in Tennessee. She is a singer.
She has an amazing voice.
She was featured in Flanders Today online magazine
http://www.flanderstoday.eu/jahia/Jahia/pid/2105
I followed the link to her site to find out what she sounded like and was so delighted by what I heard I had to embed a link to her concert in my blog.
She will be at the Festival of the Golden Spurs this week-end in Belgium.
I understand how she would have a great following.
Just had to share my WOW for the day!

Music speaks to the soul, in any language: Queen Elizabeth Competition

When I was about 10 years old I developed a liking for the Queen Elizabeth Competition. It was hard to follow as I was young and the competition happened at night.

I had a little radio and had been able to locate the channel where the competition was being broadcasted every night so when I went to bed, it was not to sleep right away or at least not as fast as my father was hoping I would.

It is true that it is how I discovered there was classical music I didn't like as well. Some eventually grew on me but some remains much of the contemporary classical movement remains 'too much' for me. That is where I fell in love, Tchaikovsky's famous Piano Concerto#1.

This also helped strike a friendship later in life with someone who would give me a recording of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony made during the Queen Elisabeth Competition competition.

"In 1937 a dream, long-cherished by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium and Eugène Ysaye, came true: the Concours Eugène Ysaye was born. The war brought this enterprising and generous venture to a stop that many thought definitive. However, the Queen’s determination was such that the competition was eventually resumed in 1951 under its present name. It soon became a highly popular event in Belgium’s musical life and progressively acquired an enviable international status.

...In 1988, the directors of the Q.E.C. launched the Song Award. This was done on an experimental basis, but the general response was such that it is now a permanent component of the Q.E.C.

An important characteristic of the Q.E.C. is its emphasis on Belgian contemporary music which was materialized in the test pieces for the semi-finals and the finals. In fact, from 1938 to 1983, the unpublished concerto played by all twelve finalists was by a Belgian composer. The first of these was composed by Jean Absil for the 1938 Concours Eugène Ysaye"

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2002/Mar02/Queen_Elisabeth.htm.htm

The internet has brought the competition online and what a special treat to find it just in time for the Piano last year! I was able to download the mp3s on ITune but my pc crashed and all that remains is what I have uploaded here. The Belgian Liebrecht Van Beckevoort took 6th place. The winner Anna Vinnitskaya, was brilliant. I watched the audience stand up, applauding for an encore, which is not be allowed by competition rules, because they were so taken with her performance. And it was absolutely wonderful! I think she won that day, but maybe not...

I'll admit that I skipped the Voice this year and although I look forward to next year's Violin, the Piano is my favorite, and that will have to wait until 2010. They have announced the rules for the 2009 Violin Competition.

http://www.concours-reine-elisabeth.be/

To watch this year's performances - until September 15, 2008, go to http://video.cmireb.be/vod/

Ramblings...

As I scrambled to finish putting Belgian Laces together this time, I have found myself wandering lots of wonderful places that I can add to this blog but that I would also like to add to a specifically TBR blog... That would be nice but I think I am really scattering myself way too much already.

I am torn between talking about the year my parents were married: 1958 and the terrible weather Liege and all of Belgium is having to deal with this year...

I saw some terrible reports on the news that make me worry about my friends and I hope they're ok.

I was translating an article about floodings that occurred in the Middle Ages and at one point there was such terrible destruction that they didn't even rebuild. They left...

No tsunamis in Belgium but the way the rain has come down lately, the flash floods that come of the storms have created waves of mud streaming down the streets, getting into everything... It's awful to see... In one month Liege has had 3 episodes...

And it's been all over Belgium, there has not been any real safe place to speak of.

Right now the big concern is the water supply that is no longer safe to drink because of the storms, and then this morning I read that water is once again ok to drink in Wallonia, so I am beginning to relax a little.

Goes to show that what Mother Nature wants, Mother Nature gets... nothing stands in her way...

The only difference has been that through coordinated effort they have been able to minimize the problems although in one situation their safe plans failed because the water cut the rescuers off from everything...

The US have not been spared either and the economy is bound to feel it in times that are already hard enough on everyone.