January 23, 2018

Athens, GA

Today’s been a good day. Last night was slightly crazy, in that we had: a matinee concert at St Ignatius Church, New York City, followed by a meet-and-greet with some special guests, then a taxi ride to the airport, then a (delayed flight) to Atlanta GA, then a taxi to our hotel in Georgia.This morning, we picked up rental cars and drove a couple of hours along the interstate to Athens, GA, where we’re based today and tomorrow. Jules, Chris G and I stopped off en route for a nice artisanal coffee, which is a little tradition we enjoy whenever we ride together.When we got to Athens this afternoon, we had the genuine joy of working with the Hodgson Singers, a fantastic choir here from University of Georgia. We rehearsed and worked with them for 2 hours, and they responded so well. It’ll be a delight to be on the concert platform with them tomorrow evening, when we give our joint concert.After this afternoon’s rehearsal we went for dinner and had a long meeting, discussing some significant group business - over some DELICIOUS tapas it should be added - and now we’re all getting a lovely (hopefully well-deserved) early night.As a group, we can be quite hard on ourselves - that’s part of how we stay at the top of our game - so it’s always good to remind ourselves that, despite the joy of galavanting around the world singing to packed halls, we do actually work really very hard, and at the moments when we can rest up and relax, we’ve usually earned it!