November 23, 2015

Atlanta Airport

I am writing this in Atlanta airport waiting to board the flight back home to London, which is scheduled to leave in less than one and a half hours. It is also barely three hours since we came off stage at the end of our last concert of the trip. It is not often that our travel plans are quite as efficient as this, but we are enjoying it on this occasion. It has been a brilliant tour, starting with Mexico City, then via Irvine, California, to Athens, Georgia (not far from where I am now). We have then travelled to and fro in the Eastern US. Our last concert has taken place in one of my favourite venues – Spivey Hall at Clayton State University in Morrow. It is a great place both to perform and listen to music, and is home to a wonderful concert series. The hall was opened 25 years ago, and we were invited to be part of that first season’s playbill. That was early in my time in the KS, and since then I’m pretty sure I’ve performed there around ten times. We have had many other memorable stops on this trip, including last Sunday’s concert in Washington, DC, our visit to Middlebury College in Vermont, our concert in the Chapel of Sewanee's University of the South, and a return to the excellent Baldwin Auditorium at Duke University, amongst many others.We now get a few days to prepare for our run of concerts in December, starting in Kempen in just over a week’s time. It is always great to set aside our standard repertoire, and to dust off our Christmas music for a few weeks each year; for me, trying not to be too sentimental, this will be my last chance to deck the halls and jingle my bells KS style!