November 26, 2018

London, UK

We're just back today from a small but packed trip, which took in Munich (Germany) and Graz (Austria) over two days. Saturday's concert was at the beautiful Prinzregententheater -- a venue the group has visited regularly for a few years, last time in 2017 with Sabine Meyer. It was a lovely concert, partly because of the fabulous audience and all of us feeling in good form, and partly because it was poignant for being Tim and Chris's last concert in Germany (a country which has played a huge part in the career of the group, and been like a second home to us for many years).Last night we were in another stunning venue, but one which the group hasn't been to very recently, in the Austrian city of Graz. We had yet another wonderfully warm audience (including a group of girls in my sight-line who were mouthing along with lots of the music. I felt like inviting them to come and join in!). I was in charge of driving the minibus to Vienna after the concert, ready for our flight home today. I managed somehow to put the wrong street into the sat nav, so had to face the wrath of 5 tired King's Singers when we realised (at 2am) that rather than being 5 minutes away, we were in fact 35 minutes away from our hotel. Oops.This morning, after a late night (made slightly later by my error...) the hotel began its construction works at 7am, so we were serenaded out of bed by drilling and hammering in the next corridor. I think a few quiet expletives might have been uttered in some of our rooms as the drilling became more insistent.From London Heathrow, we made our way to a meeting of our King's Singers Foundation in central London. We discussed some really exciting plans for the coming couple of years, which will provide a big charitable framework to lots of our activity, and give us chance to start 'giving back' as we enter the next fifty years. You'll be hearing lots more about these plans in due course, but it was an exciting end to a busy weekend.Tomorrow's concert: King's College, Cambridge. Or, as I sometimes think of it, home from home.