November 7, 2017

Schenectady, NY

I'm writing this from our hotel here in Schenectady, upstate New York. We've just arrived, off the back of 9 hours on the road (including some stops!), having driven down from Orono, Maine this morning. Jules, Chris G and I shared one car, whilst the others went in the other [massive, 5.6 litre] car.Last night we had a really enjoyable concert in Orono - a place the group hasn't visited before. The crowd were fantastic - there was a real buzz in the room - and it was our second run at that particular GOLD programme. After the concert I managed to catch up with an old friend of mine from university, who happens to be out here in the States for a few months; it's always great to see familiar faces whilst on the road.Today's journey was made much more bearable by our jukebox. We had Spotify linked up to the car sound system, and with a little help from our Facebook friends we managed to find a huge variety of music to listen to on the way: some old favourites and some new bands we'd not come across (NB. check out The Staves. V good!).This evening I'll be having a bath, starting to work on some lovely Christmas music, and generally resting la voce before we do 5 concerts in a row (starting tomorrow). Joy. Oh, and one last thing: GOLD came out the other day. We're really enjoying seeing people share it, give us their feedback, and tracking it hopping around the Classical charts like it's on hot coals. If you haven't had a listen yet, do go and find it on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, or maybe even old-fashioned CD! We're so proud of it.