Let’s Start at the Very Beginning
My week in Italy was part of a year-long vocal improvisation study course I am taking called All The Way In (ATWI 2010). (It is being funded by the MN State Arts Board – Thanks, Art Board!) One of my singing mentors, Rhiannon (yep, just one name like Prince or Madonna *smile*) is teaching this course. I met Rhiannon in 2003 (I think) at a weekend workshop in Madison, Wisconsin and the rest — as they say — is history.
It has been a little over four years since I last worked with Rhiannon in Hawaii. Since then, my life has changed … er … considerably.
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Back to Italy …
I arrived at the Pisa airport exhausted and overheated about 20 hours after leaving my doorstep in Mpls to learn it was 36 degrees … Celcius. In case you are wondering (I certainly was) 36˚C is about 97 degrees. I didn’t know this at the time, I just knew I was hot, which is why I don’t have any pictures of Pisa.
That, and the fact, I was trying not to look like a total tourist and I was afraid to leave the gate for fear I might miss Kees (pronounced Kase) and Mony with whom I was riding in a rental car to Il Poderino. (I did see the Leaning Tower from the window on my flight home but I didn’t get a picture of that either.)
We have to bless Kees for having taken the time to learn who all the singers were before coming to the workshop, because I realized as I was standing (and sweating) at the airport that I had no idea what the folks I was meeting looked like (duh). But, ever prepared, I found a marker and a piece of paper and crafted a home-made sign and stayed close to the gate.
Two hours later, Kees and Mony came through the gate, Kees called my name and we laughed, hugged and greeted each other like old friends.
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We stopped for gas (after a couple of detours) so Kees could fill up and ask directions. Turns out, not one of us actually knew how to get to Il Poderino. We zipped down the highway(?) at unknown speeds, but on the right-hand side of the road. We took a few more detours at the end of the trip through some little town that wasn’t Casale Marittimo (where I would spend the week). In a case of the kind of coincidences and magic that occur when I enter the world of improv, we passed Rhiannon walking out of town toward Il Poderino.
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Over the next three days, the rest of our group of 21 singers – 17 participants and 3 co-pilots, plus Rhiannon — arrived.
- Costanza and Marilena (Italy)
- Eva, Jürg, Alessandro, Noga, Estheranna and Noemi (Switzerland)
- Henk (Belgium)
- Sarah, Rahel, Paula, Barbara and Johanna (Germany)
- Nicoline, along with Kees and Mony (Netherlands)
- Chantal (Canada)
- Cherilynn, Rhiannon and me (US)
