The last two weeks I’ve been busy preparing my new website, and the release of my new single ‘Springtime’ ahead of me being interviewed on ‘Weekend Wogan’ on 3rd February to commemorate Eva Cassidy’s 50th Anniversary!

I’ve been working with some amazing friends to get everything ready in time.. thank you each and every one of you!  Special thanks to Robert Horsfall and Paul Knowles for creating the opportunity to appear on Radio 2 and for enabling the build of my new website. At very short notice I had the pleasure of recording at the beautiful Victoria Rooms in Bristol to finish a song inspired by an Eva Cassidy poem. It was a real experience! We had the privilege of using a Steinway grand piano recorded in the main concert hall and Dave Hamill and Jonathan Scott spent such care in making a high quality recording for us to give to Terry Wogan. Catherine Harper, my lovely friend and cellist travelled from Malvern to Bristol to play on the song, and she brought along her new baby boy Charlie too, who amazingly didn’t make a sound!

I was completely inspired by the Victoria rooms as a studio.. and couldn’t believe it when I read that a famous opera singer from the 1800’s called Jenny Lind (otherwise known as the ‘Swedish Nightingale’)..who I have been fascinated with for the last few years had once performed there!  She was the ‘Madonna’ of the19th Century. My interest in this singer led me to recently discover that she lived opposite the Malvern Hills, next door to the hotel at British Camp. I also teach a dear friend singing who lives by ‘Jenny Lind avenue’ in Malvern, near to where she is buried with a beautiful angel statue. She was popular in America, and sang for Tennyson and Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight. I found a rare book about Jenny Lind in Stratford..the introduction describes her like this.. “The name of Jenny Lind was a household word in the days of Queen Victoria; she came to power at much the same age, and about the same date as the Queen, not by right of birth, but by right of genius and hard work”. She did a lot for charity and was forever wooed by Hans Christian Anderson! Charles Dickens did a performance in the Victoria Rooms too.. its well worth a visit.. but beware of the old lady ghost that appears at night asking when will the concert begin!

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