Greetings from Lonigo, Italy where I am about to embark on another Handel recording with my long standing partners-in-crime, Alan Curtis, and his baroque band, Il complesso barocco. I’ve just dashed in from Baden Baden after a LOVELY New Year’s Eve concert (realizing my dream to sing some of the great American songs of Gershwin and Porter and Arlen with orchestra!), after having dashed home for a few days to be buried in the biggest midwest blizzard ever to hit on Christmas Day, after having dashed in from London (via Los Angeles) for a very moving birthday concert for Julius Drake at the Wigmore Hall. Why do I feel that it’s already May?

No – it’s not! It’s only January 2, and I’m late in wishing you each a most happy New Year. May your 2010 be filled with magic, and music, and love, and joy, and more bliss than you can possibly imagine.


And aside from this little photo from the thrilling fireworks display outside my hotel on New Year’s Eve, I leave you with one little quote:

“We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential.”

~Ellen Goodman

Happy New Year!