There was another not entirely conventional show last night though, on account of being singular, I had to wait until this morning to watch it. It was Tapestry Opera’s Improvisation as Life featuring pianist Robi Botos improvising on the Bösendorfer Imperial while Art Battle champion Moses Salihou painted. It’s a very interesting concept and another example of a company creating a show that translates well to on-line delivery. I’m not well versed in piano improvisation but I found it interesting and enjoyable and was somewhat surprised (I don’t know why really) that Botos made use of extended piano techniques as well as the keyboard. The art work was pretty cool too.



I think my best recent discovery on the web has been Wigmore Hall’s Youtube channel. There’s a wealth of material in various genres but, from my point of view, the real glory are the song recitals. I’ve seen particularly good ones from Gerry Finley and Sarah Connolly and, more recently, really well thought out programmes from Allan Clayton and Stephanie Wake-Edwards and from Ema Nikolovska. Many readers will remember
My contribution to



The death of Canadian soprano Erin Wall at the far too young age of 44 from complications due to metastatic breast cancer was announced a couple of days ago. She was a regular performer in Toronto with both the TSO and the COC, as well as internationally, and a well respected colleague respected for her supportive attitude to younger singers.