One Thing Leads to Another

This is getting exciting!

Many of the aspects of this project are falling into place.  My next solo CD is starting to look like it will be a reality quite soon...much sooner than anticipated.

I hadn't expected that things would come together quite yet, but...one thing leads to another...

Here's the rough outline of how it got to this point, so far:

Because "Disc Number One" (SANDRA MOGENSEN: Piano Music of Edvard Grieg) received such a warm response, I had thoughts of following that up with another disc of some more Grieg, perhaps mixed with piano music of other Nordic and maybe also Baltic composers...sometime in the future.

I think the "chain of events" leading toward this happening NOW really began on December 13. That was the day I was doing some googling, searching for the lovely website I had seen previously for the Japanese branch of the International Grieg Society.  That site was no longer available, but in my searching I stumbled upon the "Grieg Festival" scheduled for early January 2009 in Winter Park, Florida.  It seemed an impossibility to try to even get to that event which was only three and a half weeks away, but as I said...one thing led to another...and by December 18, I was engaged to give a lecture-recital at the Grieg Festival!  Topic:  Grieg's own piano transcriptions of some of his songs, Opus 41 & 52.

Only three weeks to prepare for that trip, but it all fell into place beautifully.

The Festival was a joy; meeting and learning from so many internationally known Grieg experts! (And SUN! And four days without boots, coats, and mitts!)  More about the Festival later...

I returned home with a renewed motivation to explore more of the beautiful Grieg repertoire. One thing led to another, and a recital program began to form.  Then came the idea and plan to do a recital at St. James' in February.  Then I began to think of this recital program as the framework for a recording, and that perhaps I should aim to raise some money towards this project. Then, a more specific plan emerged regarding an actual fund-raising campaign.

One thing led to another.  I had a conversation with my talented producer, Earl McCluskie, about possibly recording the recital so that I could listen to it and gain some perspective on it. He was not available, but suggested coming the day before for a "dress" run, which turned out to be an even better plan.  One thing led to another, and now it has been decided:  the recording sessions will actually take place at St. James'!  The excellent quality of the piano, the acoustics, and Earl's brilliance means this recording will have a fabulous sound, measuring up to the quality of the first CD we did, which was recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio, CBC, Toronto!

February 21st's recital was well-received, and was an excellent chance for me to put a bit of mileage on the new program.  Such wonderful community support, and a good beginning to the fund-raising!