The Tour Begins! with 7 Notes on Life (h/t: Amy Krouse Rosenthal)

6/17/19 – The Tour Begins!  (image: page 1 of Mozart's original REQUIEM score)

I’ve given myself this once-in-a-lifetime trip, the chance to sing Mozart in Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague, as a gift to honor my love for and dedication to a life in music. This love inspired me to return to school in 2016 and earn my master’s degree from DU. This love pushed me to return to the Spirituals Project and sing powerful and healing music with that beautiful, multi-racial multigenerational community. And it’s the reason I’ve hitched my wagon to the musical vision of the superb conductor Dr. Catherine Sailer (whom I had the joy of working with while at DU) joining some of my fellow DU alum to sing CARMINA BURANA with Colorado Ballet earlier this spring.  

Dr. Sailer is leading a group of us, under the “Evans Choir” moniker, to meet up with several other choirs from CO and WI to perform a gala production of the Mozart REQUIEM in Vienna. We’ll also perform smaller concerts in Salzburg and Prague, sharing some shorter choral works in English, Latin and Czech.  

For the past year, as I couch-surfed and stayed with friends, saving $$ and preparing for this trip, I’ve also been living the question, “where do I belong?” at this phase of my life and as a newly single person. Music and writing—plus my incredible friends and my beloved family—are now my anchors. My “home” has become wherever they are. When away from them, home is wherever I park the carryon suitcase that holds all my belongings at present.  

I embrace this lighter load, which in turn is lifting and healing my grieving heart. Life is an adventure, with borders to be crossed and erased, new places and new faces to meet and experience fully. I am determined to give that all that I have, and be open to  

Since this summer – with the choral tour and my subsequent solo gig in Edinburgh, Scotland in early July, plus jazz jams and festivals in Prague, Scotland, London & more — is largely about music, I thought it most appropriate to begin by quoting the wonderful writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal, from her inspiring 2010 TED talk, “7 Notes on Life.” Her message helps us embrace both the wonder and the uncertainty of life, viewed through the musical scale. Watch the entire talk here; I’ll share some highlights. 

A – Always trust magic. (Magic: where purpose and random happenstance seem to intersect; serendipity.) 

B – Beckon the lovely. (Whatever you look for, you will find...) 

C – Connected. (As we all are, truly.) 

D – DO. (We all know, on any given hour, what we really should be doing. Do it!) 

E – Empty space. (In music, the absence of notes—the space between the notes—is integralto the song. And so it is with us, our lives. Don’t fear this.) 

F – Figure it out as you go. (If the edges of an idea are solid…and you are operating from truth and intention, the various pieces will slowly emerge.) 

G — Go to it. (In the words of theologian Howard Thurman: “Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go to it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”) 

Through it all, AKR calls us to be brave, to let go, to embrace what we are & have, So, I will hold all of this in my heart, as this journey unfolds. My plan: to sing, to travel, to reach out, to live this gift of a life with all I have. Hoping you can join me on this journey!

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