so this weekend i went to hunstville, alabama to see the world renowned opera diva Frederica von Stade and her amazing accompanist, world renowned collaborative artist Martin Katz. IT. WAS. AMAZING!!! it started off a little something like this...

derek, megan, becky, and i headed outta town around 430 friday afternoon to see mrs. von stade's concert at 730 that evening.  well, after driving around lost in huntsville and like a lunatic (yes, i definately tried to go up a down ramp) we made it to the church by 745, which the concert started 10 minutes late so we didn't miss much.  at intermission we scurried up to the 3rd pew (AMAZING SEATS!) and were right in the action. fricka was amazing! (btw, her friends call her fricka) the concert was amazing of course and afterwards we all got to meet her and marty!

yay for me and fricka!

me and marty...he's my height!!!

well, the next day fricka was having a masterclass which we thought started at 11. so we show up at the church at 11 and NOBODY is there. luckily this man lets us in and informs us that the masterclass doesn't start until 1! well, so we stand around and talk to this man whom we learn to be wilson luquire, president of the huntsville chamber music guild (hcmg) - the organization that brought fricka and marty in.  as we're leaving for lunch, wilson tells us to find him after the masterclass b/c he wants to get our emails to let us know about next years season. so we go to lunch, come back for the masterclass (which wilson instructs us to sit on the front row) the masterclass was just as amazing as the recital and we got to speak with both marty and fricka again before they had to take off for sewanee. so we go to talk to wilson and he asks us to go to dinner with him! so of course we accept! he introduces us to a few people before we leave for dinner (one being a friend of dr. isley's who happened to hook her up with her husband! - ginger beazley).  so we go to dinner with wilson, his "friend" ron, a girl who sang in the masterclass and also teaches voice, and her husband. we have a marvelous time chatting with them and hearing all their fabulous stories about kathleen battle, jesse norman, yo yo ma, marylin horne, and the list goes on and on and on! ron knows a lot of people at the metropolitan opera (as well as NYC opera) and can get backstage to see the performers. he's a personal friend of deborah voigt (who just so happens to be one of my FAVORITE sopranos!) and went to college with john kramar who used to teach here and was one of my gov school teachers and is staging our opera this semester. 

well, while we were at dinner, the roads became covered with ice and they closed down the parkway so we couldn't drive home. so wilson bought us another night in a hotel! we had heard about the symphony playing that night, doing hadyn's creation with a 250 person chorus and so we decided, well, since we're staying, we might as well take advantage of the opportunity! but none of us had any cash to park downtown, so wilson (he's also on the board at the huntsivlle symphony) took us and paid for everything! it was glorious! i had never heard hadyn's creation! we also noticed that the bassoon teacher from MTSU was playing in the symphony so afterwards wilson took us backstage to see her. well, along with seeing her, we met all 3 of the soloists (who all have sung at the met and around the country and some even in europe!) and the conductor.  afterwards, wilson took us out to eat once again (this time just us tho) and then back to our hotel.

the trip was absolutely amazing! wilson told us he would get us tickets for free from now on to hcmg things, and this next concert with joshua bell, grammy award winning violinist, he's going to let us go to the private reception for him, which is sold out.  we made some amazing contacts that we are going to keep in touch with and met some famous people! what more could you ask for!!! that was my weekend from heaven!!!