Russia, Perm preamble #1
Yes, now we are up to preAMBLE not preRamble!

All filled up with Vodka??? Nope, please allow me ten more minutes to fill my itty bitty decanter...

One handed snack typing...this thing is going very slowly.


OK.

This whole thing started about two years ago, well, more than two years ago. Eric Amada, my manager invited Beau and I over to NYC to attend APAP. the international convention that convenes the meeting of the agents, managers producers and performers with presenters and, basically, people who can give the aforementioned, jobs. We were no different than any of the other amazing acts vying for stage board space. Shoot. Even Huun Huur Tu were there (if you have never heard, it's a life changing experience). So there we are with our friends Time for Three. We have a showcase across the street from the convention center in the bar of a hotel. A bar... this sets my wheels in motion. Beau and I had performed in a bar (The Social, Orlando, FL) a few years prior to that . The reception was so astoundingly warm, we didn't have a clew what to think...Classical Music in a bar? Whatevuh. But it got me thinking and so there we were. That night, two and some years ago. Beau in his JCrew suit and me in my skeleton hoodie and ripped jeans... with a nice tie, of course. No blue hair. But I was taking the bar thing seriously...for good reason.

Well, I take it back. The first of two sets was me in a velvet tux I've been touring with, But the second set was the kicker.

So we played about 20 minutes of music and the response from both sets was phenomenal. Except the second set with the skeleton was the turning point. Some of our audience, before the set, had seen me in the American Tenors PBS show and were raving about that...which is nice. I'm proud of what we did, but those of you who don;t know me...I'm not the clean shaven youth they see on PBS. I am an artist with intense thoughts and passion and eccentric and crazy and funny flowing in my veins. The way I really sing Shenandoah is SOOO not the way the American Tenors portray it. But when one spends a million plus on a show...I am there to please and I do a good job.

So after the showcase number two, the PBS fans were aghast. I mean, the audacity to wear this strange getup as opposed to a tuxedo. I mean, really. I was sorry to have lost their business. I didn't change my technique an iota. I sang as I was taught to sing, how I always sing, to the best of my ability. Some didn't appreciate it. But others were very congratulatory. John Schimmelman, a world renowned producer, was blown away. He was so obviously stunned. Producer Rodney Whittenberg and his gorgeous guest were also totally on our side as were many others in this small, packed, crowded bar. Including George Isaakian, Director of the Perm State Opera and Ballet and director and producer of the Diaghilev Seasons Festival: Perm, St. Petersburg, Paris, a festival celebrating the existence and world changing qualities one man, this man, can have. We didn't know this at the time. All we knew was 'George' was intersted in bringing us to Russia. Heck, we didn't even know where...little did that change in much of the time we had between then and now...
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