Today was quite a day! It began with a father and son trip to Trafalgar Square where I was able to take Tommy around the National Gallery and show him my favorite works of art in one of my favorite museums. It was also a morning for me to sit back and watch Tommy in a museum setting and realize that he thinks deeply about art, and really cares to understand. It was wonderful to just walk slightly behind him and observe as he spent a LOT of time at certain works. He would observe intently, read the curator’s notes, and then continue to look even more carefully. Occasionally he would ask me questions, but mostly he wanted me to be quiet so he could look and think. As the museum got busier I could see people racing from artwork to artwork as if with a check-list, and all the while my ten-year-old was moving like a snail taking it all in. Unfortunately our time was up all too soon. We visited the gift shop to purchase the postcards of his favorite works and we headed out to meet Sarah in the square. I was a very proud dad!
It was now time to take the Tube almost all the way to Wimbledon to have lunch with Howard Goodall and his wife Val. This was so exciting as Howard is a musical icon in England, and in America he may not have the same name recognition until you say he composed the music for Mr. Bean, Blackadder, The Vicar of Dibley, Red Dwarf, QI, and every other BBC show or British Movie you know! And he invited Sarah, me, and “Young Thomas” to lunch at pub next to his studio where the newest Mr. Bean music is being composed!
The lunch was not at all what I expected. Maestro Goodall has always been unusually kind to me and very supportive when Tommy auditioned for the boy soprano part in the joint university festival I conducted, but he was kind from afar. Our in-person was nothing like I expected. We met at a famous church which he chose because of the sociology-political ties to Plymouth, MA and the Mayflower Compact and development of American Democracy. We also met up with his wife there. We then walked to a pub to share a beautiful lunch on the riverfront. Had a couple non-alcoholic beers (since we were working and he had to return to the studio), and talked to us as if we were friends and not the giant fans and musical hero that we actually are.
I mentioned that Maestro Goodall had been supportive of Thomas as soprano and in fact he sent him an email of encouragement on the day of his debut. And at lunch he presented Tommy with a signed copy of his most popular music history textbook!
Maestro Goodall then walked us back toward the tube station and we went home and he went back to finish the episode of Mr. Bean.
Perhaps the best way to sum it up is that Sarah and I spent the rest of the day wondering why Howard and his wife would be so kind and so supportive of near strangers from the U.S. I guess that when he signed my concert program a year ago and said I was his new friend, he meant it.
We are doing a festival of Maestro Goodall in Germany in a couple months and Howard and his wife hope to attend. So, if you are a choir conductor check out his music. And if you teach music history or general music, check out his music history videos on the BBC!
After lunch we went back to Piccadilly Circus to decompress, give thanks for our amazing life, and try to go to sleep in our weird pod room!
Tomorrow is London to Paris to Kaiserslautern, Germany and our first major academic presentation!
(more pics will follow but they are unavailable at this time…)
