Hear me singing

As you might remember, I am singing in a Latvian choir here in the Netherlands. Although we have been rehearsing for less than two months, our first performance is going to be already this weekend when the Latvian community in the Netherlands is celebrating the Independence Day of Latvia (my country is getting 93 years old!).

Last weekend we had our rehearsal, where we also recorded the Latvian anthem as LNT (one of Latvian televisions) is collecting videos from Latvians abroad singing the hymn.

While it might not be the best singing ever, please, appreciate our efforts taking into consideration how young is the choir "Ziemeļjūra" (it means Nordic/North Sea)!

Latvian Choir

Yesterday I attended my first Latvian Choir rehearsal in the Netherlands!

Seems that there are two choirs - one in Tilburg and one in The Hague, so twice a month I will be taking train to The Hague and singing together real Latvian songs with real Latvians :)

In the first rehearsal we were practising four songs - "Pūt, vējiņi", "Saule, Pērkons, Daugava", "Bēdu manu lielu bēdu" and, of course, the hymn "Dievs, svētī Latviju."

I have never sang those songs in alto, always only in soprano, but now I am an alto, so it was a bit hard to get used to a different melody to follow. Will do my best!

Will keep you updated how it goes!

Very cultural life

There are so many things going on in Amsterdam and our busy lives, that it is impossible to mention and blog about all of them. Pity, because it would be worth to!

But let me just mention the main cultural things I have been doing from last Sunday till this Sunday, so you would get an idea what I am speaking about.

(last) Sunday: free open-air cinema in "Pluk de Nacht" festival

Tuesday: hosting concert in our living room

Thursday: a small film night at home

Friday: an insight into "Leidseplein live" festival and the opening concert of Grachtenfestival (absolutely amazing)

Saturday: stand-up comedy in Comedy Theater with four comedians from the UK, the Netherlands and Australia

Sunday: attraction park and water park "Duinrell"

Besides that - hosting two American CouchSurfers for three nights and two Brazilian CSers for other three nights!

Concert in our living room

One day on CouchSurfing a saw a post - an American guy was writing that he is offering to play free concerts in random living rooms. Who is interested to do that in Amsterdam?

Me, me, me!

So I e-mailed him and we established a date for something unusual - a concert in our own living room! Never had any and never attended any, so it was something interesting to try both for me and Michael.

The concert happened last Tuesday, and it was simply amazing. Wes Swing and Sophie, travelling musicians from the USA, were singing, playing a cello and a guitar as well as selling their CDs. As stated above, the concert was for free, but they were accepting donations.

The concert had also a surprise - a couple of songs, played by another American musician who is living in the Netherlands and whose friend got in touch with Wes asking if it's possible for the other girl to play. Sure, it is! We also bought her CD :)

In the beginning I was scared if our living room is too small, if we will have enough people, if people will like the music and buy CDs etc. But in the end it turned out great! Invited friends also took a couple of friends with them, so we ended ~20-30 people, which was perfect amount. As everybody was bringing some food and drinks, we did not have shortcut of those and we still need to drink the last bottles left after the party!

So if you ever have an opportunity to host such an event in your living room - do not hesitate to do it!

Latest tracks by Wes Swing

My name in the newspaper

Last week I got an a short message in draugiem.lv (Latvian equivalent for Facebook) from a journalist from Latvian newspaper "Sestdiena" - he was doing an article about Eurovision and wanted to know my opinion about Eurovision & Latvian entry as he was interviewing several Latvians living abroad.

For those who can read Latvian - see the article below!

Three catchy Eurovision songs

I know that it is not "cool" to watch and follow Eurovision Song Contest, but this year I felt like doing it and watched both semi-finals (well, most of the 2nd semi-final as I missed the first songs).

Three songs I found especially good - catchy, both enough original and enough Eurovision-style, so I hope that one of them will be the winner of this year's contest! Good luck to Denmark, Azerbaijan and Estonia!

About Kalmane

Some days ago I got a message from an Indian guy on CouchSurfing who asked me if I know that my surname is a very typical surname in India.

Sure, I know that, have heard it before from Indians, who are always very surprised about it and once I even got an e-mail in Hindi...

But what I didn't know is the fact there is even a popular coffee chain! He also e-mail me a picture of it (found on Google):

Now I am curious, where else can I find Kalmane (apart from Hungary, where every town has Kalman street, thanks to Hungarian composer Imre Kálmán)?

Kāpēc? Bet kāpēc ne?

Šodien mana kora mēģinājuma beigās man bija "balss tests", lai dzirdētu, kā es dziedu dziesmas viena pati (tās paredzētas dziedāt šīs svētdienas baznīcas dievkalpojumā).

Pēc "testa", domājot un runājot par to, vai esmu gatava dziedāt gaidāmajā dievkalpojumā vai nē, es izteicu liktenīgo frāzi: "Man ir vienalga, dziedāt šondēļ vai nē - tas man nav galvenais."

Kā diriģente teica, tāda attieksme nav pareiza, jo korī ir jāgrib dziedāt tāpēc, lai dziedātu (šajā gadījumā) dievkalpojumā (vai koncertā), nevis vienkārši gribēt dziedāt mēģinājumos. Kāda gan jēga no cilvēkiem, kuri necenšas pēc labākās sirdsapziņas, lai tiktu apstiprināti dziedāt dievkalpojumos?

Devos mājup un domāju par situāciju... Man tiešām ir vienalga, dziedāt dievkalpojumā vai nē, bet tam ir divi iemesli:
1) Es apzinos, ka korī neesmu un nebūšu starp labākajām dziedātājām, jo dziedāt trīsbalsīgi man nav pierasts un nejūtos par sevi droši.
2) Baznīcu dziesmas ir skaistas, bet tās nav manas - man nav svarīgi kādam tās "izdziedāt". Jā, tas ir jauki un skaisti, bet tas nav mans mērķis.
Šobrīd man galvenais ir vienkārši dziedāt - jo man patīk dziedāt.

Ja es apzinātos, ka dziedu uz "urrā", tad arī otrais punkts nebūtu aktuāls, jo es gribētu savu "talantu" izdziedāt un parādīt: "Re, kā es varu!" Un, ja es dziedātu latviešu tautas dziesmas, tad pirmais punkts nebūtu aktuāls, jo es gribētu parādīt visiem "manas" dziesmas, pat ja tās nebūtu perfektā balsī.

Tagad man jādomā, ko darīt un kā turpināt...

About book presentations

Another event I attended lately was organised by ABC Treehouse, where ABC stands for American Book Center. On Saturday three authors were holding a presentation "Three authors read from their memoirs of life overseas", so we went to have a look.

Presentation itself

The presentation was very informal, all authors said "hi" to everybody personally and chatted around - probably because there were max 20 people, so the atmosphere was very nice. Although it was clearly a part of advertising campaign (as all books were launched recently), it did not feel like one because of no distance between authors and readers.

I haven't really been to any book presentation before, at least I can't remember, so it was interesting to participate in one. As a person who reads a lot of books I also took a look at those three books and some others which were displayed. I did not plan to buy any, but (as always) I went through all of them briefly and one really caught my eye. Such campaigns indeed work, because in the end we bought that book!

USA & black vs. white

The book we bought is called "black and (a)broad" and it's about a black American woman who is now living in the Netherlands and her life journey on the way to where is she now. The book is written in an easy-going way, so I finished it pretty fast and was very satisfied about it. As a person who has never been to the USA, my impression about the relationship between black and white people is purely based on mass media and talks with other people. The impression I got from a book is a completely different one, making me think - does racism really exist there? If so, in whose mind is it bigger - in white people or in black people?

What made the book even more special was the feeling that I know the author. Of course, I do not know her as my friend, but I have seen her in the presentation, I have heard her voice reading out loud some pages of the book and got her signature in the book. I know she is real and I believe in what she is writing. Plus, as a foreigner she is writing about the Netherlands, the country I am living - so I can relate to some things being said in the book and compare them with my own thoughts.

Money, money, money

And that's not all. Michael started a chat with another author, an Irish lady. She seemed to be quite talkative and we got to know that the music in the background is hers. With that I do not want to say that she owned the CD, but that she composed the music, wrote the lyrics and was singing herself! The music touched me and I wanted to listen to it again and again, so... we bought the CD "The Singing Warrior" by Niamh Ni Bhroin as well! We do not have so many CDs at home to listen in the living room, so it was another reason to buy it.

So, you see, such book presentations work out and the authors really get some income and extra PR without a lot of effort! Both sides are satisfied, because participants could also just listen to authors reading, have a chat, get some snacks and a glass of wine for free - and who doesn't want that? I really appreciated the fact that nobody was forcing me to buy any of the books and trying to tell "discount just now". It was my own choice and judgment.

On a side note - the event could have been longer, it was less than two hours in total with three authors and Q& round. I had a feeling that there were more questions in the air and that also other people would love to chat with the authors a bit longer.

Opera Gala

Last Friday I experienced a couple of my most beautiful hours in the last weeks. I didn't expect it, so the wonderful evening was appreciated even more!

What happened? The Conservatorium van Amsterdam held "Opera Gala", where all the musicians performing were students - the conductor, the singers and the orchestra. I do not know if it was kind of their last exam before graduating or just an event, but it was simply amazing!

I am not a big fan of opera, just the opposite - my previous opera experience is not very exciting as I almost felt asleep all previous times... But this was something else. Not only you could even see sparkles in their eyes when they were playing their musical instruments, but you could also see different opera. This was not the classical one you use to see in the opera houses. This was youth and student opera with theatrical elements, a girl which almost looked like wearing a night dress, a singer sleeping next to the conductor's feet (see the picture on the left) and another signer literally touching the conductor... The audience was laughing and enjoying every single bit of 2,5 hours long opera!

Wondering how much did that cost? That's even better! The entrance was for free, but the donations were accepted afterwards. I have heard before that usually such events (free entrance with donations) get even bigger profit than if you would ask everybody to pay.

Thanks a lot, Conservatorium and its amazing students! For sure I will return to see and hear another performance.

Joining the choir

I have done it! Yesterday I went to my second rehearsal and I am happy to join the English Reformed Church Choir. It was one of the few non-Dutch choirs in Amsterdam as it turns out that most of them (including also Latvian choir) are located in Den Haag.

The choir has a wide range of nationalities and age (I think I am the youngest one, some ladies have been singing there for years and look around 70 years old - but they have wonderful voices), but unfortunately not a wide range of genders as I have seen only one man - poor bass! And we have no tenors at all.

I know almost nothing about church music and I have not been singing in a choir for ages. I used to sing when I was going in the primary school and also some years of the high school, but that was it. However, as a typical Latvian I love singing and wanted to have some hobby here. Joining the choir was a good choice!

In 10 days we have to sing in a service in the church (once a month), we are going to sing two songs. The first time I heard those songs were yesterday in the rehearsal, so let's see how it goes for me. I still need to get used to the music and hear it more, because then it's easier to sing.

P.S. Pictures are from the English Reformed Church website.