Monday, June 28, 2010

Gala Performance! El Monte Sagrado



Our final Taos performance was in this beautiful fancy hotel in Taos where Oprah stays on her visits to Taos. We did a bunch of Opera Scenes. We had a large crowd. They had to bring in extra chairs twice to accommodate the people. It was fun to dress up and sing in such a beautiful place.

Friday, June 25, 2010

William's Lake Hike

The last Friday we were there we hiked to William's Lake, Taos ski valley's elevation is 9,000 feet and Williams Lake is 12,000 feet. Andrew and others are standing on the top of that huge boulder. They hiked up the back. I felt like just watching.
This one is zoomed into the picture.
It was very beautiful up there. The view made the constant uphill climb worth it. You can still see snow in the mountains and this is June!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Rio Grande Gorge

The lookout on the Rio Grande Gorge was gorgeous! It was a short drive from the city!
Andrew was also able to go white water rafting down the gorge the the men of Taos. The girls got to go to Ojo Caliente hot springs. That was pretty fun too.

Taos week three

My mom and Cathy came to visit and see us perform the third weekend we were in Taos. It was so fun to see them and have them come and visit but it was way too short. That week we performed at a church and Taos and an outdoor park where we scared away the hippies that were hanging out in the park with all of our opera singing.


I sang "What good would the moon be?" from Street scene.
Andrew sang Onegin's aria from Eugene Onegin in Russian.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday Nathan!

There were quite a few people who came to Taos from ASU. Andrew, me, Heidi, Kelly, Christine, Joel, Sarah, Karen, & Bora. It was fun to have so many friends there.
Nathan celebrated his third birthday four times. He thought it should be his birthday everyday. Andrew's sister Adrianne was nice enough to come with us and watch Nathan while we were in rehearsals. They only stayed for two weeks so Nathan was not with us on his birthday so we celebrated it before they left. All of our ASU friends came to share in the fun.
He got a cool hat and a McQueen football also a buzz lightyear chair and bowling game.
He got way too many presents. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. My little baby Nathan is growing up way too fast. We sure do love him!
It took some getting used to, for Nathan to say that he is three and not two. We worked on two for so long but he got the hang of it. He loves blowing out the candles and singing Happy Birthday.
Pizza and Watermelon what more could a kid want!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Taos Opera Institute

Andrew and I had the opportunity to go to Taos New Mexico for 4 weeks in June. We had to audition and be accepted into the program. We worked on four aria or songs from operas in four different languages. French, Italian, German, (or Russian) and English. Andrew and I with Linda Poetsche the Program director.
Mary Jane Johnson is the artistic director of the program. During the week we had lessons and coachings with teaches from Chicago, ASU, Texas, and New York. It was great to work with so many different people and to meet so many different people.
We feel like we learned so much and grew a lot while we were there. It was a great opportunity to focus just on singing and performing and to not have to worry about too much else.
We performed at different venues every weekend on Fridays and Saturdays. These pictures are in Rhoda's a restaurant a busy place in the winter while all of the skiers are there but a somewhat slower place in the summer.
This is a view from our condo ( and Nathan) in the Taos ski valley. It was so beautiful and peaceful to be in the mountains in the summertime. It was really interesting to see the ski lifts and runs without any snow. They look a lot scarier without the snow.