Category Archives: music

Bath Mozart Fest, Bath England

Bath Mozart Fest I
This weekend it was my husband’s birthday and we were ready to celebrate! The Bath Mozart Fest this year was going on from the 8th to the 16th of November.  My husband had already taken the boys the previous weekend to hear the choir at the Bath Abbey, while I was away for the day at the London Bloggers Tea.  They had such a great time that he wanted to go back for their last night on the day before his birthday.  The night’s performance was by the Hallé, held at the Forum close to the Bath train station.
The Hallé
Sir Mark Elder – Conductor
Jamie Phillips – Assistant Conductor
Alina Ibragimova – Violin
Mozart
Symphony No 38 in D major
K 504 Prague
Mandelssohn
Violin Concerto in E minor Op 64
Elgar
Engima Variations Op 36
The Hallé, founded in 1858, performs over seventy concerts a year in The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester and makes over forty appearances annually throughout the rest of Britain. This was our first time seeing them and I could not have chosen a better venue than the Forum in Bath.  Even with our seats at the top it is still a intimate enough venue that you can see the expressions on the musicians faces on the stage below.  I love listening to classical music at home but seeing it live is a whole another experience.  Watching the musicians play to me is like watching an orchestrated dance and it capturing my visual attention, my ears, my heart, and soul. Alina Ibragimova was captivating during the Mandelssohn on the violin.  The music and the way she played gave me the chills. I have to add that she performs on an Anselmo Bellosio violin of c. 1775, provided by Gerog von Opel.  The fact that she can play such music so well on an instrument older than the United States was exquisite. I know my lovely iPhone photographs cannot truly capture the evening we experienced but I hope you enjoy hearing about our past weekend here in Bath, England.
photo(6) Bath Mozart FestBath Mozart Fest Bath Mozart FestBath Mozart FestBath Mozart Fest
Bath Mozart Fest | www.bathmozartfest.org.uk
The Hallé | www.halle.co.uk
Alina Ibragimova | www.alinaibragimova.com
Bath Forum | www.bathforum.co.uk
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*photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2007 – 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk

 

Ukulele in the Park

I first wanted to take the time to acknowledge all of my readers who took the time to comment, tweet, and email me after my Wednesday post: Marriage, In laws, and Cross Cultural.  I was surprised by how many people reached out to me after dealing with very similar cultural issues with family.  It is not something I would wish on anyone else but it comforting to know we are not alone.  It is just another facet in our life as expats and global nomads.  Thank you also for those who reminded me why I love blogging and that we should blog for ourselves.  Thank you for the lovely comments on how the subject matter was approached.  
The one word that came up most frequently since Wednesday was the word ‘honesty‘ and how you as readers love that aspect most about coming to the blog.  Thank you, I greatly appreciate that feedback.  With being a Third Culture Kid and having to fit into to so many different cultures, situations, countries, etc it is nice to have a place where I can be me.  I hope that you reading this blog know that you too can be you.  You do not have to be living in fear of the expectations of others.  Be proud of yourself, love life, and live your life remembering how precious and beautiful it is with you in it. 
   
This semester my son Ronan has been learning to play the Ukulele in school.  I was actually tickled when we first visited his classroom and realised this was the instrument his year was learning how to play.  My youngest son was born in Hawaii, where we lived for three years.  Being the longest place my sons have lived anywhere it was a nice ‘home’ comfort to have a bit of Hawaii here with us.  We were able to get Ronan his own Ukulele in his favourite colour shade black. For a kid who always has a song humming off his lips it has been a great next step putting a musical instrument in his hands.  He is always practicing his cords, asking me to teach him new songs, and waking us up in the morning with his songs of serenade.  He recently learned how to play the beginning part of Sunshine of Your Love by Cream and I may be biased, but it is so cute to watch him play it. 
Yesterday I had the opportunity to watch him play in a multi school wide concert at the Pavilion in Bath, England.  Unfortunately my husband was not able to get away from work so I was busy taking photos with the DSLR, with my iPhone, and recording video our video recorder.  Yes I am one of those parents in the crowd.  However they do not want any photographs or film footage to be put publicly. So just imagine how cute a class of year 3 look and sound in their british school uniforms playing Yellow Submarine by the Beatles.  
Afterwards I took both my sons to the nearby Parade Park for the first time.  It is usually never crowded despite all the tourists, since you have to pay a fee to get access.  However if you are a Bath resident like me with your Discovery card you can just walk right in. This made it perfect for capturing photos of my son while he played music in the park.  I love the photograph below because Ronan looks so much like my dad especially with my dad’s hair as he had it the same length (if not longer) in the last year of his life.  I know he would have been so proud to have seen him play yesterday and is smiling down on him.  Here are the rest of my favourites from our spontaneous photo session in the park: 

*photography belongs to Bonnie Rose Photography ©2007-2013 All Rights Reserved – www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 


Caveau des Oubliettes in Paris

While we were in Paris my husband took us to a jazz club on the night of our 9th wedding anniversary.  It became the best club experience I have to memory and today still holds that that title. Caveau des Oubliettes is a 12th century prison located in the Latin Quarter across the river from Notre-Dame.  Beneath the subterranean vaults it was linked many centuries ago with the fortress prison of Petit Chatelet.  The description of its history includes ‘complete with dungeons, spine-tingling passages, and scattered skulls, where prisoners were tortured and sometimes pushed through portholes to drown in the Seine’.  As an Audrey Hepburn fan it made me feel like I was in her film, Funny Face.  
When we arrived I was not exactly sure what to expect and followed my husband through the ground floor entrance to a windy stone stair case to the basement level.  The passages were narrow and people were not confined to just the tables and chairs set before the stage. Some where at the bar and others standing or sitting on the stairway, listening and watching from around the wall.  The cost of the drinks were a little pricey but not having to pay a cover charge for that experience leveled it out in my mind.  If you love music I highly recommend checking out this scene.
While our 8th Wedding Anniversary that we spent at Pelham House in Lewes had topped all the rest, this night topped them all.  Caveau des Oubliettes will most definitely be on our list of places to visit when we next return to Paris. 
52 Rue Galande 75005 Paris France
*photographs belong to Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved – www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 




Music that Speaks to Me

Day 29, Wednesday: Five songs or pieces of music that speak to you.
I decided to look for the songs that have really impacted my life in one way or another  and these are the five that have spoke to me for this prompt. I hope you enjoy listening to them as much as I do.
I love music. I love the way it can alter and change your mood if you are feeling down.
I love the way a song can cement itself to a memory or a person.
A world without music would be a sad one indeed.
My eldest son always has a song on his lips.
Whether he is humming or singing.
Music is the heart of the world.
Stereophonics 
Y o u ‘ r e   M y   S t a r 
I put this song on my sons’ iPod before my husband and I moved to England.  We did not take our boys with us initially so that we could get settled with a place to live, jobs, and a schools.  I do not lot like being a part from my sons one bit but I did what I could to help the transition.  I told my sons that every time they were sad because they missed us they could listen to this song and that I would be doing the same thing too.  It still makes me think of my sons when I listen to it and Stereophonics are one of my favourite bands.



Gavin Rossdale
F o r e v e r   M a y   Y o u   R u n 
I fell in love with Gavin’s voice in Bush when I was in seventh grade with ‘Swallowed’.  When his solo album was released in June of 2008 I listened to it frequently.  In August my father was killed.  When we got to my parents house I went for a lot of walks on my own to get out of the house and this song started playing on repeat from my iPod.  I ended up modifying the title to ‘Forever May You Fly’ for a title to put on the Ghost Bike memoria for my father who flew in the USAF.
DAVID BOWIE
A s   t h e   W o r l d   F a l l s   D o w n 
When I was five years old I had two loves aside from my daddy.  One was Prince William, whose photo with his mum Diana sat on my vanity, and the other was Jareth, the Goblin King from Labyrinth. I loved this film and enjoy watching it now with my own kids.  While I equally adore the song Within You followed by David’s last scene in the film this song is quite iconic.  I really enjoyed the dream-esque world of being a princess in a world that is just too strange and foreign to be comfortable within.
LEONARD COHEN
&THE CIVIL WARS
D a n c e   M e   t o   t h e   E n d  o f   L o v e
I had to include both the original from Cohen with the amazing violin and then one of my favourite covers of the song by The Civil Wars.  It is one of my favourite songs to dance to with my husband.  I wanted to include the meaning behind the song however and will let Cohen’s words do that for me:

  
“…it’s curious how songs begin because the origin of the song, every song, has a kind of grain or seed that somebody hands you or the world hands you and that’s why the process is so mysterious about writing a song. But that came from just hearing or reading or knowing that in the death camps, beside the crematoria, in certain of the death camps, a string quartet was pressed into performance while this horror was going on, those were the people whose fate was this horror also. And they would be playing classical music while their fellow prisoners were being killed and burnt. So, that music, “Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin,” meaning the beauty there of being the consummation of life, the end of this existence and of the passionate element in that consummation. But, it is the same language that we use for surrender to the beloved, so that the song — it’s not important that anybody knows the genesis of it, because if the language comes from that passionate resource, it will be able to embrace all passionate activity.”



EDITH PIAF
L  a   V i e   E n   R o s e 
I love Edith Piaf and when I was last in Paris my husband took me to see her final resting place in Cimetière du Père-Lachaise. I could listen to her voice for a long time and though I have many favourite songs La Vie en Rose is my most favourite song.  I think I hummed it a frequently aloud and in my head when were were in Paris.  I found a little music box song of it when in Sorrento and I love to play it.  She is just so iconic and I do not think I will get tired of this song. 




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*photographs found here belong to Bonnie Rose of Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk 

Self Portrait Saturday: ‘Hold to Memory’

This morning as my boys came into our room asking when breakfast would be ready,
I was clinging to the remnants of the dream from which I had been awoken.
Next came little fingers playing on their daddy’s mandolin
and from there any further sleep was but a dream.

Inspired by my morning here is this week’s Self Portrait.

Self Portrait by Bonnie Rose Photography © 2013 All Rights Reserved | www.bonnie-rose.co.uk
Do you take self portraits? Or do you participate in Self Portrait Saturday?  
Comment below I would love to take a look at your photographs. :)  
Have a great weekend my blog friends and make sure to check out
 the Huge March Giveaway! You could win big!
xx
B.

*All photographs belong to Bonnie Rose Photography. If you are interested in any of my body of work or in booking a session please contact bonnie@bonnie-rose.co.uk

Manifold Mag [Music]

My first article about ‘Music that Inspires you’ is published now online! I (Bonnie Rose) am a weekly contributor for The Manifold, an online magazine. Thank you to Johnny Kenneally, a coworker of mine at Peewees .co.uk, who is featured this week as my model. Make sure to check every week for my next article! xx Bonnie Rose

http://themanifoldmag.com/post/13972609575/music-music-is-to-my-soul-what-air-is-to-my — with Bonnie Rose Aherin.