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Apologies, but this last Riga 2005 blog is coming from London. LSC returned to England yesterday and I'm afraid that things just got a little too busy on Thursday/Friday for a live blog from Latvia.

Our last concert in Riga on Thursday evening was another resounding success - we sang for an audience of well over 100 under the vaulted ceiling of St Peter's Church, concluding with Allegri's Miserere Mei, in which our Principal Soprano Anne Kan, the soloist for the piece, gave a performance which one can only describe as breathtaking. This had me wondering just how a week in Norwich in 2001 with a group of mates from Liverpool had brought us to this - electryfying musical moments in Riga coming after days of sleeping, eating, drinking and singing together. I guess that's the whole point - when you assemble a truly extraordinary group of human beings who you love spending time with there's only one way you can enhance the already fortified fabrics, and that's by aiming for something inherently higher than human life, and journeying to another level through performance.

Leaving Riga was full of mixed emotions- pride, relief, sadness, and even some regret. I think I'd been expecting the geographical implications of our first foreign tour to be the great catalyst - but as it happens, it was simply LSC that fuelled the great fun and artistry, with the excitement of travel and profile seeming almost irrelevant.

My thanks to everyone, including The Filter^ and its readers, for their interest and support. But also my thanks, admiration, respect and overwhelming gratitude to the 13 people who sang their hearts out and drank their livers out for LSC last week - and especially to Anna our Concerts Manager who brings to the group all the qualities that I demonstrated I lack during our time in Riga - for her calmness, unflappability (is that a word?), and personability. I can only think of one way to repay them all - get cracking on the organisation of the next tour. Watch out for details of 'LSC Tyneside 2006'!

Comments

[Ian Jamieson]

I have to say that it is a great pleasure to hear that Riga 2005 was a sucess. I'd never doubted that it would be, but it is nice to have it confirmed anyway. Congratulations to Andrew Mellor and all involved.