Joey's Home!

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been really great having Joey back this past week. He had a wonderful time performing recitals and touring with his church choir in England, but he was more than ready to be home and back with Clara and me. Joey had a very successful trip and was able to play some beautiful instruments and meet some really nice people. Some of the highlights of Joey's tour included:

-Performing a recital at St. Paul's Cathedral, London for an audience of over 200 people including his incredibly supportive former organ professor Charles Echols, who flew all the way to England to hear his recital.

-Performing a recital on the beautiful 1849 Knipscheer Organ at Noordekerk in Amsterdam. (See picture above and video below)

-Performing a recital at Derry Cathedral in Northern Ireland and staying in the Deanery which was built in 1833 and is the former home of George Berkeley, in whose honor the Berkely Divinity School at Yale was founded. (Joey was organist/choirmaster at Berkeley Divinity School this past year.)

-Performing a free benefit recital at Saint Columba's Church in Tullow, Ireland to raise money for the center for the elderly.

-Playing Evensong services at Gloucester Cathedral in England with the choir Joey's been working with for the past 2 years in Fairfield CT, and learning about the interested history there. (Also the sight of much of the filming in the Harry Potter movies)

-Playing services with the Fairfield choir in Worcester, England and working with the famous English choirmaster Barry Rose. (Former St. Paul's Cathedral choir master)

-Taking a lesson at Nieuwkerk in Amsterdam with Matteo Imbruno, organist at Oudekerk and with Jaques van Oortmerssen at Waalsekerk.

-Being given a private concert at Westerkerk in Amsterdam by the famous Carilloneur Boudewijn Zwart.

Joey had some great recital opportunities and also learned a lot accompanying the choir and taking lessons. Now that Joey is home he is trying to plan and prepare for starting his new church job. His first Sunday is August 7th and he has a lot to do before then. We are planning to make several trips to Stonington to clean and organize his office as well as rehearse for the 30 minute violin and piano recital we are presenting on August 9th. We are also invited to a luncheon on August 4th in order to meet members of the church and music school staff.

My parents went back to MN this past Tuesday. Clara and I were sad to see them go, but after 7 weeks they needed to get back. They really loved spending time with Clara though and are planning to be back in October. Joey's parents just booked a trip to come see us and help us with our move from August 29 to September 19th. It will be a huge help to us to have them here to watch Clara while we make the big move to Stonington. We will be storing the majority of our things in the attic of the church Rectory since our house is furnished, but we will need to bring Clara's furniture as well as our clothes to our house. We are eager to move. Now that Clara is here our current apartment feels so small and cramped. So that's it for now. We are happy to hear that our family and friends are enjoying keeping up with us on this blog so I will continue to try to post when I can. We hope you are enjoying the summer as much as we are. Till next post! Erin, Joey and Clara

Check out Joey's new video on You Tube from his recital in Amsterdam:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWabNxv4ZQs

St. Paul's Cathedral, London

Back home with Clara!

Clara is 12 weeks old!

Dear Friends and Family,

Today is Clara's 12 week birthday! It's hard to believe that 12 weeks have already gone by. Clara is such a sweet little baby and is changing all of the time. She is very talkative now although her words mainly consist of "Goo" and "Ah-Goo". When she wants milk she cries "lait" (sounds like "lay"), which strangely enough means "Milk" in French. Coincidence? Most likely! Clara is also becoming very strong physically and enjoys sitting up (with help) and taking in the sights and sounds around her. My parents and I recently took her to a Sushi restaurant and she loved watching the chef making sushi behind the counter. Clara also seems to enjoy music (surprise, surprise!). Today she watched videos of violinist Hilary Hahn performing a Mozart Sonata followed by pianist Olga Kern performing one of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos. Other than the major diaper explosion during the 1st movement of the concerto she seemed to enjoy it. Clara and I are both very much looking forward to Joey's return a week from Friday. Joey has been buying dresses for Clara in all of the different cities in which he is performing, so she will be very well dressed when he gets home. My parents will go back to Minnesota on July 26th. They have been a huge help to me, and I am so grateful that they could spend 7 weeks with Clara and me. We are hoping that both Joey's parents and my parents will be able to come visit us at our new home sometime in the fall. I have been trying to get back into shape both physically and on the violin. I am able to practice while my parents watch Clara, and I have also been working out at the YMCA as much as possible. Joey and I have been asked to perform a 30 minute recital program at Joey's new church on August 9th. It will be thrown together pretty quickly since Joey doesn't come home until July 22nd, but it should be a lot of fun. Well, that's the news for now. Enjoy the rest of July! Erin, Clara and Joey

Stonington (Mystic Country)

Dear Friends and Family,

Some fun websites with information about the area where we will be living starting September:

http://www.stoningtonboroughct.com/

http://www.mystic.org/

http://www.visitingnewengland.com/stonington-ct.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxzX-XhMpZk&feature=related

Come visit us anytime!!!

Erin, Joey and Clara