These last couple weeks have been pretty exciting. Nadar ensemble put together a few live virtual concerts (the first ever in its history) featuring Stefan Prins’ FITTINGinSIDE for trombone, video conference and walking tour. This is a piece that has been in my repertoire for at least 3 years, but I have never been able to perform for so many people participating from some many different parts of the world. We had audience members from Seattle to Tel Aviv and from Latvia to Columbia. It was wonderful to play live concerts again and we even got a nice review in the New Yorker, written by Alex Ross: The bleeding together of these experiences was grippingly disorienting.

Here is a link, if you would like to read the whole article: Musicians and Composers Respond to a Chaotic Moment.

I also was asked by Jelle Dierckx, of Lunalia Festival in Mechelen, Belgium to represent his festival in a really cool initiative called Festivals for Compassion:

“With Festivals for Compassion festivals around Europe express their solidarity in these times of Corona by presenting a new solo composition by the Greek-Dutch composer Calliope Tsoupaki. Each festival selects their own artist and instrument. The piece will be premiered on the Dutch NPO Radio 4 on 20 June, with the Flemish Klara taking over the next day.  After this, like a relay race of compassion, the work will begin its journey through Europe travelling from festival to festival, and will be shared online.”

I played the piece on Euphonium and recorded it in Onze Lieve Vrouw over de Dijle, a beautiful church in Mechelen.