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Home again!
I’m back in Victoria, Canada, after a two month tour of Australia. What an amazing time!
From waking up the very first day after I landed and hearing all the strange (to me) sounding bird calls, to the first concert (which included a duet with tour organizer Suneetha Carter, more on that in a moment), to travel to so many different climates and environments (sweltering hot! freezing cold!), to many more concerts and workshops, performing the Glière concerto in Hobart and then again in Adelaide, close encounters with koalas on Raymond Island, three Harpist in the Wild adventures, and finally a trip to Kangaroo Island (with my first close-up kangaroo sighting of the trip, including a mother with a baby in her pouch) – throughout it all I had a wonderful time!
But that wasn’t quite the end of the trip, as I then spent six days on the way home traveling to three countries I’d never visited before…
I’ll tell that tale in a moment, but first, a brand new video!
I mentioned that the very first concert of the tour include a duet with Suneetha Carter of Carter Harps Australia. We played “Cambria” by John Thomas, one of my all time favourite duets, and I’ve just posted the video of that performance (shout-out to Nahn Do for letting me use his harp). I hope you’ll enjoy :)
A huge thank you to Suneetha (the primary sponsor of the tour) and Camac (who sponsored my travel to Harp Island/Australia), and to all the amazing people who helped make the tour possible – providing harps, places to stay, helping out during the concerts, and everything – thank you! It was great to see old friends and make new ones :)
Two more videos
Along with Cambria, I’ve uploaded a couple recent videos. First, a look at some of the things I take with me when I tour and how I attempt to travel as light as I can…
And then a Harp Tuesday episode looking at a very fun piece called “Troubadour’s Song” from Betty Paret’s Second Harp Book.
6 Days, 3 Countries
On my way home I wanted to take advantage of being in Australia by trying to stop at a few places along the way, as it were, from Australia to Canada. (If not perhaps EXACTLY on the way, close enough, at least). That ended up being Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, and Seoul.
I flew from Adelaide to Kuala Lumpur, where I had about 24 hours before my next flight. I really loved wandering around the city and visiting Batu Caves – too short a stop, I hope to return.
Next stop, Hong Kong! Here I had three days, enough time to see some of the city, wander through some parks, and go up Victoria Peak. I also did a “Fireside Chat” at Harp Chamber Hong Kong – thanks to Angela Yau for setting this up! Was great to meet some of the Hong Kong harp community.
Again, even though this was a slightly longer stop, three days wasn’t enough to begin to explore all that the city has to offer.
On my last day in Hong Kong my flight left just after midnight. I spent the day sightseeing before finally heading to the airport. Got a few hours sleep and then landed in Incheon, South Korea just before 6am… A train ride in Seoul and I got to see the city before heading back (with very sore feet!) to the airport for my 10:40pm flight to Vancouver…
Due to time zones, I arrived in Vancouver BEFORE I left… 4:30pm the same day. From there, a ferry ride over to Victoria and I was finally home… Exhausted but I loved this whirlwind finish of visiting three countries that were new to me and getting a chance to see places I’d never been before.
Lots more to share but I’ll end here for now, look for another newsletter soon!
Thanks as always for reading,
Josh