Dear Blog world,
It is that time again. Blog update! I am finally feeling "on top of things" and am enjoying a few lovely days at home with my super supportive boyfriend, Christophe! One of the most important things about this career is having a wonderful support group by your side. My parents and family are incredibly supportive and have always encouraged me to pursue my dreams and now I am lucky enough to have found a partner who is equally encouraging and is very patient with my crazy schedule. For example: I have been gone since December 28th and have been home in Montreal for a little more than a week with him in total. We are long distance pro's at this point and our worst day is when we have a bad wifi connection or that our schedules don't line up. Christophe if you read this: Thank you for all that you do!
Alright, enough with the mushy stuff. It has been a busy time with so many things happening. Lets go in chronological order, shall we?
On January 16th I was fortunate enough to sing Blondchen with the Ann Arbor Symphony in Michigan. Well, this town was so adorable, the company was incredible to work for and I feel I have made friends for life now. One of the huge bonuses of this career is having met a lot of wonderful people. I love that I get to reconnect with old colleagues and make new colleague/friends. There was incredible singing and performing happening and we were able to have a semi-staged production within two days. That requires a lot of trust and team work, and that is one of my favourite parts! I grew up playing on team sports and in choirs etc, and one of the most amazing bonds you can have in this world is trust. So, all in all, that was a fantastic experience.
After this trip I hopped home and back between the states for a few auditions and then jumped the pond to try out the European houses. I again got to meet up with some wonderful friends and the weather was much nicer so I started training for my next half marathon! I will be doing the blue nose half marathon on May 22nd in Halifax. For me, I have to have goals or else I get a little aimless when it comes to training, so this is exciting.
Okay, back to the story: I spent five days in Amsterdam (what a cool city) and I did an audition and a workshop there, then I missed my train by literally a minute and caught the next one to Augsburg Germany. I bopped in and out of France, Germany and Italy for a few weeks doing auditions. My favourite being on the Regio di Torino stage. That was INCREDIBLE. What a theatre. It felt like you didn't have to do anything to create a sound there. Here's to hoping I get to go back. Anyway, then I made my way up to Berlin for the final two weeks. I enjoyed being there- again catching up with old friends, seeing beautiful opera, taking a german intensive language course, running, eating fantastic vegetarian and vegan food and Christophe came for the final week. It was truly a dream come true. He and I really fell in love with the city, so if by writing it down for the world to see here on my blog will help at all: Dear Universe- we would really like a chance to live there and work there at some point. There, the wish has been sent!
Next on the list- Noncerto Videos! There is a very cool tv channel that produces classical music videos in and around montreal but now they have outreached into the rest of Canada. Below I have posted my most recent videos that were just released and then just last week I was lucky enough to go out to the Monashee Mountains to film up at Mustang Powder; one of the coolest places I have even been to! (The picture above this post is my view from the hot tub!) I can't wait to see the next videos we will post about that. Please check out the following ones and share them. They are out here for all to see!
http://www.suzannerigden.com/#!video/lctc1
If you ever have any questions please feel free to contact me via my website at info@suzannerigden.com
Happy Friday!
