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    • biography
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Pascale Montauban, Ariën Artists
arien@proximus.be
+32 93303990

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Katharine Dain
katharine.dain@gmail.com
+31 681381632

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Analog winter. London, Antwerp, Chapel Hill, Minne Analog winter.
London, Antwerp, Chapel Hill, Minneapolis, Monterey, Rotterdam.
Many people I love (and many more not pictured from these trips).

Kodak Tri-X (I think my favorite film) and Ilford HP5+ (one roll that went through about six airport security scanners, and I'm relieved it looks like anything at all).
Papa's Leica M2--I was experimenting with switching between the 50mm lens and the 35mm; I think I need to stick with the 35 and get really comfy with it, because technically it is pristine.
Developed at home over the kitchen sink.

The world is so intensely distressing right now, but I am still glad to be here.
I came to Hidden Valley in Carmel Valley, Californ I came to Hidden Valley in Carmel Valley, California for a Songfest intensive week many years ago. At a moment when I was just finding my feet professionally, I coached Brahms and Schubert and Fauré and Strauss with Graham Johnson, Sir Thomas Allen, and Susanne Mentzer, among others--met wonderful people I'm still in touch with--and was given advice that unlocked something crucial in me and let me see writing as a parallel practice to singing.

I'll never forget that Sir Tom (who later helped me hugely with Mozart) said he recognized immediately that I was someone who really did the work.

Peter Meckel, mensch and impresario, invited me back this winter for a little program with @bengulleythinks and @inesirawati (at the piano). We pulled out all the Puccini stops (how many high C's can one soprano and one tenor fit into 30 minutes?), but since I know this beautiful place first from song and it's always what I'll associate with it, here's a clip from the one song Ines and I did (crooning into a handheld mic this time 🙃), a favorite since I was a teenager.

Peter started this arts center in the 1960s. The list of legends who have taught and studied here in every artistic discipline is breathtaking. But more than the glittery names, it's the sense of generosity and openness that is most inspiring there, in no one more than Peter himself, who believes wholeheartedly that music can get us through this awful time.

I don't take for granted the gift of being among people who "do the work" (music and many other essential kinds) in the most sincere and comprehensive way, and to look forward to helping broaden the tent however we can--at a moment when so many precious things in the US are under threat.
My first blog post in almost a year: on fascism, F My first blog post in almost a year: on fascism, Figaro, Barzakh, bots, and what any of our effort might be worth. I didn't know if I would manage to write this, but it's been taking up so much brain space all year, and longer, that I had to try. You might recognize yourself in here a little if we've talked about substantive things lately ("hovering around as a vibe in the places where our souls overlap," as a dear friend said after reading it)--if you think you do, you're right.

In short: the Countess made the best move available by forgiving the Count; we have more options now than she did, and can do more to hold terrible men to account; and let's not lose our humanity along the way or silence ourselves pre-emptively, when that's the biggest gift we could give the murderous fuckers.

Link in bio.

The selfie is from the spring on Ilford Delta 3200 and the whole roll was just so grainy and almost unusable, but I liked this one.
Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Antwerp. Barzakh, by Osam Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Antwerp.
Barzakh, by Osama Abdulrasol, Thomas Bellinck, and writers who are mostly still incarcerated in the Belgian prison system.
Sometime last year, without even noticing, I slipp Sometime last year, without even noticing, I slipped past the milestone moment when Rotterdam became the place I'd lived longest. 
This city is so fucking magical, and it's still surprising me.
A bit of the very sexy song Placet futile by Ravel A bit of the very sexy song Placet futile by Ravel, in a luxury (/inspiring) rehearsal location with a Steinway D which makes this music sound 💃🤩💅

We're doing a recital tomorrow (16 November) of super gorgeous music that we've never performed together: George Crumb Apparition, Schubert Einsamkeit D620, and some sumptuous Ravel including the Mallarmé songs.

4:30 pm in De Paulus Oegstgeest, near Leiden. 
#ravel #chambermusic #soprano #piano
The Mood: before and after our first complete run The Mood: before and after our first complete run of George Crumb's astonishing Apparition for soprano and piano.
Omg!! This piece!! It's been in my mind and heart for literally 20 years. It's such an uphill climb--technically of course, but also in conception, imagination, courage, and time required to prepare--that I didn't know if I'd ever get to perform all of it.
But WE WILL, along with some stunning Ravel (Mallarmé + a few unknowns) and Schubert (the big Einsamkeit) in De Paulus Oegstgeest. Nov 16th at 4:30 pm. Come one, come all. If you don't know the Crumb, you are in for a discovery.
I *probably* won't collapse on the ground when it's done, like I just did, but you never know.
Le Nozze di Figaro, autumn 2025, analog edition. Le Nozze di Figaro, autumn 2025, analog edition.

Lucky me to sing my first Countess on tour with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and a very wonderful cast: Nikki Treurniet, James Newby, James Atkinson, Maria Warenberg, Esther Kuiper, Sharon Tadmor, Michal Karski, Marcel Reijans, Nuria Kouwenhoven; directed by Jorinde Keesmaat, conducted by Benjy Wenzelberg (who also just served a star turn by singing Cherubino from the podium, omg!). The team is much bigger than this--so many creative contributors (including our fabulous chorus) and people working tirelessly behind the scenes. Opera is such a colossal undertaking, and even more so when it's a one-off, not connected to one set theater; so, a big thanks to everyone who's worked on it and made it happen. Special mentions to @adrianar__ @rosalie_k_ @ingejongerman and @lida_hair_makeup for keeping every show running smoothly, solving problem after problem and being the loveliest presences backstage.

One more show tomorrow night in The Hague.

I didn't carry a camera most of the time, because the work was hard, and I thought all the spaces would be too dark--but the production, orchestra, and @concertgebouw and @tivolivredenburg look pretty wonderful on film, I think.
Shot with Papa's Leica M2 on Cinestil 800T, and developed by @cameralisatie as always.
Contessa and mini-Contessa reporting for duty. N Contessa and mini-Contessa reporting for duty. 

Nozze di Figaro dress rehearsal tonight with the @orchestra18c -- who always make me feel like I've died and gone to heaven. I would sing Mozart any day, anywhere... but what a total dream to debut this iconic role with this orchestra, soulmates in this rep -- and with lovely friends old and new, incl @bpwenzmusic conducting. The colorful production is by @jorindekeesmaat and my totally fun doll costume by @sanneoostervink.

Come hear us starting Monday night in Amsterdam, until Nov 2nd.
We're rehearsing Nozze in a black box studio with We're rehearsing Nozze in a black box studio with no natural light, and I gave up on bringing the Leica (with max shutter speed of 1000) after one day.

So since I miss playing with photography while I'm busy rehearsing, here's a look back at an early fall day when the endlessly generous and curious @peterbak.nl took me on a walk through the center of Rotterdam, showed me some street photography basics, and taught me to range-focus. Sort of! All errors are mine, not his. Film from @cameralisatie of course, development over the sink at home.

When the opera ends and I'm feeling bereft, I'll be glad to take back up this slow way of moving and looking and learning.
One of the most precious moments I've ever had on One of the most precious moments I've ever had on stage was in 2023 with the @orchestra18c in Così fan tutte. Manoj Kamps conducted a production directed by Lisenka Heijboer-Castañon, with a dream cast.
Here is a clip from my favorite music of that opera: Per pietà, Fiordiligi's final aria. She is alone on stage, being utterly honest with herself for the first time about how life, love, fidelity, shame, and responsibility are very different than she'd been led to believe. Ever since I got to know the character (half my life ago!), my heart has broken again and again for her humanity, her questions, her vulnerability in this moment, and for the universality of her struggle. 

I am not and will never be a perfect singer, whatever that is. But that Così, with the most sympathetic colleagues possible, got me close to a completely honest expression of my own heart through sound. This was live in Utrecht, and the circumstances weren't easy: I had a cold, we were far into a tiring tour, and the kernels of several deeply painful life things that I'd suffer greatly from over the following year were already there and making themselves felt in that time. But the trust with this orchestra goes so deep that I could safely go wherever Fiordiligi needed to, sing about it, and come up ringing with her version of absolution--or 18th-c ambivalent triumph, anyway.
Mozart!!! 😭♥️

The whole aria is up on my website and YouTube if you want to hear her pull herself together in the sublime rondo--link in bio.

I was reminded of this aria in the last few days while rehearsing Dove sono--Contessa's similarly contemplative, grief-turned-to-resolve masterpiece in Le nozze di Figaro. Am I the luckiest, or what? I get to sing Nozze for the first time with the Orch18C in just a week or two, with @bpwenzmusic and @jorindekeesmaat leading the team this time.

I'll have more to say about Countess soon enough--her struggles, her disillusionment, and her determination to look for the best in people despite everything she's been seeing and hearing. For now, let this little clip act as a teaser. Oct 20-Nov 2, details online.
It is hard to hold the ugliness of society at the It is hard to hold the ugliness of society at the moment. It makes it hard to write, think, feel, and certainly to do "normal" social media self-promotion, ugh... that is the last thing I want right now... but I can't find words for all of the heaviness yet, either.

Lucky me to have just spent a week in a really beautiful place with family that is almost never together. Yay for parents celebrating a 50th anniversary!
In the first picture, I'm in the shadow of a red cedar that might be about 1000 years old. The only reason it's still standing, when so much of the forest in British Columbia and Western North America generally has been logged, is because peace-loving 1960s environmentalist hippies (my parents' generation) fought hard to protect this particular forest and its old-growth trees. Activism worked. 

As Rebecca Solnit said not even a year ago:
They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving.

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