Ciao, sono tornata ora!

Hello, dear readers! I know I have been away for nearly two months, and this post is as much to provide an explanation for my prolonged absence as it is to inform you that - perhaps shockingly so - I am still alive!

For those of you who don't know what has transpired during the last two months, I was selected to be one of seven vocalists to attend the International Music Festival of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy (pictured above), from June 11th through July 5th! It was an incredible an honor considering that I don't even have a music degree, and I even sang for a real live princess! Well, a princess in legal terms only since she married into the royal Thurn und Taxis family, but still a princess nonetheless.

I had a great time gallivanting around Europe and getting to know fellow musicians, most of whom were students at Luther College, but many others as well from colleges around the world (one student was from Canada, another already from Italy, and the rest of the students were from the US). I picked up several words and phrases of Italian while I was there, and I can say with total sincerity that I am now the classical vocalist and performer I have always wanted to be!

This also happens to relate to The Retro Echo itself because I happened to pick up two interesting LPs while I was over there (The Art of Lucrezia Bori and, rather strangely, Mohammed El-Bakkar's Sultan of Bagdad), both of which are unforgettable listens and will be posted shortly.

The reason why it has taken me almost another month to get back to posting here after my return to Minnesota, though, is because I picked up so many records and tapes from Record Store Day last April that I had to set aside an entire month's worth of free time to clean them and get them digitized (you're welcome). In addition to the two LPs mentioned above, I'll also be posting previously-digitally-unavailable recordings by the great folk musician Neal Hellman, EPs by Ricky Nelson, the Sunny Mountain Boys and the White Oak Mountain Boys, as well as tons of other top-notch recent finds!

Thanks for your patience, and I'll upload recordings of my performances on my YouTube channel as soon as they are made available to me from the Festival directors!