Benjamin Bagby!
Benjamin Bagby will be in Victoria in October with Sequentia+ performing Lost Songs of a Rhineland Harper. I saw him last year in Eugene performing Beowulf. He was really amazing. In that performance he recited passages from Beowuld and accompanied himself on a Saxon lyre like the ones buried at Sutton Hoo and Prittlewell. That by itself was enough to get me to drive to Eugene for it, but he was facinating to watch as well. He has a wonderful voice and pulled so much emotion out of the recitation in a language that few people in the audience could speak. Non-Old English speakers in the audience got the jokes!
I'm planning a road trip up to Victoria to see him again. Let me know if you'd like to come along and split a hotel. The concert starts at 8 PM on a Friday, so we'll have to take Friday off work to get there and take a ferry back on Saturday. If a hotel ends up being too expensive, I know some folks who live in Victoria and we may be able to get crash space there. If it ends up just being me, I may take the Clipper from Seattle, but if I can get a couple of other folks to go, too, I could take the ferry from Port Angeles instead if that makes it cheaper.
Of course this makes me even more impatient for MY lyre to arrive!
I'm planning a road trip up to Victoria to see him again. Let me know if you'd like to come along and split a hotel. The concert starts at 8 PM on a Friday, so we'll have to take Friday off work to get there and take a ferry back on Saturday. If a hotel ends up being too expensive, I know some folks who live in Victoria and we may be able to get crash space there. If it ends up just being me, I may take the Clipper from Seattle, but if I can get a couple of other folks to go, too, I could take the ferry from Port Angeles instead if that makes it cheaper.
Of course this makes me even more impatient for MY lyre to arrive!