Just a few weeks ago, I received a friend request on YouTube from a girl from Cape Town, South Africa named Christy-Lyn Marais. As it turns out, she is a soprano who sings mainly Celtic and other folk music, though she has some classical training. Her YouTube channel is here.
I like her singing and she likes my poetry, so although she is busy finishing up an undergraduate degree, we are planning on collaborating musically. I sent her my setting to Tolkien's "The Road Goes Ever On," and we are starting to work on settings to Irish Windsong, She Speaks With Shadows, and My Sad Companion (Music).
It is refreshing being actively musically creative again. As a composer, I've been dormant since 2004 when I was working on my guitar preludes (still unfinished). I'm excited also to work with someone as talented as Christy-Lyn. She has a pretty voice with a good range and is very on-key. She also can play her own accompaniment on piano as she's singing, which is amazing to me. I'm not sure how much composition she's done, but she said she's done some arranging. That will be good for me in setting my texts to piano accompaniment because I am not fluent enough on piano to compose in an idiomatic way for that instrument.
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