In May/June 2012 I was invited to join Noah Stewart on his first UK tour. Noah is from Harlem New York and released his debut album ‘Noah’ on Decca Records in June 2012. Pianist James Baillieu performed with us, and the tour venues included the Sage Gateshead, Birmingham Adrian Boult Hall, The Stables Milton Keynes (where Dame Cleo Laine was in attendance), Union Chapel London and The Lowry Manchester. I performed repertoire from Jerome Kern to Elgar and had a great time performing duets from the ‘The King and I’ and ‘Westside story’ with Noah.
It was such an enjoyable tour - made so special by great audiences along the way! Thanks to all who sent messages, it has been lovely to hear from you. Thanks also to everyone who looked after us at each of the venues, Kennedy Street's Chris and Angie, ...and James and Noah!
It was a pleasure to perform ‘The song is you’ by Jerome Kern and 'You’ll never walk alone' from Rodgers and Hammerstien's Carousel. One of the first music books I received (from Nan Joan!) was a Jerome Kern song book. It is always the book I sit at the piano with on a ‘rainy day' (...and on a sunny day come to think of it!) 'You'll Never Walk Alone' is a piece that means such a lot to me - I grew up hearing the Anfield KOP in Liverpool sing it before I knew what a 'musical' was... and then I fell in love with Rodgers and Hammerstein! And the rest is history.
Photographs by Yannick Lalardy and Miguel Mateo