Last Friday (October 18) I performed at the Romantic Era Salon Concert, as part of the Cowichan Valley Music Teacher Association’s History of Music Weekend Series. (My first post on this event can be found here.)

I felt very humbled to be performing at the same concert with such talented and accomplished musicians: Susan Young (soprano), Bruce Vogt (piano), James Mark (violin), Ruth Williams (piano), and Elizabeth Volpé Bligh (harp). Laura Neithercut and Anthony Thompson from the Arthur Murray Dance School in Victoria also demonstrated the Viennese Waltz, which was great fun to watch! What a wonderful Romantic-inspired evening.

From left to right: James Mark (violin), Ruth Williams (piano), Elizabeth Volpé Bligh (harp) Ruth Daniell (speech), Susan Young (soprano), and Bruce Vogt (piano)

For my first set, I performed William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and Part IV from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Then I read one of my favourite sonnets, by the lesser-known Charlotte Smith. It has one of the best long titles I’ve ever read: “On Being Cautioned Against Walking on a Headland Overlooking the Sea, Because it was Frequented by a Lunatic.”

For my second set, I read from the later Romantics. First, I performed Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Ozymandias” and then three poems by John Keats: “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” his sonnet “When I Have Fears  That I May Cease to Be,” and “To Autumn.”

Are you or your club or workshop interested in having me perform for you at an upcoming event? I would probably love to! Please feel free to contact me outlining your needs at ruthdaniellwrites(at)gmail(dot)com.