The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
The last day of term fell yesterday, when we were supposed to sing a special Palm Sunday concert at St John's Smith Square in London under the auspices of Tenebrae's Holy Week Festival. The six of us had been looking forward to the occasion very much, partly since it had taken us a good few years finally to secure a date at this prestigious UK festival (run by friend and former KS countertenor, Nigel Short), and partly because the concert programme was a special, one-off curation which we'd been working on during our tour of the US last month. Little did we know at the time that it would be our final time singing and rehearsing new music together for months to come...
In cheerier news, today marks the start of our Easter holidays, which unusually for us means we'll spend just as much time at home as we did last week during term, except with purposefully fewer work calls/meetings and less time spent working on KS-specific tasks. I'm rather excited to be able to focus now on my long list of things I'd like to achieve while we're under lockdown. Alongside reading some literature, learning new solo singing repertoire and near-daily violin practice of my Galamian scales, revising my Japanese language skills is now at the top of the list; and I'm off to a fairly decent start! Between the use of Memrise (the app), WaniKani, jisho.org and a trusty old pencil and notepad, I've been thoroughly enjoying studying and writing down practically all and every kanji (the more complex characters) I've encountered so far. Having grown up speaking Japanese with my mother, my reading and writing were always my weaker areas, so it's really exciting already after just a few hours back at it to see the various written characters coming back to the forefront of my mind and down through my hand onto the paper. While I was at school, I did Japanese to A-level, for which I had to learn 600 kanji; however, my aim now is to revise all those (hopefully fairly quickly) and then crack on to 2,000, which they say is what you need to be able to read a Japanese newspaper! Beyond that, I've read that a well-educated Japanese person will typically know around 3,000 kanji, and a PhD student might know around 5,000... Now there's a sobering thought.
Right, I'd better get back to the books!
