Asthma sometimes is the pits

I've decided to confront the issue at hand: asthma.

So many humans walk the planet with disease but most don't realize they know someone suffering from such a fairly common problem that frankly keeps increasing. I'm asthmatic. I've been asthmatic since birth. One doctor thought I might grow out of it by the time I hit puberty, but here I am, at 26, and I'm still going through the same routine of taking antibiotics, taking steroids, doing breathing treatments, sitting still and feeling frustrated because I still can't run or do things that normal people do. What I can do, however, is keep singing. My body is fighting me right now while I'm trying to prepare a recital, but I'm thinking of the first time I watched the world's fastest woman, Flo Jo or Florence Griffith Joyner, racing at the summer Olympics and how for years after those 1988 Olympics she did a series of commercials for asthma meds, some of which I took. I remember thinking, nothing can stop this woman. I tell myself on a regular basis that I have a condition but it doesn't define what I am capable of. Yes, I have an extremely difficult time running, sometimes even walking from my bedroom to the bathroom because I'm struggling so badly for air and my lungs hurt, but on days like today when I start out with a breathing treatment and hours later force myself out of the house to rehearse with a pianist for an hour, I know that there is peace and there is hope if I can trust myself to keep going and not give up. I have to keep singing and I have to keep dancing, and I hope that you will join me along the way.

Nuit d'ètoiles

Ok so more on this recital that I will give:

I am putting together a conceptual recital journeying through the act of making someone fall in love with you.

"Nuit d'étoiles sous tes voiles, sous ta brise et tes parfums..." Debussy takes this poem by Banville takes one through a memory of lost love, of love remembered, of the faint scent of perfume floating through the air on a starry night. This lovely poem frames the recital. Other works that I will sing include

Habanera

Près des remparts de Séville

Meine Liebe ist gruen

Vittoria, vittoria!

Do not go my love

Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix

Stay Well

I have dreamt

Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen

totaling about 40 minutes.

I will be accompanied by Janette Sudderth, who teaches part time at Millsaps and also plays for the Mississippi Symphony Orchestr

Before I finally part Jackson on August 20, I hope to a least have snippets of my recital on the blog so stay tuned!

Preparing a recital

I have a recital date! August 14 at 4:00 pm at Galloway United Methodist Church (where I currently am employed).

More to come!