Lenzburg (CH) - Festival artist at Lenzburgiade 19 - 24.6

After a week of bed rest and lots of sleep in my Amsterdam home I somehow managed to get on the train to Switzerland. I still felt weak and had a cough that I struggled with, so to make sure I was strong enough for my whole week in beautiful Lenzburg. I arrived a day earlier at the beloved Schnyder home in Baden. I had time to recover from schlepping and traveling, time to rehearse with Ian Schnyder for our ‘Zapfenstreich’ and spend an evening on Schnyder’s terrace catching up while having ice cream. The Schnyders and I traveled together to Lenzburg and I officially started my week at the festival ‘Lenzburgiade’ – what an honour to be artist in residence at this inspiring festival hosted by Fränzi Frick and Oliver Schnyder! I’m truly grateful for your support and for inviting me to be a part of this week filled with music from all kinds of genres. Lenzburgiade officially started with ‘Zapenstreich’, a series of short concerts where the audience wanders through Lenzburg while musicians await them on different stations spread out through town. I had the chance to play an acoustic set with Ian Schnyder on guitar and some of my favourite songs including the Beatles’ Across the Universe and Billy Joel’s Vienna. ‘Zapfenstreich’ ended up on the hill, inside the castle with the big finale with Fränzi’s incredible children’s orchestra followed by the powerful set of trio Idemo! with, one could say, wonderwoman Nina Ulli on violine! What an opening on a hot, hot sunday!

The next day I had time to prepare for the AKB Gala where I was going to play a set dedicated to Judy Garland with an international band with Hue Blanes on piano, Rodrigo Aravena on bass, David Kweksilber on clarinet and Sergio Beresovky on drums. We rehearsed in Zürich with summer vibes and pizza at Sergio’s casa. I had so much fun playing with you guys! We played some of Judy’s classics like Get Happy or Embraceable You but also some of her earlier more unkown songs like In Between or The Joint is really jumpin’ down in Carnegie Hall. It was the first time ever that we played together and I hope we get to continue soooooooner than later! Thanks Hue for your support and also incredible vocals on top of your amazing playing the keys! The amount of rain that poured down that evening was really something, but nothing could stop the flow of Lenzburgiade and their many, many helping hands! We all just waited a little and kept going – come rain or come shine! Lise de la Salle and Oliver Schnyder played the first set of the evening. Those two and their four hands were playing Schubert and Brahms with such intensity and beauty! And before we started our Judy set I had the pleasure to to play with Oli a couple of songs from The Other Way Around; Standards into Kunstlieder arranged by mathias rüegg. We played Bye Bye Blackbird with a live bird joining in : ), Ballad of Sad Young Men and our favourite Chaplin’s Smile.

Thursday I took some time off to visit the Hallwiler-lake with a special host, a member of family Frick. I got to see the water castle and jumped, more than once, into the beautiful lake before I had to get back to work on Friday’s repertoire and a Zoom-rehearsal for a music theatre piece for my graduation in The Hague, that was set right after my Lenzburg-week.

On Friday I got to play our Great European Song Book with the ‘original’ band Ingrid Oberkanins on percussion, Hans Strasser on bass and mathias on piano joining me in Lenzburg. And this time with us, for the first time, the one and only Roman Janoška! Once more I got to spend an evening way up, up on the hill inside the beautiful (Habsburger) castle with Lise de la Salle and Oliver Schnyder joining forces in the first set and then our Great European Song Book feat. Roman Janoška on violine. We hadn’t seen or played together in a while. It has only been a couple of weeks since I got back from LA and now the quintett reunited sharing our fav songs by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms! I enjoyed every minute of every song…during Faith in love while Roman was playing his indescribable solo – we all got pushed to another level!Roman you are mindblowing!

Ingridi, Hans, mathias – this concert was very special to me! What a joy it has been to play with you and re-awake our repertoire that keeps connecting us through the years and on top of that we had an incredible audience with open ears and open hearts…I hope to be back soon and promise to continue working on my Swiss German 😍 THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to each and everyone who made this evening possible.

I’m truly grateful for this intense and inspiring week filled with music, rain, sunshine, excitement and laughter.

Once more thank you to the whole crew of the festival Sven, Simon, Eliane for making it all happen and staying calm and kind in every situation.

Dearest Oliver and Fränzi what more can I say…your support means the world to me 💛!

What a week, what a festival – come rain or come shine – let the music play!

Yours Lia