André Rieu's Concert in Philadelphia

André Rieu At The Philadelphia Concert

I returned home from Philadelphia last night, exhausted from doing Newark, Reading and Philadelphia/Camden this week. A good exhaustion from four wonderful concerts. The concerts do vary from place to place and from year to year. Fun to go to more than one if you can.

At breakfast Tuesday morning in Reading, I asked several of the men if they were having a good tour and whereas I didn't expect a negative answer, they replied that the latter part of the tour had been easy because the venue cities are close together and with 5 days in New York City, what more could they ask for? ~ Icing on the cake!!

Remember Andre dancing with the four month old baby girl last year in Reading? Endearing! Well this year the family was in Camden. She is now a beautiful curly haired little girl who was having a ball with the balloons. Her dad held her and waltzed and I hope my pictures come out. Her mother also took a lot of pictures and she had enlarged copies of pictures taken last year. Delightful people.

We lucked out at the Manhattan concert because that is the only concert that Pierre performed in, in the USA. Exciting!!

Frank went home on Tuesday before the Camden concert to present a carillon concert in Holland. Often wondered how he plays with JSO, almost always with them and also gives a fair number of carillon concerts, too. Busy life he leads.

Mirusia's new number, "Time to Say Goodbye" was extraordinary. Her rendition is magical.

And to see Carla again, with that beautiful high coloratura voice would have been enough, but to see her exude sheer joy while performing was heartwarming. Kalki didn't have a whole solo number, but she does have one magnificent voice. The tenors do a fantastic job...as usual. And the choir is outstanding.

Even with the hectic schedule that they keep ~ a new city every evening, Andre and Kerstin do see to it that they have fun and recreation, too. Reading, PA is known far and wide as a huge "outlet center" and yesterday they didn't leave for Philly until 2 p.m. Why? They had two trips organized to go to some of the outlet stores. An early trip and a later one.

The 30th Anniversary Tour picture book (with program insert at most venues) includes pictures from childhood, the salon orchestra, early JSO and lots of pictures from concerts from the last few years. Last four pages from last summer in Maastricht. Great text written by Andre, too. Very well done and a true keepsake.

I really didn't know how the anniversary tour would come together, but it is super. There are several numbers that we have not seen in this country and every one that has been performed at past concerts has been enhanced and updated.

Those of you that will be attending the May and June concerts have much to look forward to!!

I had a joyful six days and feel so privileged to have the opportunity to attend four concerts and spend time with friends from past years and meet new people and they are now friends, too. Until next time ... Laurie Crowley

Photo from André Rieu's Website