Concert in a Chinese Garden

The latest Concert for Peace and Reconciliation will take place on Saturday, February 16th at 8pm The venue will be the Lee Hall, Wolfson College. With my guitar I will sing Hebrew music, Jacques Brel, Gershwin and other various pieces.The concert is in memory of the late Dr Risa Domb, lecturer in Modern Hebrew at the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Cambridge. She was also the Founder-Director of the Centre for Modern Hebrew Studies at the University, and she was made a life Fellow of Girton College, which was quite an honour. She was my friend and advisor, when The Little Sisters of Joy was just beginning-there will be hostility, she said, but you have to go on with it. And so I did. And so I try to do.

This time round (the previous ones have been in Clare, Pembroke and Robinson College Chapels, by kind permission of the various Denas) I decided on a change of venue. So I found Wolfson College, and, as you meander down Selwyn Gardens to the back entrance(parking is on the Barton Road side) you stumble across a very beautiful concert hall. The hall is simple but the surroundings are quite stunning. On either side there is a Chinese/English garden.

It would be lovely if it were summer and I could sing outside in the garden, but I have already begun to be affected by the location. I have made some new Chinese friends, who told me it would be difficult to find a Chinese costume my size, because they are all so small! And because the concert is in the evening (2 hours after the going out of the Sabbath) the audience won't be able to see the beauty around them. But hopefully they will feel the vibes.

Yes, I am nervous, but thankfully the adrenalin which started to flow last week has abated a bit. I am ahead in my arrangements, and have arranged several run throughs of my programme to friends. I have a month in Toronto to look forward to in March as a reward.

I only have one photo of Risa Domb-from the Jewish Chronicle in black white - and still she looks vibrant. I 'had a few words with her' this morning and promised her I would do a good job...

Come to the concert if you can, I promise you too a good night
Love and Shalom
Sister Gila xx