Musikwochen Millstatt

Train ride with the whole band: mathias, Mario, Hans Ingrid and I, a lot of coffee and laughter...Hans and I decided on a band name for our new secret not yet founded band called „Lia lass die Maus raus“. I tell you more about it as soon as I know more : )!Mario just came back from New York - he played at the Rochester International Jazz Festival with his Interzone and I was excited to play with him again. We arrived in Spital/Drau, and couple of minutes later the incredible „Millstättersee“ came into view. Millstatt is a charming little town right by the lake and to be honest, I didn’t want to leave at all. There was enough time for me to jump into the lake minutes before our soundcheck. Though I am not sure one could call it a soundcheck because our sound engineer for tonight Rainer Floderer was so fast and efficient that he took  care of everything while we were playing around and created with a helping hand a great sound. The „Kongresshaus“ is a beautiful venue and before our concert we had dinner on the terrace of our lovely hotel surrounded by a little stream rushing by, June bugs and beautiful flowers. It sounds crazy I know but believe me, it’s true!!!The „Reinanke“ I had for dinner was fished by the hotelier himself!!!We started at 20:15 and were welcomed by a curious audience, who was with us from the very start. Thank you to every single one who came out on that hot hot hot summer night and spent it with us! Bernhard Zlanabitnig, artistic director of the Musikwochen Millstatt, invited us to be part of this festival, with  concerts all over town from May til October involving artists like Thomas Hampson or Al di Meola, The Artis Quartett and Julia Malischnig, who came to our concert and will be playing with Ingrid in August. Dear Bernhard, thank you so much for giving us the possibility to play our own „Dichterliebe“ in Millstatt for this selected audience!We had a wonderful time on stage and Ingrid finished our set with an incredible solo!!!
After the concert we all went back to our charming terrace including Bernhard and Julia Malischnig. We enjoyed the warm summer night with a bright orange full moon up in the sky. I drank one of my favourite beers: Murauer!We ended the night with one of the most famous Kärntnerlieder! Dear Bernhard, thank you for teaching me the Mölltalleiten (Brigitte Pinter that we met last week, told me about this song a week ago!!!) I kept singing and humming it all weekend long and I am gonna take it back home with me, I promise!!!But before I leave, I am gonna stay another day...: )

Yours Lia!

The Event:
Millstatt (A), Musikwochen Millstatt