Introducing Catharine Layton

Last night was a big night. Last night Cat presented her Junior recital to an audience of family (Thanks to Debbie for being there!), friends, peers, and faculty of Westminster Choir College. I can not think of a time when I have been more proud of my wife in our 2 and a half years of marriage.
The setting was beautiful. It was held in a room in the main building on Campus, Williamson Hall. The hall was decorated for Christmas, with a tree, wreathes in all the windows, garland wrapping all the railings.But what made the night was that beautiful voice. Every one loved her. She sang with grace, power, elegance, humor.... she showed a little bit of everything in her program. She demonstrated how far she has come in such a short time at Westminster. She was great. And devestatingly beautiful, as you can see. I was very proud. For the encore, we sang a duet, in which we waltzed. It was a wonderful end to a beautiful presentation. We celebrated with a small reception in the student center afterwards.
Cat's dad flew out for the occasion. You can see in his face the pride he felt.She had people come from CA, Boston, North NJ, and Philadelphia to be there for the recital. It was a success, and I'm still beaming with pride. My manager at starbucks actually snapped at me today for talking with so many customers about it today. So another Congratulations to my wife for completing this phase of your training with such a bang!

Christmas time is here, and moses is happy his favorite place is back.

Happy to be back

Okay family!!! We hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! I'll look forward to seeing pics up of CA and Chi-town celebrations. I am back in the USA and happy to be here. This Sunday is a big deal for the Patrick Laytons. The BIG news is Cat's junior Recital! This Sunday evening at 8pm. She is sounding better than ever, and family is coming from CA, friends from Boston, and she has an amazing dress. This is her recital poster. She did it herself.This is a picture she took of her campus during spring of last year. I'm excited to see her perform for friends, family, and faculty. That morning I'll be the guest artist at Akiko Hosaki's church. We're doing the Messiah. It's one of two Messiah's I'm scheduled to do. The second one is on the 16th, with Cat also a soloist. It should be recorded, and hopefully we'll have some of that to share with you by Christmas.

I was sent some performance pics from Sardegna. Thought I'd share a few:Gianluca soloing during 'O sole mio', in our second concert at Iglesias.For the encore, I did a piece which is loved by all of Sardegna. It was recieved very well.A final bow...Gianni on the spot... In our final concert, I asked my new friend Gianni to join me in singing the Island's beloved song, Non potho reposare.Gianni is a natural on stage. The people loved him... all nine.

We're thinking we may be able to make it back to CA the weekend before Christmas, or sometime there-in. I'll keep you informed of the happenings with that. Love you all!

Last day, and thoughts

So my final day in Sardegna was spent with Yali, Karen, and Gianni. We left Assemini in the morning, and drove about an hour and a half to the ruin of the nurahgese people. Old structures assembles 1700 bc, and very immense.Notice the staircase at the very top of the main structure in the background. This thing was immense. All built with stone. No mortar or cement. Just stone placed on top of stone. We visited two such places. Below is the view from that staircase. Probably 60 feet above the previous picture. It was quite an experience to have been inside a strtucture as old as the pyramids. After touring the Nuraghe, and a quick and tasty lunch at a random restaurant, we headed back to Assemini. There we had a beautiful dinner cooked by Liliana and Carlo. It was our final night.We ate, drank wine, ate, and drank, then toasted our trip. It was a fine end to a trip I didn't expect to take. So much more happened on this trip than just a few concerts. It was a good experience, I made some very close friends. I hope it's not to long before I am able to return to see them. After an emotional goodbye, and a long, delayed plane flight, I'm back in NJ. Back to my wife, and happy to be home resting. Tomorrow, rehearsals, coachings, starbuck's, and performances. Tonight, rest.