One of my favourite singing coaches decided to come to London and hold a Masterclass. I don’t know how, but I saw the event at the last minute and managed to nab a ticket. I’ve been following him for years and had been to one of his big events in Melbourne which was incredibly inspiring.

This event would be an intimate (say 60 people) Masterclass, in the Kings Road Chelsea, where there was a possibility to get up and work with him on stage. I responded to the survey with a ‘Yes, I’d love to work with you’ and I prepared a song. I received a standard reply to my email… “I can’t get everyone up but who knows, and it will be fun anyway”. Yeah, OK then, I’m just happy to be going.

It was unbelievable to see Per in person in such an intimate environment and I somehow got a seat in the front row. I was sublimely relaxed because I knew he wouldn’t be calling on me. We did some warm up exercises and then he asked the first person to get up and sing and they worked together for about 30 minutes I suppose. Then Per went through his list to call up the next person and he calls out “Ingrid”. And I thought oh how nice there’s another Ingrid here. And because no one answered he goes “Conde?” and I think OH MY GOD – THAT’s ME!!

So there! I played the piano and sang in front of 60 people and he got me to work on the storytelling side of my performance. And everyone clapped and said I sounded lovely and was right on pitch and were all very encouraging. So that was my afternoon really. I’m still buzzing with excitement, and I learnt a lot and am so pleased with myself for getting up and performing even though I was so excited/nervous/scared. It was an amazing experience. Oh, and I managed to get a selfie with him. Thanks Per!