Future Classic Women Awards – Lucy Kay & Russell Painter

Good morning and welcome to Future Classic Women Awards with me, Stefania Passamonte on women's radio station, the program where we search for the most amazing new female artist on the classical panorama. Today is our seventh episode in the lockdown of Future Classic Women Awards and our special guests are Lucy Kay and Russell Painter. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning, Lucy. She has been a guest of a nominee of Future Classic Women Awards in our very first edition. So how are you, Lucy? Where are you right now? I met my sisters in Leicester. We thought we'd lock down together. So I've just come back from Oslo about. I think it was 65 days ago where I was working. Yeah. So this is where I am at the moment, so I've got some company, so that's nice. Fantastic. And you, Russell, you've been a guest of a Future Classic Woman Awards on our very first concert and you sang with the winner of the classical crossover. That was, oh, my gosh, silly of me, I know, it was. It was rather. It was rather disconcerting to be just full of female artists. It's wonderful, though. Wonderful. Yeah. You came out as a surprise last minute from the audience singing west side Story. I certainly gave my mother a shock when she heard it. So where are you now, Russell? What is your lockdown? I'm at my house in Worcestershire. So, yes, it's rather interesting, this whole lockdown business. Of course, with all the singing work being cancelled, it means I've been able to do a lot more stuff in the garden. All right. And baking. I've seen you baking. You bake incredible. You know, you make incredible pictures. I hope they taste as good as they look. Well, I've not had any complaints so far. Very good, very good. So we're actually here together today because we thought about recording a video in support of the nhs. So I've been asked many times to record the house concert, but for piano, it's really difficult, particularly if you don't have the proper sound engineering gear. And so we thought actually a collaboration would be more fun and. And more interesting. And we were very excited of sharing our love for all the key workers that are working right now to keep us safe. So who had the idea, actually? Well, I think it wasn't it me. I think it was. I think I came up with the idea of the west side Story. Stefanie, you and I spoke about this a while ago and I think it would just be a great idea to, as you said, show our support for the wonderful people who are keeping us safe while we're all locked down in our homes. And west side Story is one of those wonderful musicals that is timeless and endless. And the music, I think, can really speak to people. It's a story about endless love. And even though they are being forced apart by certain people and forces within their community, they still manage to find each other and happiness throughout most of the show. Of course, those of you who know west side Story knows it doesn't end perfectly well, is an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. So unfortunately, Shakespeare decided to kill them both. And that's what everybody's doing. Well, yeah. And of course, you know, Lucy and I being Romeo and Juliet in this particular moment, it works perfectly because you are apart and you cannot be together. I know, it's amazing. I don't want to speak for Lucy as well, but it seems incredible that we have the wonderful technology to be able to record, you know, three of us, to be able to record this wonderful music and be so far apart, be at least 100 miles away from each other. Well, I think that that's what kind of brings everybody together during these times is music that has been the sole thing that has brought the whole world together. I think it's beautiful. So it's very fitting that we are doing west side Story, which is based and inspired on William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. So I think it is very fitting. Absolutely. And it was fun. We have to say it's not easy because you can see there was a video I saw recently about a composer who made a composition specifically on the difficultness of doing the synchronization of the parts and of the videos and. Yeah, but it's been fun and we hope the people will like it and the key workers will be pleased as well. Now, actually, I wanted to ask Russell, I know you've been doing some very interesting things through Facebook Live, like live concerts on the theme of west side Story. I've seen it on Bugsy Malone. How did that come up? Well, I was just asked by a group of people if I could every Friday just play songs from certain musicals. So, once again, it's another thing for the community, getting the community spirit up and going. And so, yes, every Friday at 7 o', clock, I sit at the piano and put Facebook Live on and sing along to musicals that are requested. So each week a different musical will get requested by different people, and then I decide which musical I think would be appropriate. So, yes, last week was west side Story and Bugsy Malone. Both extremely different, but both I love for very different reasons. That's so Much fun. No, I think we're very lucky also to have accessibility to all this access to all this incredible music and all these performers that are available at request through Facebook, you know, to be able to share their talent and their music is something very special. Well, I know all of us would rather be back on stage performing, entertaining for people, but I think it's a. It's a wonderful way that we can use our talent to help inspire, boost the community in any way that we can. We know that other people are doing it in other sectors, so why shouldn't we use our love for the arts and our passion for music to do exactly the same? Absolutely. Now, Lucy, you said you were in Oslo right before the lockdown. So what were you doing Oslo? How was to come back to London? Not to London, but to Leicester. Right. So I work on a cruise ship some of the time, every. Every other two weeks and we sail to Norway. Oslo. Y. So it's one of my favorite places to be. And unfortunately, we are obviously contract was cut short because obviously the growing fears of what was happening in the world. And at first I don't think anyone realized how serious it was. I certainly didn't. I thought, oh, it's just another case of kind of like swine flu, which I had when I went to China. I was there during that. Yes. And then so I kind of thought, well, it's fine. It's, you know, it's not nice, but people get over it. But then everybody, people, the death rate was just ridiculous. So then Norway decided that they were going to close their borders and if we hadn't got a flight by the morning, we were going to be in lockdown on the ship. So luckily enough, our wonderful production company, Berlin King and Reflection Studios, managed to get us flights early in the morning and we did leave. And as we left, that was when they closed the borders. So we were very, very luck. But I do miss it. I really miss working. I miss singing because it's kind of like a family on the ship as well that we have. So I miss all that interaction and what I've been used to for the past seven months. So, yeah, it's very different difficult as well because obviously work has stopped for us. So it's nice to just be putting music out there online with. With other people as well and not just on our own. So, you know, it does bring us back together again. Yeah. Russell, you instead, where were you when you. When you had to go in lockdown? Oh, where was it? Well, actually, one of the first times I realized how bad the lockdown was. I was actually at an Equity meeting, the Equity Actors Union. I'm on the singers committee for Equity. And yes, I was in central London. And I realized then I thought this is getting quite desperate now. And you saw all the people on the tube wearing masks and central London was extremely quiet. You walked around Covent Garden. I actually took a picture garden and it was spooky. Absolutely. This is going back in. Oh, this is going back towards the beginning of March. Yes, so. Yes, so I was in central London. I realized it would probably be a very good job for me to get out of central London and get back home. And yes, so I've been. I've been here ever since. I haven't, bizarrely, I haven't used the car in almost six weeks now. Nice. Well that, that's the good after lockdown. Well, let's listen now. One hand, One heart from Bernstein, west side Story with Lucy K as Maria Russell, painter as Tony and me at the piano. I, Anton, take thee Marie. I, Maria, take thee, Anton. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. To love unstrung, honor to hold and to keep. From each sun to each moon, from tomorrow to tomorrow, from now to forever, Till death do us part. With this spring I thee wed. With this ring I thee wed. May God of host those one lost love. Will come. Lo. Wonderful. And this was one man, Van Hart from Bernstein west side Story with Lucy Kay and Russell Penter and me at the piano. Now Lucy scored their first number one after debut album Fantasia, shot again, shot straight to the top of the classical album charts. So we are here today actually to promote Lucy's upcoming second album, Dark Angel. Lucy, would you like to tell us some more about it? Yes. So I've been very fortunate enough to release, hopefully will soon be releasing a new album, Dark Angel. And the inspiration behind this is there is a lot of. Obviously today we'll hear more classical based songs but in the album we have taken songs such as Creep Poison by Alice Cooper and turned them on their heads and made them into classical pieces. And because I have such a love for rock and heavy metal music and, and other kinds of music that you know that really classical singers don't usually sing or listen to. But so my love, I just wanted to bring it in together but also by kind of joining them but not alienating my current fans but also by hopefully gaining new ones to know that, you know, I am creating music that is or covering music that is, you know, not stylistic of a classical singer. So yeah, so we. We have some pretty good hits in there. And the classic ones I've chosen, which I've never performed before, I think are just as beautiful for obviously, people that love true classical music. I worked with a producer called Robin Hoffman. We recorded our album in the vocals in BER and use the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Yes. So we recorded that at the Dvorak hall as well. In Prague. Yes. So we've got lots of videos from that, which is stunning. And the album turned out just how I wanted it to, if not better. So I'm very, very pleased with that. Yeah. Wow. We can't wait to listen to it, really. So how. So you told us how you decided the program in a way. So it's a crossing over. Right. You know, putting your hands forward to any other type of audience and style to try to combine really, classical music into different direction, in new direction. So that's quite exciting. How was the composing of the original song that you have in your. In your album? Did you do that yourself or you had some. Some other composer helping with the arrangement? So Robin Hoffman, who I was working with, was the producer and the arranger. So we. We were doing this via email and we were just chatting. Yeah. So we were talking about how I wanted the song, the music to. To kind of be very stylistic in certain ways. And he. He took the idea straight away and said, this is what I've always wanted to do. So we kind of came together on a lot of the music that we wanted to put down. We cut them down to 10 tracks and there was a song in there by Soundgarden, Black Hole sun, that we both put in our lists. So we both had the same ideas. Yeah. So that had to go in. That's a song I've wanted to do since I was 16. So. Yeah. And it turned out. It's so magical how it turned out. But there was things that he kept relaying back to me and I would tweak and send it back to him, but he just took my ideas and ran with it and it just, like I said, came out far better than I even imagined. So, yes, I have him to thank for all these wonderful arrangements. Now I'd like to ask you, I mean, in the classical training, this is something that no one is teaching you. No one really tells you to take a rock song and to turn it into a classical opera crossover. So how did you decide to go into this direction? So to leave the classical opera towards this more avant garde, if you like, avant garde opera singing? Well, I have always felt like I was probably the odd one out at music college, so I studied at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgo and I remember my vocal teachers and my lecturers always saying to me, oh, we'll kind of like bash that out of you. You'll want to do opera straight. That's what you will do. You know, you've got these wild ideas, but you will kind of turn and want to do a straight opera. But I never did. And I always thought there was something more that, you know, that the classical world needed and there's a lot of that these days. There's lots of performers and composer creating this beautiful music. My album is very, is, is very cinematic and film esque. It's based on a lot of Hans Zimmer style. And I just, I mean, I've always loved like rock music, so I just thought, why not, why not? Why cannot, why can we not put classical music in with rock songs? They, they merge fantastically and we just need to give it a new spin because then I think people will really start to enj and then they will move over into the classical side and go, oh, actually I do like more classical music than they originally thought. And I think it just, it brings a whole lot of good to the classical side as well with, with adding a twist to it. Totally, totally agree. Russell, you too have started with the proper classical training and then you have gone into becoming a music director working on the West End. How did you make this passage and how. I mean, you always loved opera and actually west side Story, the piece that we've chosen to record, is a modern opera, basically. So it's not a musical, it's a proper opera. Bernstein was an incredible composer, classical composer. So, Russell, it's rather interesting listening to what Lucy was saying about music college because I had a bit of a similar sort of story really. I went to the Guildhall School of Music and I always felt that there was something missing. I'll always quote something that Stephen Sondheim, who is the lyricist of west side Story, says he said he would always prefer an actor that sings to a singer that acts. So how you want to interpret that, I don't. Okay. I always found that there was not enough at college about really getting involved into a piece of theatre. The one thing you really need for a piece like west side Story is you need to believe the characters. And yes, I mean, I was always being pushed towards the operatic world. Don't get me wrong, I love opera. One of my favorite operas is Peter Grimes. Real heavy, heavy dark opera. I mean, I love La Boheme. You know, you and I performed Cajolida Manina, I think, many times. Oh, yeah, When? When we were at Henry Woodhouse. Yes. But I think things like this from Bernstein really is able to invoke both worlds. I mean, you take one hand, one heart that we've just done. I mean, it's quite a challenging piece for both Tony and Maria because it's very languid, it's very slow, and Bernstein definitely wants a particular sort of sound and especially in this dynamic. Although, interestingly, Stefan, you might not know this, but it's rumored that this piece actually Bernstein and Sondheim switched roles. I didn't know Bernstein wrote the lyrics. Wow. Time wrote the music. So it's never published. Of course it's published that Sondheim wrote the lyrics and Bernstein wrote the music for the whole thing. Yes. Rumored that they actually switched at this point, which I think kind of makes sense because there's a lot of, dare I put it in inverted commas, Sondheim esque sounds in one hand, one heart. Very different to the balcony scene, which later on. But the switch definitely between opera and musical theatre is not that great, really. And one of the things, as being a professional musical director and working a lot in musical theatre is like with Lucy saying, well, why can't these two things merge? Why can't these two things mix? And, you know, the. The guy who actually played the lead in the original production of We Will Rock youk, the Queen musical, was actually a trained opera singer. Yeah. So you know these things. Well, you look at Mr. Freddie Mercury, I mean, he was actually one of his vocal teachers was, you know, an opera singer. You know, these things do go hand in glove, really. And I think it's the one thing that I'm really keen on is getting these two things to really, really merge. And there's a lot of projects I have in mind with being able to merge opera and musical theatre. But that's. Maybe that may be a discussion for another time. Absolutely. Well, Lucy, we're gonna listen from your album, from your upcoming album, Yuti Penso Amore. Would you like to tell us something about this song? Yes. So this is actually a. A song that I saw and heard on the film the Devil's Violinist. And David Garrett was. Was playing his violin and. And there was a beautiful singer on there that performed this and it's by Pag Paganini and it was. It's just so beautiful. So I thought, you know, I'm going to put about three to four Classical pieces on on my album but make them very film esque in style. So that's why I chose that song. Fantastic. So let's listen. Yoti Pensamore with Lucy K and the Philharmonic in choir of Prague Orchestra SA. Jesus. Bro. Sam. Sa. Is it? And this was Utipe and so more by Paganini with Lucy K and the Philharmonic Enquirer of Prague how beautiful. This is really very beautiful piece. And also very difficult because you have to have such a large range, isn't it? Yes, especially the lower part. That was incredible. Thank you. Now I'd like to talk a little bit with Russell. So Russell is a very. Well, let's not say that old. A very young friend of mine in the sense that we met few years ago when we were students, both of us a few years ago. Yes. We never said that on the radio. So we were living in this incredible residence for musicians and there were students from Royal Academy Guildall Royal College and it was in Trinity. It was an incredible place because we were, you know, in a musical environment. We were cooking together, we were having dinner together. Sometimes we would do improvise the concerts in the living room. You remember? Well, I think the reason that you kept on cooking all the time was the reason that we remained friends. Absolutely. We were having these crazy dinners and then there was this fantastic old piano, English piano Broadbut I think something like that. Yeah. And we would just improvise concerts after having had wine and I don't know what was. I don't remember what was coming out of it but it was a lot of fun. But you have to think, don't you, I mean you wonder how much people would have paid to hear those concerts. They were having opera singers, they were having pianists, cellists, violinists. It was incredible really. You imagine if the. The audience would have been let into Henry Wood House? Absolutely. I had my father coming to visit and he was like he's a musician. He couldn't believe how beautiful what was what we were making there. How fantastic was the atmosphere and the. Because we were all young and talented and full of dreams for an incredible future and actually most of us managed to fulfill their dreams. So that was a very special place, a lucky place to be. And so Russell, you've done a lot in the meantime. Would you like to tell us some of your incredible achievement in your career? Well, I suppose. I suppose that one of my big guilty pleasures as Lucy was talking about rock music, one of my big guilty pleasures is Gilbert and Sullivan. Yes, the boy operas. So I work for The Grimm's Dyke Opera Company which performs the works of Gilbert and Sullivan at his home in Harrow. Oh wow. So Grimsdyke was Gilbert, Gilbert's home and Lady Gilbert actually wrote a stipend into the lease of the house that the operas have to be performed at the house. Wow. So the, so you know, every month. Well not at the moment of course, because the, the hotel's in lockdown. But the last performance I did was the Pirates of Penzance and so the, the audience come and have dinner and then they watch a fully staged costumed performance. Pirate of Penzance or whatever opera. The only thing you're not allowed to perform is you're not allowed to perform works by Sullivan only. Ah. So apparently the rumor goes that Sullivan, Sullivan wrote a little one act opera called Cox and Box. But the words aren't by Gilbert, they're by a guy called F.C. bernand. All right. And apparently if you mention Cox and Box in the, in the main hall, in the music room, the, the, the picture of Lady Gilbert shakes. No way. Apparently, apparently Cox and Box was performed there once and apparently one of the pictures actually did fall down. Wow. Because it's not before, you know, the words aren't by her, her beloved Gilbert. So I think the knowledge on that is by my wonderful friend Bruce Graham. I think he was actually there when that happened. So yes, Gilbert and Sullivan is one of my, one of my guilty pleasures. So I love performing that. I'm also a big fan of barbershop music. I've got a barbershop quartet so I do like singing that. So that's, that's my sort of getaway, I suppose from musical theatre and opera. Fantastic. But in terms of my professional things, a couple of years ago I made my West End debut as a musical director at the Other Palace. I know, I've seen that. Yeah. Performing a lovely little piece called Bayside the Musical which is based on an American TV program called Saved by the Bell. And I worked that with my, my wonderful friend and director Michael Neri for Michael Neri Theatrical Ltd. And so then in, in terms of my, my other singing work, I do a lot of entertaining for city dinners. I'm involved in a singing waiters group would you believe, with a group called AKA Opera. So I do a lot of that. That. Wow. Because I, I am an entertainer first of all. Really. Indeed. You've always been, as you remember, entertain the crowd. The most important thing. You've always been always very proactive. I remember that. And never afraid of just trying new things. So I remember, I think I was practicing Brahms or something like that. You came in, it was like one of the first day, and you said, okay, now shall we play West? I started like, wow, that, you know, and I never, ever touched anything that wasn't classical solo piano. So that's how you just. You threw me into the middle of playing. We played. We played so many other pieces, and I really loved it. You know, I've always been a big fan of opera and musical. And. And that's Stefania Bernstein. Bernstein was a. Was an incredible musician himself. I mean, absolutely play. He could play every one of Marla's symphonies from memory. And. And so, you know, well, there's a. There's a lot of Marla influence in. In his music. But I. I think we're. We're going to hear at some point Maria. He. Bernstein actually didn't like Maria. Would you believe he didn't like the song? He didn't really care for it. He wrote it within half an hour. Wow. I know. I mean, you know, you hear about composers and, you know, musical people, you know, spending hours and hours over lyrics and music trying to get right, but yet compose something like that within half an hour, I think. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Yeah. And it's something that, you know, just stick to you forever. My daughter was listening to the song the other day and you performing, because we were listening what we're going to play in the radio interview. And my. My daughter is called Lucia and her best friend is called Maria, with family from Puerto Rico. So really, in theme with the website story, Lucha was like, I want him to say Lucia, not Maria. But she loved it so much that she just kept listening to the song over and over again. It would fit. Of course, the. The Lucia would fit. Fit as well as Marie. Absolutely. Yes. One day I'll do. I'll do for Lucia that she would love that. She would. Wonderful. Now, how did you get involved? How did you become a part of the committee for the. The Singing Committee for Equity? That's very important because once again, I. I think, like, what. What's. What's happening around. Around, you know, at the moment, around the world in terms of helping out your community? The. The one thing I realized is I thought I'd been an equity member for a very, very long time. Even when we were students, I was. I was a student member, and I thought that they came up for elections, and I thought, this is somewhere where I think I can hopefully make a difference and help, you know, with the policy of the. Of singers within. Within the union. Yeah. So I just put my, I put my statement forward and I was very lucky to be elected. I've just been re elected back onto the committee again. And I think the great thing about the union and working with people who are very similarly minded on the committee is that we can help make the industry a better place for singers. And that singers know that we have their back, that we can really help them. And it's really important to me that all of my fellow committee members are still working within the industry. They're very, very different areas. You know, with me doing a lot of stuff in terms of my city dinners and entertaining for weddings and things like that. And then we've got people on the committee who do a lot of radio, do a lot of work for the gaming. Would you believe gaming is a very, very big thing for singers these days. Working on voicing for games. All right, very big thing. And obviously we've got people who are involved really heavily in the opera world. So it's so nice to be involved and to help with policy really and to help see that we can create a better environment for our fellow musicians. Now before we listen to your version of Maria, I'd like to ask you, both, you and Lucy, what would be your favorite opera to sing and. Or your favorite operation musical to sing? Oh, you're asking a double edged sword. Well, for me, in terms of musical theatre, I suppose that's quite easy. I would love, absolutely love to play Jean Valjean. Oh, let me set up. I think I'm getting to the age now where I can, I can play Jean Valjean. No, I don't think so. No, no, no, no, you're still too young. Don't say that. Cameron McIntosh might be listening. I mean, yes, in terms of a musical, I would love to play Jean Valjean because one of my, one of my party pieces is Bring him Home. Yeah, that is again another very operatic piece, so. Oh yes, absolutely. Although Pizzali in the score, Jean Valjean is considered dramatic baritone, which doesn't make any sense to me in terms of turns of opera, just purely for the fact of the, the beautiful music. It's Rodolfo. I mean the music in that is just stunning. But it also links to one, another favorite musical of mine called Rent. Okay. Which is the story of Laborer. I heard of that. Yeah, but I mean, just the gorgeous Puccini melody when you know, they do the duets together between him and Marcello, it's just stunning. And for you, Lucy, what would that be? Mine would be for musical Theatre. It would be west side Story. It would be Maria, because I absolutely adore the role. I think it's so beautiful. She's so innocent. And the love is obviously based on Romeo and Juliet, and I'm a For any love story with a death scene at the end. So. Yeah, so that. That would be a wonderful role. I'd love to play that. And also opera. It would be Madame Butterfly. I saw one of my singing teachers. Yeah, I saw one of my singing teachers perform that, and I literally. I'm just blown away by the music. And it just. Honestly, I love Puccini and I think his music is so beautiful. So that would. Yeah, Madame Butterfly would be one for me that I would just love, love to be in one day. Maybe. Lucy, we should do a concert version of west side Story. Why don't we do that? Yes, why don't we do that? Why don't we do that? Let's do it. Okay. I want to be part of it, too, please. Yes, let's do it. Well, Stefania, you'll be conducting, surely? Absolutely. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, now let's listen to Maria with Russell Painter as Tony. The most beautiful sound I ever heard Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria. All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria I just met a girl named Maria and certainly that name will never be the same to me Maria I just kissed a girl named Maria and suddenly I found how wonderful a sound can be Maria say it loud and there's music, music playing say it soft and it's almost like praying Maria I'll never stop saying Maria Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria say it loud and there's music playing say it soft and it's almost like praying Maria I'll never stop saying Maria. The most beautiful sound I ever hear Marie. How beautiful. The harmonies from Bernstein. West side Story. Maria. And the voice of Rustic Painter. Really fantastic. Now we are in the last part of our future classic Women Awards. 7th episode in the lockdown, and it's time for the odd question. Lucy, we asked you before, when you first came to the show, if you had any hobby to free your mind or relax? Would you like to remind us about your favorite hobby? Yes. Oh, hobbies. I've got quite a few now, especially in quarantine. Well, I like to do a bit of Muay Thai, actually, so that always calms me down. Muay Thai, which is obviously a form of martial arts. Okay. Wow. Dangerous, Lucy. Yes. But before I go on stage, I actually do just love A cup of tea and I love to eat some chocolate as well which is very bad coming from a classical singer. Dairy. But that, that just for me a little, in fact I haven't had, if I'm honest, I haven't had chocolate for about six weeks now. So that's gone out. Gone out the window. Yes. I'm trying to be a bit more healthier but usually before I go on stage that's, that's something kind of like just relaxes me as well. So that's what I always do. I always have a piece of chocolate because it give you the sugar for the brain. Yeah. But I'm a pianist so I honestly love the chocolate tying my vocal cords. Right. Yeah, absolutely. But for some people they find that that's quite, you know, that's quite bad. But for me it never has really affected me. If I had more than one cube of chocolate then probably it would. But I just have a little bit. Yeah. Guilty pleasure. A new Russian. Russell, what do you have as a hobby to relax your mind? Well, I think we've, I think we touched on it a little earlier on. One of my major hobbies is baking. Yeah. So I, the, the reason that came about is because I, when my brother turned 40, I bought him a bread making course and I went with him. I was amazed at how easy it was and this wonderful guy called Mark woods was really everything about bread he was so enthusiastic about. So then I bought Paul Hollywood's bread making book and I've never looked back since. But the other day I didn't do bread, I made, I made scones or scones, whichever way you want to pronounce it. So But I made sweet and savory. Apart from the bread making, one of my other keen hobbies is I'm a very big gardener, something that I've inherited from my, my father. So I've got quite a substantial garden and all the, all the vegetables are in at the moment. We've got potatoes and green beans and tomatoes. So very, very much green fingered as well. I once read a wonderful book about the Zen and the archery. That is one of the seven art. And among them of course there is gardening and there is making tea and these are all incredible things really that you don't realize you can do anywhere at any time. But they give such a peace of mind, isn't it? Well, I think it's very important and hopefully Lucy will back me up on this. I think it's very important for people who are involved in the arts to have a hobby that is not involved in any way with music. You know what? Yeah. Actually, I had the question before when you were talking about the performance of the Sullivan and in the. In the house of Lady Gilbert, and that was about ghost. So have you ever felt the presence of ghost in music? I had a guest on the Future Classic Women Awards, the organist Helen Kedros, and she was saying, keven, this show. And she was saying that she could feel totally the energy of spirits when she would perform at night in the churches. So did you have experience like that, like at the Gilbert and Sullivan residence or. Definitely. If you're in a very certain place, if you're in a very certain building, I think you can definitely feel something. I mean, when you perform at Grimm's Dyke, you certainly do get that feeling that, you know, that Gilbert is there watching over you and making sure you don't get. But I think it's the same if you go and perform at the Albert hall or you perform in St. Paul's Cathedral. You know, Lucy, have some experience with this as well. You know, I recently performed at the Birmingham Symphony hall and there's definitely a feeling of not just grandeur, but I think once you start thinking about all the other incredible artists that perform there. So Simon Rattle, Luciano Pavarotti. You certainly get the feeling that this is. This is a wonderful place to make music and to show off your craft. Absolutely. And you, Lucy? Yeah, I totally agree. I do think that especially when you walk into a place of such grandeur and everything, you do feel that even when you're. There's sometimes when I've been on my own, just before I'm about to go for a rehearsal there or a sound check, and you can take it all in. And that, I feel, can be quite spine tingling and. And can make you feel quite small in a way, because, you know, all these people that have performed there before you, and you're just another one that's doing that. It's amazing. I mean, small in a lovely way. It just makes you feel so, you know, kind of overwhelmed by it all. So. Yeah, I do agree with. With what Russell just said there. Yeah. Yes. Okay, now the last question. Do you have any funny moment or embarrassing moment that you recall in your career going on stage or preparing for a concert? Oh, too many. Yes. Recently I was performing. I'm trying to think what song it was. I think it was a Queen song, actually. And we were doing a lot of dancing and I remember my. I'd lost quite a bit of weight and I think I'd Got. I'd gone down a stone and a half and my outfits had to be taken in, but unfortunately I still had the same bras and obviously gone down bra size and I. I was just like, yeah, it'll be fine. It was fine. It's still on. But obviously when you ex. Exhale, obviously it. It fell and the. The clasp opened and literally my. Yes, my bra was inside my outfit and luckily enough it was. It was a. It was near. Near enough on. On the tight side as it had been taken in. So it held it there, but it was round. It was below my sternum. Yeah. So. And I had to rush off and quickly. Well, I just had to take it off and then go back on stage. Wow. All right. And you're assumed. I think I. I don't think I've really ever had a sort of costume malfunction. Yeah. But I was performing for quite a high end corporate gig and the. I was with two wonderful sopranos and suddenly they, you know, we were in the middle of the act and it was all going well and then the next track clicked in and it was the Toreador Now. And I looked over to the two sopranos and something had obviously happened with the tracks. Yeah. The Toreador song came on. Now bear in mind, there was no baritone. Okay. And I was staged. These two sopranos just looked at me and. And it was like, off you go. I've never sung the Corregidor before. Oh my gosh. Did you know the words? Well, I've been. I've been in Carmen then quite a few times, but as Don Jose. Yes. So I don't know how it happened, but I managed to do the first verse on the first chorus. I don't know how I'd. In. In French. I don't know how I did it. Yes. But luckily that gave. That gave one of the sopranos enough time to get to the sound guy to say after the first chorus, just fade it down. I tell you what, that. That was probably one of the most nerve wracking moments of my. I can't imagine. Well, unfortunately our interview is already gone to the end. It goes too fast. So we're gonna end the interview with Red Rose, Red Rose by Lucy K. Upcoming album Dark Angel. Sam. My love is like a red, red rose that's newly sprung in June My love is like a melody so sweetly made into a spirit Though all the seas gone dry Though all the seas gone dry. O the sea's gone dry my. And rocks me out with the sun I will love the still mighty the sands of life shall run so my only love and fairy will. Come to you again though it's. Sam. So beautiful. This was Red Rose Red Rose with Lucy K and the film Harmonic Choir of Prague from upcoming album Dark Angel. If you have any questions that you would like to ask to our guest or nomination for our Future Classic Women awards, please email presentersomensradiostation.com or tweet us. Womensradiostn Again, a big thanks to our guest Lucy Kaye and Russell Painter for the great chat and the beautiful music played today. Thank you very much. Thank you for having us. Russell and Lucy was so much fun. You've been listening to Future Classic Women Awards on women's radio station Live every day at 10am and 10pm London time. If you would like to listen to it again or catch up on our previous programs, you can head to the presenters page. Stefania Passamonte Future Classic Women Awards on womensradiostation.com thank you for listening.