What can I say about Measha?
What a talent! The first time I say her perform was at UPEI before she was married and I knew her as Measha Gosman. My friend and I were both studying music at UPEI and always like to shake things up. A friend of ours begged us to go to this concert because "We HAD to hear Measha!!". Not huge fans of Opera, we decided to go but we decided to close our eyes once the lights went down and force ourselves not to listen without looking for at least the first song....just because! and wow...that first song was an unbelieveable experience. Akin to being blind and the other senses taking over, her voice affected me in a way I never expected and it was a surreal aural moment that I'll never forget. I've never been more sucked in to a performance.
When the piece was over I opened my eyes and it all fit. She had the stage presence of a real opera singer...not just a "voice major who sings opera"...this was my first "Real" experience hearing someone singing opera as it should be sung.
A few years later I was in Sydney, NS with the Jive Kings for the 2000 ECMAs and Measha was singing on the TV Broadcast. Again I was blown away by her performance. At the post awards show party I saw her and had this little "speech" prepared to tell her how wonderful her singing was. So I went up to her and before I said two words she said "I Know you!!!!" It startled me so much because I didn't know how. But she remembered me from that UPEI performance years before when I had spoken to her after the performance.
That's what Measha is like. She's very down-to-earth, yes...a self-proclaimed Diva with Diva Qualities, but very down-to-earth and tres cool.
I had the wonderful oppurtunity to later work with Measha a number of times, including the Jive Kings second CD where she did 5 tracks, Indian River Festival, St. John Jazz Festival, and a live radio-cbc broadcast in Fredericton where she specificially requested Alan Dowling ( Jive Kings drummer) and myself to perform with her. What an awesome experience! Plain and Simple - Measha is great! I hope to work with her again sometime soon.