Easterhouse Boy Hits The High Notes
I've recently been exchanging electronic chit-chat with Paul Curran, an old friend from . We both played in the school orchestra. Paul, as I recall, was a talented clarinet player while I wrestled with a big brass baritone euphonium, making the kind of parping noises you associate with car horns in old Laurel & Hardy movies.
I hadn't seen Paul for more than 27 years. The last I heard he had gone off to train with Scottish Ballet but an injury had put paid to his dancing career. So it was good to get an e-mail from him a few weeks ago and then even better when he casually mentioned that he had just been appointed Artistic Director with the Norwegian Opera. He takes up the post in 2009 and will have a brand-new world-class to play with.
That dancing injury, it turns out, forced Paul to switch careers and he has spent the past two decades building his in London, Helsinki, Sydney and New York.
I'm hoping he'll agree to an interview for the Radio Cafe soon, but for the benefit of diary readers I asked Paul to share the secret of his success. Without hesitation he named two teachers - Helen and Frank Kerr - who I would also have to credit with inspiring confidence and pointing to horizons far beyond a Glasgow housing scheme. Let me put it this way: I don't recall our careers officers explaining how you become a world-renowned opera director.
Helen and Frank, says Paul, were "teachers of talent and faith". He also has a few good words for Easterhouse itself:
"Easterhouse was tough, but it makes dealing with the 'real' world a whole lot easier."
Now that's worth making a song and dance about.
