On Sunday we went to hear ‘Yulia’ at an open air concert in the Botanical Gardens here in Christchurch. Yulia and her mother came to NZ from Russia in 2002 when she was 16. Within two years she’d been ‘discovered’ by CTV, Christchurch’s local radio station. She sings classical and popular music and her first album reached number one in the NZ charts. She’s had lots of subsequent success. The concert was part of the Ingham’s ‘Lazy Sundays Music Festival’ put

on by Christchurch Council. Each Sunday over the summer free concerts are held on the Archery Lawn of the beautiful Botanical Gardens (near our house swap).

We enjoyed listening to Yulia’s eclectic mix of songs, sung in Russian, English, French, German and Spanish! (She is apparently fluent in 9 languages!) One of my favourites was ‘If you go away..’ although I have to say I wish she’d sung it in French or English on this occasion rather than in German.