Following some quieter days of rehearsals and getting to know our homestay families, Wednesday involved some competition activity.
After the morning rehearsals with the massed choir, we had our own rehearsal at the Berkeley City Club. A large number of choristers then assembled at the Solo competition to support Cassandra Humble and Karl Gieger. The result is on the YAV Facebook page - as usual, Cassie was superb and received many positive comments from the other people in the audience. She looked so calm and composed - not sure the same was happening on the inside!
With a few hours between our next call - many choristers went home for a rest, an early dinner and then returned to the venue - others meandered around Telegraph St, which was bustling with many University students who are attending Summer School. Many restaurants cater for the student population with very good prices and quite reasonable quality. The standard of the decor of the restaurants are typically student eating houses - don't worry about cleaning the floor! Most ask you to put your dishes in a central area after eating - but hey - welcome to California!
We regrouped at 6pm at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley for our Folk and Historical Competition performance (These are two separate competitions performed as part of the same program). This Church is a lovely venue with very high ceilings and quite a good acoustic. We performed with the Beijing Rainbow Art Performance Troupe - with beautifully coloured costumes, and lots of dance and movement, the Barrington Children's Choir from Illinois - a group of approximately 14 girls aged 14 - 17. The Choir of the East Mikeladze Central Music School performed before us, again drawing great applause from the crowd for their small number of children and quite unique sound.
Our Choir really stepped up to the mark tonight - not only a biased view, but from the comments of people in the audience and Christie herself who felt it was of a very good standard. Some minor issues with insufficient lighting through the early part of the performance, and then having lights going on and off during our competition pieces and having a person wandering around side stage was not entirely helpful. However - the Choir did not waiver one bit - a mark of a very professional performance.
Thursday is a big day - with the Contemporary Competition in the afternoon - followed by a spotlight concert tonight. Once again, we will perform with the Beijing Rainbow Art Performance Troupe, followed by YAV, then the Ancora Choir from the local Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir. This will mean lots of local attendees we hope and we know they will be amazed - again!!
I am sure it will take some time after you return to really fully appreciate all the magnificent things you have seen and done.
ReplyDeleteI thank you for the great coverage of your day to day activities.
As your trip is nearing the end and this is probably my last blog before you return , I thought I would share with you my first and only experience on a trip overseas.
Imagine a 12 year old boy(around the 1960 era )with excitement building as I drew closer and closer to the Adelaide Airport.No security to go through in those days and you just walked out onto the tarmat when told to board.The plane was a twin prop ( a little smaller than yours).
Within a few minutes we were in the air.
A Hostess (as they were called then)offered me a barley sugar. I must have been in First Class.
20 minutes in the air and we were making our approach to land on a dirt runway surrounded by bush. A little sign over a shed said "Welcome to Kangaroo Island ". Ahh the memories.Your memories will be a little more exotic than mine.
The humour of this will probably be lost if you don't know where Kangaroo Island is in relation to Adelaide. It really is a beautiful place to visit..
Looking forward to seeing all you weary travellers returning next week to Adelaide safe and sound.