Tuesday, October 16- Fall Tour

It is the morning of our long trip home. Mitch just handed me the journal, and with a feeling I could not possibly have anything interesting to say about a 10 hour bus ride, I made up my mind to reflect on some of the trip. Tara is already fast asleep in her bus seat. It looks like after 8 concerts, 6 home stays, and too much lasagna to measure, even the Bel Canto energizer bunny needs a break. We all worked hard this week and I believe it really showed in the quality of our performances as we went. I was especially proud of our last concert (aside from the horrible bullfrog croak that came out of my mouth when I meant to sing the last note of “Wake Every Breath”). We really put all of our energy into that performance, which was ironic because the audience was fairly unresponsive. The musical highlight of this trip for me was the last time we sang “Ich Freue Mich.” Our focus and intensity was amazing! We were bound and determined to get the audience to clap and we gave it all we had. It was exhilarating to realize what we are capable of, and there was a moment of absolute silent after we finished where choir and audience alike held their breath and nobody moved. Then someone in the audience whispered, “wow…” On our long bus ride home, we stopped in St. Louis to take pictures by the arch and explore Union Station. We were glad to stretch our legs, play hacky-sack, and torment the fish in the artificial river. As it got darker, we turned on some overhead lights in the bus and talked about the trip. The most mentioned favorite memory: laughing. Times we got the giggles before concerts, during concerts, after concerts, in rehearsals (especially the time in Archbold in “Vamuvamba” when Kelsey came in with the tenors and we laughed so hard we had to stop rehearsal…), times on the bus, late at night, or laughing all the time at Ken’s quirky comments, Bradley’s random jokes, and Alvin’s running commentary. This has been an amazing trip, full of fun memories, bonding as a choir, and great music. I’m looking forward to our next tour!

~Caroline Clymer