UK Tour Day 10

By: Zoe Blickenderfer, Premier Choir

Zoe has been in BCC for 5 years. She is 17 years old.

On our tenth day of tour, after packing and eating breakfast at the hotel we left Birmingham and headed to London.

After being on the bus for a couple of hours we arrived at Uxbridge High School in West London. We were there as part of a collaboration with Teach First (which is a lot like Teach for America) and we got to split up into groups to have a sort of exchange with the kids (the name high school might bring images of teenagers, but we worked with their youngest students ages 11 and 12). We split up into three groups: PC had two groups of girls, and Young Men’s had all of the boys. In my group, after introducing ourselves, we decided to teach them We Are Together, which is a simple, but very rewarding and heartwarming song. Some girls even joined Allana on the solo part. We then taught them a song that many of them already knew: Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep.” However, when we worked with Depot Arts in Glasgow earlier on the trip we learned other parts to make the song even better! After our teaching session we went back into the large room that we started in and shared with the other groups. First, the boys started off with a beautiful rendition of Meguru, and then the two groups of girls sang We Are Together. Finally, everybody jumped in for Rolling in the Deep. It was a really great experience to get to teach music, and really gave me an insight into how difficult it must be for music teachers!

After we said goodbye to Uxbridge High, we ate our lunches on the bus as we headed to the BBC studios to see a rehearsal of the BBC singers! Not only was it wonderful that we got to see them rehearse, but we got such a warm welcome! Their producer was very kind and even gave us some BBC pencils and postcards! The rehearsal was exceptional, and their professionalism and talent was phenomenal and definitely inspiring for many of us, as it gave us a glimpse into what it would be like to be a professional choral singer. We left on a high note, and were off to our final stop of the day, St. Paul’s Girls’ School, to meet our host families. Getting to have host families is such a great opportunity, especially in a foreign country, because it really allows us to be immersed in the other culture (in this case British culture) to a whole different level than if we were staying in a hotel. Unfortunately, there were not enough hosts for everybody, so a lot of the Young Men had to stay in nearby hotels. All in all it was a very fun and exciting day!!!

What We're Up To: Concert Choir Tour to Worcester and Shrewsbury

By: Maddie Mechem, Concert Choir

Maddie has been in BCC for 4 years. She is 15 years old.

The first weekend of April, Concert Choir went on a three-concert excursion to Worchester and Shrewsbury, just about two hours outside Boston. Our first performance was with the Worcester Children’s Chorus and the Young People’s Chorus. These choirs are really good, and were really similar to BCC, especially in the professional, engaging way they performed. It looked like they were having fun but taking it seriously, and that is what we try to do.

Concert Choir Performs at Wesley United Methodist Church

Our first concert was in the Wesley United Methodist Church, at a benefit concert for CASA. CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates) is an organization that provides abused or neglected children with volunteers who support them through the legal and social services systems. As part of participating in this concert, we were asked to donate books to CASA, which we did. The money raised from the concert was given to CASA, to help them continue their efforts to help children. All three of the choirs performed several songs by themselves, and all three came together to perform Sahayta (“helpfulness” in Sanskrit), which uses words from about 14 languages to express peace, and We Will, which carries a message of hope. These two were the finale pieces, and after these, we went to meet up with our home-stay families.

A home-stay involves two or more singers being put together in someone’s house to spend the night, with the idea being that they learn more about other people in the choir and in the communities we visit. For this home-stay, I was paired up with three other girls - Laura, Ify, and Madison, and we stayed with the LaBelle family. We all enjoyed talking to their daughter, Blair, and they were extremely nice to us.

After spending the night with our home-stays, we regrouped at First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury, for a concert with their Youth Singers, during Sunday morning services. We sang four hymns, as well as Al Shlosha, a Hebrew text; This Is The Day, which is a gospel piece; and a chorale from Bach’s Cantata 1.

Concert Choir singers prepare for Sunday morning service
at First Congregational Church of Shrewsbury

Spencer with a spear at Higgins Armory Museum

After the service, we made the most of our free time before our concert later in the day, and went to the Higgins Armory Museum. This museum has pieces of armor from around the world, and from across the centuries, as well. Most of the choir went to an arms and armor demonstration, where volunteers could hold pieces of chain mail and weaponry. One Concert Choir member, Isaac, got to hold a piece of chain mail in his hand while the guide ran a hand-and-a-half sword over it (Isaac was totally fine, as the chain mail protected his hand). Another singer, Spencer, got to hold a spear, which was at least three feet taller than he is.

Author, Maddie Mechem, at the Armory Museum

After about two hours of touring the museum, we left for our final concert of the tour, also at First Congregational. We performed by ourselves, and sang most of the songs we’d been rehearsing over the past few weeks, including Oseh Shalom, Sahayta, This Is The Day, and Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round. We also performed Pata Pa’ca, a song from Venezuela which was meant for a college level choir. The audience seemed impressed by that fact, and the fact that we did really well on it. After this last concert, we said goodbye to those who were leaving with their families, and packed up for the trip back to Boston. I think that, all in all, the tour let everyone in the choir come together and meet people they didn’t know all that well, and it is definitely an experience worth repeating.

Joint Concert and Hosting Experience with Carmina from the Czech Republic!

Guest Writer: Nina Goodman, Premier Choir

With this being my second year in BCC, I am still surprised by all the great things that we are able to do. When my mother and I arrived at the airport to pick up the six Czech choristers from the Czech choir, I had assumed that it would be like when the choir from Chicago had stayed with my family the past year. But, to my astonishment, it was an entirely different cultural experience. While at the airport every one was trying to imagine what the visiting singers would be like… would they be as excited about meeting us as we were to meet them? The answer to that was yes.

With rehearsals every day and all sorts of other tourist-y experiences planned for the Czechs, they got just enough sleep to get through to the next activity. We managed to have a great deal of fun and perform wonderfully under the hectic circumstances. It seemed that the best time that we were able to have together was at the potluck dinner the Mia Ferguson and Sherylynn Sealy (Premier Choir Vice President and President) put together. With music, food and a small craft to break the ice, we all got along great. As we made traditional paper hand turkeys, Sherylynn shared some information about thanksgiving and although the language was somewhat difficult, we got to share an aspect of our culture with the visitors.

During the second to last night of the Czechs visit, they showered us with gifts from their homeland, which included embroidery, chocolates, chocolates, and more chocolates. We gave them Boston red sox jackets so that they could say that they were official Bostonians.

The next night was the concert that was filled with all sorts of fun suprises. Carmina wowed us with their expressiveness and enthusiasm on stage, however the highlight was when the whipped off their regular performance outfits and performed some classic Czech folk songs in traditional Czech clothing. The song that I believe we had the most compliments on was “Freedom Trilogy”. All in all I think that it was a great concert and a fabulous experience through out the whole thing.