Last photos-breakfast, pizza party and at train station,

More from the Last Day

Early in the day we invited our intern up to give her a thank you card and a small gift. Our intern was a girl from the local Eugene choir who helped us find our way around campus and helped us get to where we needed to be. She got along well with the girls and was great fun to have with us. Here we are in the dorm hallway just after giving her a small thank you gift. She is the one in red at the other end of the hallway.


The Gala concert was at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts. The choirs got their early for a dress rehearsal. We were not allowed to video tape the actual performance, but I managed to get some pictures and a few short videos during the rehearsal.







The guys did a few songs on their own. Here was a fun one, Tshotsholoza, a South African Freedom Song.



For one of the songs, the choir had a ballet dancer perform as they sang.



One of my favorite songs that they did was Living in a Holy City by Stephen Hatfield. Unfortunately, my card filled up before the end of the song, but I managed to get a pretty long chunk of it.



I can't zoom my camera while taking video, so for one bit of song, I zoomed in beforehand and panned around a bit so you could see the choristers better. It is a little choppy, as it was difficult to pan.



I have one more video and a sound file I may try to post later, but having some technical difficulties...

Final day and concert

Icecream social on Saturday

Singing in Church

This morning all of the choirs sang in different churches throughout Eugene. Our girls sang at St. Mary Catholic Church. There was a full congregation, and they were very appreciative. The church was a great space for their voices. I took a short clip while they were warming up before the service.

Rehearsals

I took a couple of videos of rehearsal on Friday to give you an idea of what the girls are up to. This is a rehearsal with Lynne Gackle, the guest conductor for the choirs at PICCFEST, and it includes all of the choirs except the bass section. The bass section is in a separate rehearsal with Peter Robb, the director of PICCFEST. They are all getting ready for their big concert at the Oregon Bach Festival on Sunday evening.

Video of Mr G Day 2

My apologies if you cannot see a video on this blog entry. Did my best (not that blog savvy) will check on it tomorrow.
Celia

Saturday at PICCFEST

Here we are at Saturday already and the girls are sad that the end is approaching too soon. We have really had a delighful time. Today the girls rehearsed in the morning, spent much of the afternoon at the local Saturday only street market that had amazing jewelry, pottery, clothing, goofy stuff, organic food and several musical stages. They wandered in groups of three, met friends from other choirs, and returned at the appointed time with cool stuff, some body painting but no added piercings! We are now at an evening rehearsal with instruments. Then we have an ice cream social.

Verdi's Requiem

Last night the choirs performed in the lobby before the opening concert of the Bach festival here in Eugene, a festival which includes both music by and inspired by Bach. They performed several songs, and sounded fantastic. They then sat through the 90 minute performance of Verdi's Requiem. Some of the more observant choristers noticed a sign of our technological age, the tenor read his music from an iPad. The four soloists were amazing, able to sing over a 75 piece orchestra and full chorus. The conductor was Helmuth Rilling, whom we all found incredible, and the choirs were given the opportunity to meet with him yesterday morning and ask him questions. He knows the music so well, that he conducts the entire 90 minute performance without a music score. The concert received a well deserved standing ovation, and it was obvious from the discussions this morning that all of the choirs were quite impressed with the performance.

Sharing our Songs

I finally was able to download some video from my camera. This video is of the girls singing one of the six songs that they sang in a concert for the other choirs (Sharing our Songs). All of the choirs participating in PICCFEST gave a concert for the other choirs. Cantamus gave their concert on Thursday evening, along with the Minnetonka Chamber Choir and the Minnesota Boy Choir. The concerts were held in Central Lutheran Church. The lighting was awful, but the sound was nice. The girls did a fantastic job.

Day 4

The girls rehearsed, had recreational time (shopping!) and performed at the opening of the Bach Festival. They were troopers through the whole process, eating at odd times, travelling fully dressed up in school buses with three per seat. Sang like angels and were also a great audience for nearly two hour performance (no break!) We were very proud of your girls.

Hare some fun pics from the day