Day 3: Evening Concert

good morning Sweden time! just a quick aside to say that all the kids know you are following us on tour and i'm letting them know that you've all been sending love and best wishes - they will have more time to comment back to you over the next few days as the schedule lightens up a bit - i do know that most of them have had a chance to contact you at home already - if they haven't know we are having a fabulous time and all are safe and happy.

Back to the tour....

The chorister's ended their sightseeing at 3:00 PM at filidelfiakyrkan - and we were right back ino rehearsal. I think we are all a little jealous of the facilities here in Stockholm. the AF school is incredible and the hall we play in tonight is a church that is used for concerts as sorce of revenue. as a result it has a great stage and with built in risers (the dad's who help set us up for concerts in Christ's Church would be so impressed). As a result the choir worked hard on running through their stage directions - we wanted to be take advantage of the space and go over the order of songs.

After rehearing with the grade 8 choir from the AF school, we were fed a boxed dinner, and lined upand waited for our turn. Percussion starts, stick are up and Alyssa calls them into action - Uber is first on the list. Thunderous applause - people are looking side to side and you can see them thinking that this is something new.

they sang Zai, Watane (with youth) and then the youth choir ran their set (this is my first extended contact with the youth choir - it's been great getting to know them - not suprising, i know, but they are a talented and great group of young people - and are enriching the tour for all of us) Torn Screen Door and Tondo are very impressive.

then they all sat down for Tjack! The audience loves this piece - they stomp feet and continue clapping long enough for the choristers to get up and rearrnge on stage for Adiemus and then Eternity - (the tears started here for me - but i managed to stay and watch/listen). the overtones in Past Life Melodies were awesome - they reverberated around, over and through the hall. in the end the applause and foot stomping (choristers in the audience can't yell or they'll strain their voices) was deafening and kept going - had we been a rock band an encore was surely being called for - although i understand you "just don't do that in the choral world" :)

We did two mass pieces - MicMaq, for Canada and Sommerpsalm for Sweden.

in the lobby fter the show we were all moved by how excited the audience was. We heard things like "i've never seen anything like it", "that was incredible", "they were marvelous", one woman, who bought a CD from Tricia and I was still moved to tears over Eternity.

i know we are all proud of them - but this was just a reminder of how extraordinary our kids are - and how marvelous Zimfira, Shawn, Meagan and Joel are - they have a very special bond - i feel quite privileged to observe.

well, back at it early tomorrow morning: 9 AM and 3PM performances today!

Day 3: Busy, busy,busy

Hello again from stockholm!

we have had another fabulous day - the weather was great and the kids even had some time this afternoon for a little sightseeing and some shopping.

i'm going to do two posts today - yep, i'm keeping my thoughts about the evening performance until the next one. That leaves more space for pictures! if you haven't seen your chorister yet hang in there - on Sunday we have a long bus ride to Gotenburg and I have a lot of downloading to do ;)

this morning we all met at filedelfiakyrkan (a church converted into a concert hall) and listened to the choirs from China, Estonia, Riga Cathedral and Romania. They were all very good. The choir from China was really good technically - apparently, and I'll take Joel's word for it, they had perfect pitch. We were all impressed with their costumes as well. the kids all entered in different versions of what we think of as typical of chinese culture. they looked fabulous. it made us all think - if we were giong to dress our choristers in something 'canadian' what would it be? i challenged the choristers (unofficially, of course) to think of what a typical 'canadian' uniform would be - throw out the hockey jerseys and mountie uniforms - what would we be left with? something for all of us to think about perhaps.

after the morning presentations we walked back through the park to Adolf Fredricks and had a good hour long rehearsal with Zimfira and then went down for lunch. (don't worry about the food - from what I understand much of it is familiar and the rest we are trying and liking!). after lunch, the grade 6 and 9 classes arranged a walking tour for us. The choristers split up into smaller groups and after a short meeting - they were off.

Can you say "I'm outta here!"

We all met back at the church at 3:00PM - time for rehearsal, dinner and then performance!!

Promise to post on the performance as soon as i get a bit of sleep.

Day 2 - Opening Ceremonies & Workshops

It's 4:30 PM in Stockholm and we're just wrapping up our first full day. the billet families are picking up our kids now. they'll have a few hours down time, some supper and then return to listen to one of the evening performances. I know that many of us had questions about the billets and how everything would work out - from what I have seen and heard the kids are having a great time and are being treated as one of the family. All was well organized here at the school and the billet parents had to sign in with the school before taking the kids back to their homes.

This morning started early (8:30 AM here but it did feel a little like 2:00 AM) with the opening ceremonies. There were 1682 students and choristers in attendance and when they sang "Let the Future Sing" - well just image the power in all those voices! The choirs were all presented on stage, there were speeches (even the Swedish Minister of Culture was in attendance) then we sang the theme song again!

After that we had lunch - which to everyone's delight was Swedish meatballs - with lingonberry sauce (just like cranberries, actually) then moved across the hall to prepare for our workshop. The choristers were all looking a bit tired after lunch, and the acoustics in the room were not great - Zimfira, i think, was getting a little concerned - but as usual with our talented group - when it's crunch time they call on all those practices and rehearsals and move into high gear.

The workshop showcased works by Canadian composers and Zimfira discussed how multiculturalism makes it's way into the music we sing. The choir performed Uber, Le Train, Watane, Las Amarillas (sp?), and then the youth choir sang Torn Screen Door, Boy, Boy, Boy (again apologies for spelling) and Tondo. We finished with Tjack and a suprise encore of Dancing Queen, which had the whole room on there feet singing and dancing with us!

Zimfira also talked about the differences between choral music in Europe and choral music in Canada. clearly, things are different here. There is a tradition and history of choral music in Europe that we do not yet have at home - I'm hoping that we are on our way to helping create that history and tradition in Canada with this talented group. I can't tell you how proud it makes me to be here with them.

Tomorrow is another busy day - we have our evening concert at 7:00 - 9:00, with rehearsals from approx. 4:00 PM on. I'll try to get some of the choristers on who have not had a chance to contact home directly - if you haven't heard from your chorister yet - know they are all fine, having a great time and waiting for the jetlag to wear off.

more pictures tomorrow!!

post from: Chelsea Kolic

Hey everyone back in Canada ! We are having a great time here in Sweden. The billit families are very kind and understanding. Though jet lag is a bit of a problem, but we are all enjoying ourselves. dad, i miss you and all of my family/friends at home. Can you please tell the Girl Guides that I cannot go to camp when I get home because of school work and overexhaustion? Thanks1 See you in a few days =)

still here :) responses tomorrow when you get home

hi everyone!!

i have lost one of my shift keys so this will be the lower case blog until we return home and i take the laptop in for service. we have a busy day tomorrow, but there is some down time - i'll make sure they get in touch.

tommorow we present a workshop in the afternoon to the oter choirs.

expet more on the blog - it;ll be a great way to communcate home (i don't think it will take much twisting.

later days,
michelle

we're here!

It was a long flight and the walk through the Frankfurt airport was really long - but we are all here safe and sound. We are all tired but excited to finally arrive. It's now 5:00 PM Stockholm time, the kids have all gone to their billet families for the evening - a nice shower, hot meal and good rest.

We start first thing tomorrow morning with an inaugural concert and then we have a workshop to present in the afternoon.

The staff and chaperones are about to head to our hostel as well - I understand wireless is really good in Stockholm -I'm going to try to post more tonight

One more sleep!

It's almost 10:0PM - feels almost like Christmas Eve to me! And there's still so much to do.

To answer the question tonight about how to reply to a post: simply click on the title of the post you want to respond to. The window will expand and you'll see a dpace for you to enter your message back to us. When you are finished, click the Post Comment button.

As I add things like pictures, I'll also add instructions on how you can download them to share.

Once we get set up with some space in Stockholm, I'll open the blog to the choristers so they can share the tour in their own words. Look for your chorister's name in the title of the post.

Have a great sleep - see you on the bus

michelle