Leaving St. Matthew’s United Methodist Church in Valley Forge, PA, we had another long bus ride day to get to our final concert location at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA. It is important for us to arrive at our concert location early for several reasons. In addition to warming up and refreshing specific parts of each choir’s music, it’s crucial to sort out logistics for the evening.
Rehearsing in a new venue
As you have read these posts, you’ve seen how different every church has been. The size and layout of the chancel area varied at each church. Each night, the choirs learned where to stand to sing, what the space sounded like, how to blend in the acoustic in that location and of course, where to sit and how and when to get from one place to another. It was great watching the choirs maneuver the space with professionalism each night. The last concert is almost always the best quality performance. Singing the repertoire each night and fine tuning in rehearsals daily, always turns a good program leaving Charlotte into a fabulous one on the final night. Our audience in Richmond agreed!
We did arrive in Richmond in time for a quick treat for each choir. The Boys Choir went for ice cream, the MasterSingers visited their favorite Starbucks, and The Girls Choir had specialty cupcakes at a local bakery. Everyone returned to St. Stephen’s rejuvenated for the final rehearsal and concert.
Specialty cupcakes in Richmond!
As you can see in the pictures, St. Stephen’s was the largest venue for our tour and reminded our graduating seniors of the English Cathedrals in which they sang during their freshman tour to England in 2006.
Performing at St. Stephen's Episcopal
The seniors sang the solo for the closing “Lord Bless You and Keep You”, but held their emotions in check until the end of the concert. We will miss each other next year and wish them well.
Our seniors after their final concert
The Girls of the Touring Choir and the MasterSingers
The Boys Choir
The Girls Choir
Our hosts families from St. Stephen’s Episcopal and St. Bridget’s Catholic returned us Wednesday morning to celebrate the end of tour with our annual “Bennie Awards” before leaving St. Stephen’s.
"Bennie Awards" are next!
While all the singers looked forward to the time at King’s Dominion Amusement Park after the awards, we were concerned about the 100+ temperatures forecasted. However, when we arrived, we enjoyed the time immensely- the cloud cover, trees and breeze made the temperatures tolerable and the crowds were minimal. Records for numbers of rides per hour were achieved!
Keeping the group on the map!
Enjoying the Merry-Go-Round
King's Dominion
An easy ride at King's Dominion
King's Dominion and a BIG ride!
King’s Dominion conquered and it was back to the bus for our final leg of the trip. We arrived in Charlotte on time to the waiting parents, unloaded the buses and all were headed home to sleep in our own bed.
Another successful tour and year completed! Great plans are being made for next year!
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