bigmacbear (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-23 08:44 am
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-23 08:44 am
GALA Festival 8 -- Sunday, July 13
We got up and had breakfast at our hotel. This would be the longest performance day of the week, with three concert blocks between 12:30 and 10:45 PM.
The first concert block opened with the Chicago GMC, who began with a rousing rendition of "Down By the Riverside" featuring four dancers in front of the chorus. Looking at these guys in their pastel polo shirts saluting in time to the music, I said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gmjambear, "When did Bear Force One move to Chicago?" ;-) Another impressive number in their performance was "What You'd Call a Dream". They were followed by the New Wave Singers of Baltimore who did a nice job on "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", then the Chamber Chorus of the Turtle Creek Chorale with "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Mis and "The Great Spirit of Love" which I've done before with RGMC in a combined choir performance. The block closed with the Bayou City Chorale from Houston, whose rendition of "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" from the Home Alone films was punctuated by the entire chorus blowing up red and green balloons during the interlude and releasing them at the end of the song to fly all over the stage.
On the way out of the concert hall after this block we chatted withcincycub and met musicbearmn and his partner Keith. We made our way to the Bayside Mall and had a light lunch outside overlooking the tour boats. We had to hurry back to the hall for the second block and missed a bit of the first performance.
The second block was specifically for small ensembles, who perform 15-minute sets instead of the usual half-hour performances, so there were a lot of groups to see. HeartAches from the Heartland Men's Chorus took the trouble to bring a lot of props (our friend Mark had to drive them down from Kansas) for their Sondheim set. UV Rays (Una Voce, Florida) did a set from a William Finn musical, "A New Brain". Illuminati (Columbus GMC) did an impressive job on a sacred set including the impressive arrangement "Grace" featuring the lyrics of "Amazing Grace" expanded to fit the tune of "The Water Is Wide". Rock Creek Singers (GMC of Washington DC) did well on their "cowboy" set including "Ghost Riders In the Sky", which proved popular this GALA. OVation (One Voice Mixed Chorus, St. Paul) did a nice set including "Eventual Dentures" and "Don't Dress Your Cat In an Apron". Vocal Infusion (Rainbow Women's Chorus, San Jose) did a great "Java Jive".
The second block continued with OUTLOUD! (Orlando) with the first of many impressive performances of "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel this GALA. The Coastliners (North Coast Men's Chorus, Cleveland) had the dubious distinction of having their program sorted under "The", which afflicted many groups seemingly at random. They did a memorable "cowboy" set as well, including "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" from Brokeback Mountain. During their set their director, Rich Cole, sat next to us in one of the boxes. Counterpoint (Golden Gate Men's Chorus) impressed with their countertenor section and their rendition of "There Will Be Rest". Although I was concerned to see their director, Joseph Jennings, walking with a cane, once he got into position on the stage he seemed to be really getting into his direction in the very physical way he exhibited when he directed the Men's Festival Chorus I sang with in Tampa at Gala 5.
Our hometown divas, Sensible Shoes (Seattle Women's Chorus) followed. Their first number, "Three Divas", had the nine members of the group squeezed into three dresses (I later learned this piece had been written for their Talent/No-Talent Show, or TNT for short). They also did excellent renditions of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" and "I Feel The Earth Move". Potomac Fever (GMC of Washington, DC) did a splendid job on "It's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q and were an absolute scream on "Sara Lee" with placards of almost any other Lee you could think of (Jamie Lee, Brenda Lee, Janet Leigh, Robert E. Lee, you get the idea). The block closed with our own Captain Smartypants. Highlights included "Theme from Pants" (where Paul, Eric Lane Barnes' spouse, delivered a speech about their relationship being as good as any marriage), "The Second Song" (about, well, itself, and trying to write the second number in a show) and "Kislev Cowboys" (a C&W version of "The Dreidel Song"). At the end of the set the guys threw their cowboy hats into the audience, which prompted a scream of "Noooooo!" from our propmaster, TJ. Gary caught one and handed it back to TJ after the show. He also pointed out to me that legendary women's music artist Cris Williamson had been sitting in the box with us for at least part of the set; I hadn't noticed. Oops.
There wasn't time for dinner between sets, but we did manage to have a drink and a nice conversation with fellow SMC bass Dan in the hotel bar at the nearby Marriott.
The evening concert block opened with the South Florida Lambda Chorale (in a previous GALA program their name got misspelled as the South Florida Lambada Chorale). They did the same arrangement of "Get Happy" that North Coast did when Dennis from RGMC and I "sat in" with them in Cincinnati in 2002. Next was Coro Allegro from Boston, who did a number of thought-provoking works including "Identity" about the people who "disappeared" in South America. Bayou City Women's Chorus from Houston did a great job on a couple of David Maddux's arrangements for SWC as well as their own commissioned work "Norm", about the mythical person who defines "normal" for the rest of us. The evening closed with the GMC of Washington, DC, who did a commissioned work This House Shall Stand: Songs of My Family by "The Roberts" (Seeley and Espindola) who have done a number of major song cycles for GALA choruses. We chose not to try to squeeze into the hall to see San Francisco but I did order their CD; one of their numbers was "Gay vs. Straight Composers" by Eric Lane Barnes.
After the long day we ended up not going for dinner after all. We returned to the hotel and went off to bed.
The first concert block opened with the Chicago GMC, who began with a rousing rendition of "Down By the Riverside" featuring four dancers in front of the chorus. Looking at these guys in their pastel polo shirts saluting in time to the music, I said to
gmjambear, "When did Bear Force One move to Chicago?" ;-) Another impressive number in their performance was "What You'd Call a Dream". They were followed by the New Wave Singers of Baltimore who did a nice job on "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off", then the Chamber Chorus of the Turtle Creek Chorale with "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from Les Mis and "The Great Spirit of Love" which I've done before with RGMC in a combined choir performance. The block closed with the Bayou City Chorale from Houston, whose rendition of "Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas" from the Home Alone films was punctuated by the entire chorus blowing up red and green balloons during the interlude and releasing them at the end of the song to fly all over the stage.On the way out of the concert hall after this block we chatted with
cincycub and met musicbearmn and his partner Keith. We made our way to the Bayside Mall and had a light lunch outside overlooking the tour boats. We had to hurry back to the hall for the second block and missed a bit of the first performance.The second block was specifically for small ensembles, who perform 15-minute sets instead of the usual half-hour performances, so there were a lot of groups to see. HeartAches from the Heartland Men's Chorus took the trouble to bring a lot of props (our friend Mark had to drive them down from Kansas) for their Sondheim set. UV Rays (Una Voce, Florida) did a set from a William Finn musical, "A New Brain". Illuminati (Columbus GMC) did an impressive job on a sacred set including the impressive arrangement "Grace" featuring the lyrics of "Amazing Grace" expanded to fit the tune of "The Water Is Wide". Rock Creek Singers (GMC of Washington DC) did well on their "cowboy" set including "Ghost Riders In the Sky", which proved popular this GALA. OVation (One Voice Mixed Chorus, St. Paul) did a nice set including "Eventual Dentures" and "Don't Dress Your Cat In an Apron". Vocal Infusion (Rainbow Women's Chorus, San Jose) did a great "Java Jive".
The second block continued with OUTLOUD! (Orlando) with the first of many impressive performances of "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel this GALA. The Coastliners (North Coast Men's Chorus, Cleveland) had the dubious distinction of having their program sorted under "The", which afflicted many groups seemingly at random. They did a memorable "cowboy" set as well, including "A Love That Will Never Grow Old" from Brokeback Mountain. During their set their director, Rich Cole, sat next to us in one of the boxes. Counterpoint (Golden Gate Men's Chorus) impressed with their countertenor section and their rendition of "There Will Be Rest". Although I was concerned to see their director, Joseph Jennings, walking with a cane, once he got into position on the stage he seemed to be really getting into his direction in the very physical way he exhibited when he directed the Men's Festival Chorus I sang with in Tampa at Gala 5.
Our hometown divas, Sensible Shoes (Seattle Women's Chorus) followed. Their first number, "Three Divas", had the nine members of the group squeezed into three dresses (I later learned this piece had been written for their Talent/No-Talent Show, or TNT for short). They also did excellent renditions of "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)" and "I Feel The Earth Move". Potomac Fever (GMC of Washington, DC) did a splendid job on "It's a Fine, Fine Line" from Avenue Q and were an absolute scream on "Sara Lee" with placards of almost any other Lee you could think of (Jamie Lee, Brenda Lee, Janet Leigh, Robert E. Lee, you get the idea). The block closed with our own Captain Smartypants. Highlights included "Theme from Pants" (where Paul, Eric Lane Barnes' spouse, delivered a speech about their relationship being as good as any marriage), "The Second Song" (about, well, itself, and trying to write the second number in a show) and "Kislev Cowboys" (a C&W version of "The Dreidel Song"). At the end of the set the guys threw their cowboy hats into the audience, which prompted a scream of "Noooooo!" from our propmaster, TJ. Gary caught one and handed it back to TJ after the show. He also pointed out to me that legendary women's music artist Cris Williamson had been sitting in the box with us for at least part of the set; I hadn't noticed. Oops.
There wasn't time for dinner between sets, but we did manage to have a drink and a nice conversation with fellow SMC bass Dan in the hotel bar at the nearby Marriott.
The evening concert block opened with the South Florida Lambda Chorale (in a previous GALA program their name got misspelled as the South Florida Lambada Chorale). They did the same arrangement of "Get Happy" that North Coast did when Dennis from RGMC and I "sat in" with them in Cincinnati in 2002. Next was Coro Allegro from Boston, who did a number of thought-provoking works including "Identity" about the people who "disappeared" in South America. Bayou City Women's Chorus from Houston did a great job on a couple of David Maddux's arrangements for SWC as well as their own commissioned work "Norm", about the mythical person who defines "normal" for the rest of us. The evening closed with the GMC of Washington, DC, who did a commissioned work This House Shall Stand: Songs of My Family by "The Roberts" (Seeley and Espindola) who have done a number of major song cycles for GALA choruses. We chose not to try to squeeze into the hall to see San Francisco but I did order their CD; one of their numbers was "Gay vs. Straight Composers" by Eric Lane Barnes.
After the long day we ended up not going for dinner after all. We returned to the hotel and went off to bed.