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bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-24 09:21 pm
bigmacbear) wrote2008-07-24 09:21 pm
GALA Festival 8 -- Monday, July 14
We began the day with breakfast at our hotel (the Intercontinental), after which we headed out to the Arsht Center in a driving rain. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gmjambear returned to the people-mover to explore while I joined the combined Seattle choruses for tech rehearsal. During the tech rehearsal it was announced that our full rehearsal the next day would be in the Sevilla Room at our hotel. Of course that name is pronounced differently from the way it is spelled as it is a Spanish name. This reminded me of the directions to the artists' entrance in Montreal. "Rehearsal is in the 'se via' room." "What?" "Se via." "WHAT?" "Se VILLA!" (just like "Jeanne-Mance" and "Gene Mance").
The afternoon set began at 2 PM with the GMC of Charlotte, One thing that struck me about their program before they began to sing was a piece called "The Word of the Lord" by Eric Lane Barnes. I thought, "Sacred title; Eric Lane Barnes. Be afraid. Be very afraid." As it turned out the piece spoke of the religious folks who let the Bible do their thinking for them, and was hilarious. They also did the first of several performances of "Come Travel With Me" and "Find the Cost Of Freedom" by Stephen Stills. They had two ASL interpreters, and on "Happy Together" they played "patty-cake" during the doo-wop section. Following them was Confluence: The Willamette Valley LGBT Chorus; several audience members had to correct the emcee on the proper pronunciation of Willamette (the accent is on "lam", not "wil"). I enjoyed their performance of "Concord" by Britten which I'd performed with my college chorus, and noted their entire set showed a lot of infectious enthusiasm.
Next was the Buffalo GMC, with another performance of "Find the Cost Of Freedom" and a commissioned work called "Yes!!", based on a 1925 poem about a black and a white boy walking arm in arm, "oblivious to look and word". I was impressed with their performance, especially on "Yes!!" The set closed with the GMC of Houston, who did "Loving-Kindness" by Stephen Paulus which SMC performed for the American Choral Masterpieces show last year. Two other pieces, though, made an even better impression: "The Gathering Storm" commissioned for the occasion, and "Angel Beside Me", featuring a soloist accompanying himself on guitar and backed up by the chorus (the soloist was also the composer).
Between sets we waited in the lobby of the Marriott and contacted our friend Mike from Buffalo. We went to lunch with Mike and his friends, Mike from Fort Lauderdale and Paul from Buffalo, at a place called The Daily Deli with a newspaper theme. The cashier grew up in the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park area north of Seattle. While we were eating, our friends Terry and Yu Yin from Rochester happened to walk by and we had a brief chat and took some pictures. After lunch we visited the pool deck at the Marriott and got some more pictures there.
The evening set began with the Council Oak Men's Chorale from Tulsa, Oklahoma (I remarked that they could have called themselves the "OK Chorale", but wisely chose not to). Theirs was a very competent performance of a wide variety of music. Following them was Crescendo: The Tampa Bay Women's Chorale, who did a credible performance of Eric Lane Barnes' "The Fundamental" but will be remembered more for their spoken exchange of good things and bad things about Florida. Next was VOICES of Kentuckiana with medleys of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stephen Foster. They also had some amusing signs like "More Trees" and "Less Bush", plus one that read "My Parents Think I'm At Vacation Bible School".
Next was our own Seattle Women's Chorus, performing their acclaimed Vixen Fiction show written for them by one of the chorus members with Eric Lane Barnes, based on the "pulp fiction" novels of Ann Bannon. Unfortunately Ann couldn't make it to Miami due to health concerns. Several of the pieces were acted by chorus members; one featured an entire family with the father and son portrayed by SMC members. The women did a great job and it showed.
The set closed with the Turtle Creek Chorale from Dallas. For the first time in some while, they had a smaller presence on stage and performed a somewhat more intimate set including an African piece which involved some of the members pounding the stage with long wooden poles. I remarked to Gary, "You can't beat that with a stick." He thought that was a real groaner. Their set closed with the William Tell Overture by Rossini, complete with the Lone Ranger and Tonto and a set of placards depicting a gorgeous sunset for them to ride off into.
After the evening set we saw Lee from Rochester GMC again, then we saw Rodger with Dennis in the hotel lobby. I introduced Gary to Rodger and we decided to let Dennis take a well-deserved break after conducting the women's chorus; he was beaming even though he looked utterly exhausted. We got to bed early anticipating SMC's performance the next day.
gmjambear returned to the people-mover to explore while I joined the combined Seattle choruses for tech rehearsal. During the tech rehearsal it was announced that our full rehearsal the next day would be in the Sevilla Room at our hotel. Of course that name is pronounced differently from the way it is spelled as it is a Spanish name. This reminded me of the directions to the artists' entrance in Montreal. "Rehearsal is in the 'se via' room." "What?" "Se via." "WHAT?" "Se VILLA!" (just like "Jeanne-Mance" and "Gene Mance").The afternoon set began at 2 PM with the GMC of Charlotte, One thing that struck me about their program before they began to sing was a piece called "The Word of the Lord" by Eric Lane Barnes. I thought, "Sacred title; Eric Lane Barnes. Be afraid. Be very afraid." As it turned out the piece spoke of the religious folks who let the Bible do their thinking for them, and was hilarious. They also did the first of several performances of "Come Travel With Me" and "Find the Cost Of Freedom" by Stephen Stills. They had two ASL interpreters, and on "Happy Together" they played "patty-cake" during the doo-wop section. Following them was Confluence: The Willamette Valley LGBT Chorus; several audience members had to correct the emcee on the proper pronunciation of Willamette (the accent is on "lam", not "wil"). I enjoyed their performance of "Concord" by Britten which I'd performed with my college chorus, and noted their entire set showed a lot of infectious enthusiasm.
Next was the Buffalo GMC, with another performance of "Find the Cost Of Freedom" and a commissioned work called "Yes!!", based on a 1925 poem about a black and a white boy walking arm in arm, "oblivious to look and word". I was impressed with their performance, especially on "Yes!!" The set closed with the GMC of Houston, who did "Loving-Kindness" by Stephen Paulus which SMC performed for the American Choral Masterpieces show last year. Two other pieces, though, made an even better impression: "The Gathering Storm" commissioned for the occasion, and "Angel Beside Me", featuring a soloist accompanying himself on guitar and backed up by the chorus (the soloist was also the composer).
Between sets we waited in the lobby of the Marriott and contacted our friend Mike from Buffalo. We went to lunch with Mike and his friends, Mike from Fort Lauderdale and Paul from Buffalo, at a place called The Daily Deli with a newspaper theme. The cashier grew up in the Shoreline/Lake Forest Park area north of Seattle. While we were eating, our friends Terry and Yu Yin from Rochester happened to walk by and we had a brief chat and took some pictures. After lunch we visited the pool deck at the Marriott and got some more pictures there.
The evening set began with the Council Oak Men's Chorale from Tulsa, Oklahoma (I remarked that they could have called themselves the "OK Chorale", but wisely chose not to). Theirs was a very competent performance of a wide variety of music. Following them was Crescendo: The Tampa Bay Women's Chorale, who did a credible performance of Eric Lane Barnes' "The Fundamental" but will be remembered more for their spoken exchange of good things and bad things about Florida. Next was VOICES of Kentuckiana with medleys of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stephen Foster. They also had some amusing signs like "More Trees" and "Less Bush", plus one that read "My Parents Think I'm At Vacation Bible School".
Next was our own Seattle Women's Chorus, performing their acclaimed Vixen Fiction show written for them by one of the chorus members with Eric Lane Barnes, based on the "pulp fiction" novels of Ann Bannon. Unfortunately Ann couldn't make it to Miami due to health concerns. Several of the pieces were acted by chorus members; one featured an entire family with the father and son portrayed by SMC members. The women did a great job and it showed.
The set closed with the Turtle Creek Chorale from Dallas. For the first time in some while, they had a smaller presence on stage and performed a somewhat more intimate set including an African piece which involved some of the members pounding the stage with long wooden poles. I remarked to Gary, "You can't beat that with a stick." He thought that was a real groaner. Their set closed with the William Tell Overture by Rossini, complete with the Lone Ranger and Tonto and a set of placards depicting a gorgeous sunset for them to ride off into.
After the evening set we saw Lee from Rochester GMC again, then we saw Rodger with Dennis in the hotel lobby. I introduced Gary to Rodger and we decided to let Dennis take a well-deserved break after conducting the women's chorus; he was beaming even though he looked utterly exhausted. We got to bed early anticipating SMC's performance the next day.