Days 3&4: Humboldt

We left very early from Edmonton to travel by bus to Humboldt, Saskatchewan. It is the longest travel day that we will face on the tour. It should take about 7 hours or so.

Lorraine acted as stewardess in order to make the trip a little more enjoyable. (Thanks to the choirs in Humboldt and Marysburg for all the tasty treats!!)

I was born in Saskatchewan and grew up in Manitoba. I especially love when the choir goes to the Prairies, partly because it feels like I am going home, but also a small part of me also enjoys watching this group of Vancouverites have to deal with winter conditions.

When I was young, my father took a photography class which started a fascination -- almost an obsession -- with taking pictures of grain elevators. As we were driving along the Yellowhead Highway the hereditary pull took grip on me and all I could do was flash away.

We drove along the open prairie until we saw the beautiful red brick Church of the Assumption in Marysburg. It is by far the biggest building for miles.

We had a workshop with members of the surrounding communities as well as some high school students. They had been working on two pieces which we would perform together in the concert. The man standing next to me had travelled 70 kilometers for the experience. It seemed so far until he told me it was 45 minutes away. Wait… that is how long my 7-kilometer commute takes in Vancouver every morning. 45 minutes… damn you, Vancouver traffic!

The day of the concert we had some time to relax and see the town of Humboldt.

We stumbled upon our name in lights:

Cameron went for a ride at the local mall on the massage chair:

The stress of the tour melted away and we were ready for the night’s performance.

Day 2 Edmonton

After we had just finished singing our concert with Pro Coro Canada, someone from the audience came up to me, thanked me, and then remarked on how much I was smiling. I thanked her for coming, and let her know the reason I was smiling so much was that the two singers from Pro Coro standing on either side of me both had voices that could only be described as gifts from God, and I had an absolute blast singing with them.

 

This is a picture of all 46 singers taken at the end of the concert held at All Saints Anglican Cathedral in Edmonton.

Here I am standing with some dear old friends who sing with Pro Coro. The lady to my right and I were in National Youth Choir together in 1996.  We did the math and figured that we have known each other for 18 years (obviously the years have been kind to both of us ). 

 

Michael Zaugg, the conductor of Pro Coro, and Fabi, one of our altos.

 

Being that I am from the Prairies myself I should have expected this, but the hospitality that the folks from Edmonton showed us was totally above and beyond. It started with an Indian meal. I thankfully succeeded in not spilling vindaloo sauce all over myself.

 

Even though we had to be up very early to catch a bus to Saskatchewan, we didn’t want the evening to end and had difficulty saying goodbye to our new friends.

A few of us went to ‘La Ronde’, the revolving restaurant on the 24th floor of the Crowne Plaza hotel. The view was spectacular!! I felt like I could see forever… almost to Vancouver. We had such a great time. At the end of the evening in the elevator, Gordon, one of our tenors, “accidentally” leaned into the call buttons which made us stop on each of the floors on the way down. We laughed all the way home.

I was really excited to meet Sable because she writes a blog that I have been following for years: thechoirgirl.ca. It turns out that her blog has just been nominated for a social media award in Edmonton, and I really hope that she wins. Every choir geek out there will love it!

Day 1 - Travel to Edmonton

Last night we were fortunate to be invited to sing at the West Vancouver Memorial Library. It was a packed house – a great send-off for our tour!

In the picture you can see members of the bass section waiting patiently for the rest of us to assemble. Something that was different about this venue was that shelves of books had to be moved out of the way in order to make space for the audience to sit. Who knew that when you get rid of all that sound-sucking paper, an empty library has great acoustics!

Luckily for me not one librarian shushed me all evening.

It was super early in the morning when my alarm went off and I pulled myself out of bed. I was not in the best spirits on the way to the airport, as we had to catch a crack-of-dawn flight to Edmonton in order to make a 2:30 rehearsal. I mean, we didn’t even get a chance to adjust to the time zone or acclimate… or even put our bags in the hotel room. Ahhhhh the hard life of a singer…

This is a picture of Pro Coro Canada, a professional group of amazing singers and their conductor Michael Zaugg. For tomorrow’s concert we will combining forces and making a “super-choir”, if you will.

When we got to the rehearsal, Pro Coro was practicing “Laudibus in sanctis” by Latvian composer Ugis Praulins (with lots of squiggles over the letters, but help me if I know how to do that on this computer). (Editor’s note: Uģis Prauliņš.) It is such a great piece filled with Baltic melodies, and they sing it so beautifully. I could see everyone in our group captivated by it, and all the fatigue we were feeling evaporate as we realized how good tomorrow’s concert is going to be.

Here we are packed on the shuttle bus, for all of you who thought we traveled first class.

After rehearsal we really needed some down time and a good supper:

Abracadabra… a beer appears…

I am pretty sure we all had a very early night in order to get ready for tomorrow’s big concert.

We are on our way...almost

Have you ever wondered what a singer packs to go on tour? We present 'The Anatomy of a Suitcase = some of the essentials...'

Please note: an entire ziploc bag of herbal tea; power bars for those long days of rehearsals/workshops, candied ginger to share on the tour bus; cold supplies including, but not limited to: oil of oregano, 2 types of nasal spray for the plane rides, travel kleenex, vitamin C...and we can't forget the woolies for those minus 22o C days in Regina...

This suitcase was obviously packed by an "A" type personality in the choir.
Mine unfortunately will not be packed until 6:15am tomorrow morning, We are due to be at the Airport at 6:40am (Kill me now). 


Our first night of the tour officially starts tonight with a concert at West Vancouver library. 
Please follow us as we travel across the prairies to Regina and back, with stops in Edmonton, Humboldt, and Calgary.