College cafeteria breakfast was almost as good as dinner except no ice cream bars this time 🙂

This morning we met Dr. Sandra Snow, our conductor for the week! This singers enjoyed working with her, commenting that her enthusiasm was infectious. The mass choir sounds great, too! We have our first performance all together tomorrow evening- looking forward to that especially after tonight’s song sharing.

We spent a lot of our day in various rehearsals- some with Dr. Snow and some with just our gang and Fitz. It was a long day, but everyone was a trooper and the grand finale of the day made it all worthwhile…

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After dinner, each choir here at PICFest (there are 5!), performed a short solo set of our own repertoire. Since our PICFest choir is comprised of singers from several different groups, the kids were a little nervous since we’ve only had a few days of rehearsal time leading up to this evening. However, it would be an understatement to say that they knocked it out of the park.

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Sitting in the front row, I didn’t realize what was happening behind me as they performed “I Need You to Survive,” but when a chaperone motioned for me to look, I saw that the whole house was on their feet, singing and clapping along with unprecedented gusto! What a thrill of our singers to have the experience of a giving a performance so rousing that everyone was compelled to jump to their feet!

Working and being around these choirs so much, you understand that they are talented, but sometimes you start to take that for granted. Tonight was a nice reminder to myself and our parent chaperones just how awesome our singers are. Definitely an unforgettable moment for us as the adults as well as for our singers!IMG_2979

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There are several excellent choirs here at PICFest, but a standout for many reasons is the Hail Mary the Queen Childrens Choir from the Philippines! They closed tonight’s sharing with some absolutely stunning pieces as well as the crowd favorite “One Thing,” made famous by boy band One Direction. If you have the chance to look them up, you should! One of the most professional, kind and welcoming choirs I have ever met and great performers, too!

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Tomorrow we sing a mini concert with the PICFest mass choir preceding Haydn’s “Creation” at the Hult Center. Time for all of us to get some rest! More to come tomorrow!      

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