The Chattanooga Girls Choir

Friday, June 30, 2006
Day 6: Rehearsal and Festival Picnic

By Whitley Treece

It is amazing how much we are packing into each day! The mass choir rehearsal begins each day at 9:00 a.m., so we are always ready to board the bus by 8:00 a.m. Thanks to diligent chaperones, everyone is doing an excellent job being prompt! Every morning we eat at Burger King and by now, the morning crew knows us quite well! We usually sit and talk about anything and everything.

During the mass choir rehearsal, we warm-up our voices with new and creative vocalizes before we work on the four combined choir pieces. We have polished and memorized Heavenly Aeroplane, South Sami People, El Pambiche, and the festival theme song, Sing All Ye Joyful.

We have a break during the rehearsal, so we get to talk to other choir members and to each other; we really like to talk. After our mass choir rehearsal today, the African Choir taught us some dance moves. It was really fun! Their teacher described and demonstrated what we needed to do. Their choir and dancers stood beside us so we could follow their steps.

After spending about 45 minutes learning the dance moves, it was time to walk a mile to a park where we had a picnic with all the choirs. They had a hip-hop class (which was super fun), soccer, hula hoops, but the best thing was talking to the other people. The other choirs here are so awesome. I expected them to be really good and they are absolutely amazing.

The African choir has the cutest little kids in it. One girl named Cornelia is the youngest of the African choir members. She sat by me one day in practice and ever since then, we have been friends. She doesn't know any English, but she always gives me a hug and a smile.

The Minnesota choir is really nice and we get along well. Two of girls that I really enjoy talking to are Emma and Dana. Emma brings blueberries to me from the hotel café since I LOVE blueberries. Dana sat next to me at practice one day and I kept thinking her name was Gina. She told me her name was Dana but I forgot and the next day I walked by her and tried to get her attention, "Gina... Gina... Gina... Gina... Gina..." She didn't look at me or pay any attention, so I was like okay, maybe she didn't hear me. When we were getting off the bus I said "Bye, Gina" and she still didn't look at me. The next morning I realized Gina wasn't her name and so finally I asked her what it was again--"Oh, Dana!"

I have had lots of fun on this tour. Out of all the tours I have been on, this has been the best! We are doing a lot of singing and learning a lot about singing. (We are also learning about the city as we have time to sightsee.) This is the best tour and we are all getting along so well with each other despite our differences. It's been great, though we are all tired.

Hopefully we will do more tours like this. The groups participating in this festival are world-class, award-winning choirs. Hearing and observing them has motivated us to strive for their level of performance.

Whitley and two special buddies.

Meg, Schyler, and Gina with a new friend.

Jellinek says, "Hey, y'all!"

"I LOVE picnics!"

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