October 30

October 30 – Competition Day

All of our hard work, all of our hopes and contributions, all of the practice and all of the heartfelt music led up to this day. It was a day we dreaded and a day we were certainly ecstatic to have come so soon.

As we walked through the Sportsplex doors there were many things going through the minds of every chorister. The anticipation, determination and focus were some of the most intense that this choir has probably ever seen. We got out there onto the stage and tried as hard as could and sang the way we always love singing. Having some of our fellow senior choristers in the audience made the performance that much more honourable.

Some of us first thought that this competition was about winning and keeping our good reputation up. But the reality of it all is that we shared our music and touched many hearts.

On a more personal note, after we sang Alami, in which we use sign language to tell part of the story, we saw a number of hearing impaired people stand up and sign “Thank You”. It was an amazing feeling that was indescribable.

So after many hugs and recognitions, and after another lunch at the Barn, we boarded our bus to start our drive towards France.

Our destination was St. Jean de Luz, a very important community for us because 500 years ago many Basque whalers departed from here for Labrador each year. First we went shopping in the quaint French shops. Some of us walked over to the beach and some of us looked at the harbour. Then we had supper before walking to the grand old church in the center of the town to hold our concert.

We performed along with a local Basque Men’s Choir. The church was breathtaking and the sound was exquisite. Our program contained many songs that we had not practiced in a while because we had been focusing on the competition songs. Even so, it was a fantastic concert, we were proud of our performance and the audience was very loud in their applause.

It was an overall eventful and exciting day for everyone – a day that we will never forget.

Chloe Abbott


Review in Diaro Vasco


(The Choir sang in the Tolosa competition on Sunday, October 30. The blog entry is forthcoming. The following is a link to the music review of the performance in the San Sebastian newspaper, Diaro Vasco. http://www.diariovasco.com/pg051031/prensa/noticias/
Cultura/200510/31/DVA-CUL-058.html. The following text is an English translation of this article.)

The children’s choir competition is usually one of the most popular days in Tolosa, because added to the many fans of choral singing found in the Basque country and the devotees from abroad drawn by the high level of competition, there is the presence of many very young members of the “home” [family] groups. Thus, again this year, tickets were sold out for yesterday’s matinée, which packed the Usabal Sportsplex for a concert of great quality, but surely also less attractive for the kids in the audience than other years.

Perhaps the fame that Tolosa has achieved at the international level has led the participating choirs to opt for repertoire dominated more by technical difficulty than diversity, by demonstrations of skill rather than pure entertainment. Yesterday this happened and pure competition won out over the choice of original or entertaining programs, thus the competition ended up tough and perhaps a bit boring.

A total of five choirs of kids of very different ages appeared in the contest. Mbidizo, from the Czech Republic, opened the competition with a mixed group with a definite female majority, and showed the median level of the day. Dressed with colourful ponchos and quite young, they achieved their best moments in Blecha-moucha, composed by their director, and in which in addition to singing they added some choreography.

The girls of Hungary’s Miraculum Children’s Choir, quite a bit more grown-up, provided a major contrast. With a sound more like an adult women’s choir, they were remarkable for their great vocal projection, achieving truly outstanding interpretations of pieces such as the Salve Regina by Kocsár - a lesson in dynamics - or the difficult A 150. Genfi zsoltar [?] of their compatriot Kodály, in which they offered pure music.

The level was maintained, but with a different style of singing in the Canadian choir [Shallaway]. The voices seemed more natural than those of the Hungarians, and demonstrated mastery of such important parameters as balance, intonation and [? impasto? something to do with texture?]. Warm and with very good dynamics, they offered a beautiful interpretation of the imposed work “Alami” of the [composer] from Pasaia Josu Elberdin. Their closing piece, the rhythmic “Tjak!”, had force and character.

The San Cugat Catalán children’s choir gave a remarkable performance with its very young singers. The ensemble, with a very different timbre than the previous choirs, showed great musicality.

The children’s choir competition closed with the performance of the Bat-Kol Children’s Choir from Israel, which had an uneven performance. Their best moments were in ixil ixilik dago, by Escudero, and the rhythmic Saperi tama.

October 29

Tolosa


Hey Blog!

I, Sonicka, am in Spain! Wow! It is so unbelievable. It has not sunk in yet at all. So far, pretty well everything is going really well. Today was spent mostly rehearsing (what a shock) and we also went shopping! Ahhh! I am not describing the mall, especially since you've all been in one before. But we shopped in Tolosa for the first time. It was very beautiful (the streets and buildings). After a day of shopping we enjoyed a concert at the Tolosa stadium. Unfortunately, we left early to get some very much needed sleep. Once we arrived in Ametzagana, our amazing graduates gave us a little surprise. They wrote each one of the choristers a personalized letter. How sweet! What a great idea. Thank you graduates. It was so thoughtful and appreciated! We love you!

Okay, now a quick note to Newfoundland. Love you Mom and Dad and Shawnray. To my friends - Hi, miss ya! Love ya!

See you soon.

Love,

Sonicka


Attending Concert at Tolosa Sportsplex

October 28

Sound Check at Tolosa Performance Site



Hello, it’s Anna here.

Today when I woke up at 8:00am, it was pitch black. We (Rebecca, Rachel, Kristen and me) were all really confused, and it took us about a half hour to find out that it really was morning. We didn’t have to go to breakfast this morning, so everyone in my room stayed in bed until 9:00am. We had a practice at 11:00am, and at 1:00pm we had lunch. It was curried rice and seafood platter. There were chicken lumps mixed in there as well. It was different and not many people liked it. We also had deep-fried battered squid and other seafood. I liked the squid but everything else was kind of mushy - not like anything you could ever get in Newfoundland.

We had a really good practice after lunch. Tjak sounded amazing. When we took a break, there was a Praying Mantis outside. It was very disgusting, but interesting. I wanted to pick it up but I decided against it. I was afraid I might panic and flick it somewhere.

When all the rehearsing was finished, around 4 o’clock, we took a double decker “Shrek meets Spaceship” bus to Tolosa, where we did our sound check. The acoustic in the gym wasn’t very good, made worse by the rain falling on the roof.

Next we went to see three adult choirs perform. Most of us enjoyed ourselves. One choir sang a really cool barking song called “La Chasse”. At the intermission, some of us went downstairs to the vending machines. On the way back up, Stephanie, Anna Westin, Lucia, Claire, Catherine, Chloe and I got stuck in the elevator. It was very warm and small and we had to rely on Stephanie’s Spanish “speaking skills” to get us out.

We went to supper in a barn (no joke). We actually ate supper in a barn. It was a flat bean and carrot stew that we had to eat with a fork. We also had fish and bread and bottled water. I conclude that the food groups of Spain are as follows: water, fish and bread. It will take a while to get used to.

After the “tasty” supper, we came home and went straight to bed as it was around 11.


Eating at the Tolosa Barn

October 27

Outdoor Study October 27 morning



SPAIN IS AMAZING! Wow. This morning I woke up to a rooster. How fabulous is that? And there’s so many sheep. And an amazing dog. But anyways, I’m having tons of fun. The place where we are practicing “Tjak” is so awesome! Its like “BOOM”. I mean, wow, right. This is all so cool. Fanta is wicked. Its like Orange Crush X 100! Spain is the equivalent of like everything in Newfoundland. I ‘m not trying to be mean though; don’t worry. Okay, so I am being told there’s a big bug outside. But of course I’m here writing a blog. **Girly screams** Okay, never mind that. Hah – we actually stopped in Germany on our way here. It was fabulous. I miss you all.

Shannon Woodrow


Rehearsal Outdoors after Dinner

October 26 - Update

The most difficult part of this blog is to decide exactly where ‘day one’ ends and ‘day two’ starts.

Let’s start with Frankfurt which was fabulous. There was even an ‘arrivals/departure’ sign that changed the names of cities with shuffling plates! Ooh!

Much shopping ensued with the purchase of magnets, chocolates and postcards. There were other more fancy stores that carried Feragamo, Gucci, Burberry, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuiton, Dior…, well you get the rest. Sorry parents, we’d buy you any of these but alas we could not afford anything.

So two hours passed and soon it came time to leave for Bilbao. Many choristers fell in love with everything that is German in the airport (myself, Allison, included). So anyway, the Frankfurt to Bilbao plane was uneventful as most of the choir was effectively ‘clocked’ by takeoff.

We arrived in the airport (which had a delightfully ethereal look to it) and collected out bags. We then made our way to the bus. Now this was QUITE the bus. It was like a cross between a caterpillar and Shrek. THAT was high fashion bussage. The hotel we are staying at – Ametzagana, in San Sebastian – is very comfortable. It’s a lovely secluded brick housey-thing overlooking the Spanish countryside. The weather is hot, around 32 degrees Celsius. But the night should be nice and balmy. The evening meal will be served in the patio area tonight and then the ever welcoming beds await us.

……mmm…..sleep.

Allison Nicholas

AMETZAGANA

October 26 - St. John's - Montreal - Frankfurt

SHALLAWAY SPANSIH TOUR ‘05

Today was the first day of Shallaway’s tour to Spain. We all arrived at the airport at 8:00am to board at 10:00am. After everyone had purchased their hot smoothies and magazines, we headed off.

After a few hours we arrived in Montreal where we stayed for a good four hours. Many people did homework and others looked around at the shops.

Finally it was time to board again to fly to Frankfurt, Germany. We were all good and tired when we got there due to the very minimal amount of sleep we had. Although we are all a bit nauseous, we are looking forward to the many great days ahead.

Emily T., Tiffany P., and Robyn P.

First photo from Montreal from Group One

Getting Ready for Tolosa