Harmony in Nashville

On Tuesday we had two rehearsals, visited Harmony Bazaar, and watched the second half of the Harmony Classic competition.

Our first rehearsal was from 11 am to 1:45 pm and after warmups we moved to the Rich Tones risers in the Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel. Vicki D and Steph and Di were at the briefing, so Vicki S took us for the first part of rehearsal. We had lots of visitors: Lynne Smith, and Pat Le Vezu, and Lea Baker. Lynne and Lea gave us some last minute coaching and encouragement. There were also some of Vicki's friends from Bay Area Showcase and we sang I Am Australian for them.

Most of us put off lunch so that we could explore Harmony Bazaar. We queued up to get seats together for the Coronet Club show on Friday night (note to self: next time, book in advance!). I bought a brooch with my name in diamante, and a Sing Baby Sing book from the SAI shop (and a pen that lights up for writing in the dark). Then I visited Kate Veeder at the Young Singers Foundation Silent Auction booth to collect my Kiwi Express tote bag and throw. I am definitely going to have to post some stuff home before i go much further! I only did the periphery of Harmony Bazaar, and will have to go back again to see the rest.

We had another rehearsal on the international risers from 4 pm to 7 pm, but Vicki relented and let us out early because we were getting tired. Linda Wareham and Elidia Rymer made presentations to us - including chocolate kisses - and BlackJaQ, who sang us one song. There were also messages from Jim Arns and the Melodeers (who gave us fortune cookies with geek messages). Jim's message to Vicki was beautiful, I must get the wording from her.

From rehearsal we walked down to the Sommet Centre to watch the Harmony Classic contest. This is for small choruses. We missed the A division small choruses, but Kaitlyn said that Millenium Magic, who won with 1268 points, did an amazing Thriller package. Marti Lovejoy has a detailed description of each performance on the Sweet Adelines Yahoo group which is worth reading.

We did see the Division AA midsize choruses. Each chorus did a themed package. Metro Mix wore long debutante dresses in varied colours and each member had a sash with "Miss - xxx" on it" Miss-Demeanor, Miss-Spelled, Miss-allaneous, and so on. Several pageant contestants were interviewed and that led into the songs: Dr Jazz, I Was Never Spellbound, Stray Cat and You Gotta Know (that's probably not the right names).

Top of the Rock were cute, they all wore different Barbie costumes and celebrated Barbie's 50th birthday. There was even a Barbie astronaut. And a Ken doll. They sang It's Raining Ken, I Was never Spellbound, Oh You Beautiful Doll (of course) and finished with what sounded like an African song - with a drum - about Celebration.

Scioto Valley wore black knee length dresses with red lining and sparkly long sleeves - very classy. They had a great sound. Sang It's Going to be a Great Day, Sweetheart No More, a Jazz Medley, and Woman (with a soloist). They won the Division with a score of 1350.

Jacksonville Harmony, directed by Ann Gooch, were all dressed in overalls and were pit crew for a race. The pit crew boss was being interviewed about the secret of winning, and kept saying it's all about having a winning attitude. They sang Where Have My Old Friends gone, Let a Winner Lead the Way, It's Not Where You Start It's Where You Finish and The Greatest Race of All.

We were buggered by this time, but stayed on for the announcement of the winners. I found Sue back in our room, watching television, and we watched the tail end of Stripes (an army comedy with John Candy and Bill thingagummy from Ghostbusters).

I woke up at 5:30 am even though we set the alarm for 7 am, so I'm going to be really tired tonight. Today's program is chorus breakfast, quartet semifinals, rehearsal, and more quartet semifinals: with a bit of Harmony Bazaar and grocery shopping for fresh vegetables thrown in. There's a microwave in our room, and I fancy steamed veg for dinner.