This choir girl has officially landed in the heart of Podium 2012. The first day was a blur: a parliament tour, sound check, choir concert, interview, another choir concert, and welcome reception. As soon as I arrived, it has felt like I've been consumed in a choral-centric whirlpool. Every time I go another round in the swirling vortex there is yet another person I recognize and am excited to greet. This conference is choirtopia. There are so many opportunities to just choir geek-out throughout this conference. One look into the audience and you wonder: “Is that Jeff Enns? the composer of the piece we’re singing?!?!” or “Is that the conductor of the Canadian Chamber Choir!?!?” It’s as if these glances within an audience or during a reception function as choir star-sightings. It feels like all the musical acquaintances that I have slowly compiled have all aggregated en masse this weekend.
Belle Canto's morning began with some lovely historic touring of the East Block of Parliament in the morning followed by lunch in the parliamentary cafeteria with Canadian Senators. Afterwards Belle Canto hurried over to Knox Presbyterian Church to begin the sound check. The church was gorgeous. Reverberant stonewalls containing a cool and comforting atmosphere. We began by singing through our Schumann pieces and communal smiles appeared throughout the choir as we heard the pulsating reverb of our sound. This was going to be a fun acoustic to sing in. After a little bit of physical rearrangement, including my discovery the Belle Canto had introduced some choralography into El Hambo, we were ready for our concert.
