CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

Arioso and Camerata have returned from their UK tour!  While on this summer’s tour of the United Kingdom (our Fifth International Tour), 55 traveling choristers of SCC brilliantly represented our organization at the 2010 Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Llangollen, Wales.  During the week long gathering, choirs, vocatlists, instrumentalists and dancers of all ages from approximately 50 countries came prepared to compete, perform and share in a glorious extravaganza of music making.  We were blessed to be participants.  From our first day, Opening Festival Parade Day, as part of the grand procession of singers and dancers, to our thrilling successes in the competitions, to the countless, spontaneous outbursts into song with new friends from South Africa and Indonesia, Australia and the Ukraine, Philippines and China, we reveled in the wonders of this event!

It is with honor and privilege to announce and celebrate the tremendous success of our touring choirs, Arioso and Camerata.  Videos of both choirs in action at the competitions are proof of their stellar work!  We could never imagine being more proud of our choirs and Staff!  On our first day of the choral competition, Arioso competed in the largest division of choirs represented at the festival, the Senior Children’s Choirs.  This division consisted of 21 groups, designed for singers 18 years old and younger, plus an additional category of 7 preliminary best choirs coveting the Senior Children’s Choir status.  Arioso competed confidently among all of these predominantly high school ensembles.  Arioso delivered a magnificent performance and the result “with a total of 173 points”, a proud tie for 7th place! Congratulations to Kris Mason, Artistic Director and  sincere thanks to Arioso for your determination and poise and to Dianne, our accompanist for your partnership in this competition.

Then on the next two days of competition, Camerata, under the direction of John Hendrix, received two 2nd Place prizes in two divisions of the Competition: Youth Choirs, (singers not to exceed the age of 25), and the Folk Song Choirs (mixed or equal voices of any age category).  They gave stunning performances in both categories, competing among university choirs and even professional choirs in the folk division.  Bravo, Camerata, Bravo!  Thanks to John and Randi for their countless hours of work and preparation and to Camerata for your commitment to many extra rehearsals and your marvelous artisitc energy on stage.

While all our choristers breathed a sigh of relief post-competition, both groups completed our touring schedule with elegant performances in two of Edinburgh’s famous worship sites:  St. Gile’s Cathedral and the Greyfriars Kirk.  In the words of Kris Mason, “I found myself astounded by the beautiful singing!  All the while I was thinking, ‘These are remarkable young musicians who were offering up their very best singing for the sheer love of music and for the glory of God’”  And in the words of our British Tour Director, Chris Robson, “Brilliant!  Absolutely brilliant!”