We began our morning, bright and early (6:00 a.m.) with breakfast and a brief rehearsal, then checked out of our dorms in Wrexham and were on the road to Llangollen by 7:50 a.m.  Camerata was scheduled to perform in the Folk Song Choir competition which began at 9:00 a.m. (quite early for such an important performance!)  John & Randi and the singers had decided that their formal concert attire was a bit too stiff for the folk competition and instead, the group dressed in blue jeans and red, white and blue.  We all agreed, they looked great!

Arioso sat in the Pavilion to hear their performance, which was equally great and then stayed on to hear the other choirs.

It was a bit overwhelming to hear the very excellent university level choirs from all over the world – eight in all.  We returned to the Pavilion after a little more free time to hear the results.  For the formal adjudications, one of the judges would read a few of the comments from each of the judges, in front of the entire auditorium.  We were all impressed with their gracious, but very candid assessment of each choir.  The judges remarked that their first song, “Cindy” was “stylishly performed” and they like how it was “interrupted with humor”, that their diction was so clear that the humor showed through beautifully and said their performance was “absolutely delightful”.  “This Little Light of Mine” was sung “powerfully” and with “very good chording”.  When the comments were finished, we were not extremely hopeful of the outcome.  When the scores were read there were audible gasps that came intermittently as each score was announced in order of performance.  Those who were paying close attention realized what high marks Camerata had received and as the final score was read, we were ecstatic to learn we had placed 2^nd, once again!  What a thrill!  We wish everyone could have experienced the excitement first hand!

Watching the video of Camerata’s peformance!  We left Llangollen after lunch and headed north to Scotland, checked into our hotel and enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.