My Choir History

These last few weeks have been jam packed full of choir awesomeness. And really it has caused me to reflect on how much choir has blessed my life. It really has played a big role in shaping who I am today. Since my last post we have had two big concerts. The first was our Colours of Spring concert. It included quite the variety of pieces and was an incredibly fun concert. Here is a link to Oran's performance of RAH, probably the funniest piece I've ever sung. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFHmdJK7LuM You won't regret watching that one, trust me. This week also saw the last of Kikimasu's performances for the year. They sang beautifully. We had a pizza and awards party on Wednesday and it made me realize how much I have loved getting to work with these little musical kiddos. They are so sweet!

This week we had a concert with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and it was amazing!! This meant rehearsals pretty much every night, which made for a very busy week. But it was all worth it. I was reminded by how much I love the symphony, they performed beautifully. I am so lucky to get the chance to sing with them.

All of this has caused me to reflect on my life in choir, or choir in my life. I have sung in a choir every year since I was seven years old. That's 20 years. Crazy. So I have decided to post some pictures of me in choir through out the years. Unfortunately my last few years are much better documented in the cyber world, so the early years don't have much and the quality is lame. In fact, since I'm not at home I don't have any pictures of me in Elementary school. Nevertheless, here it goes.

1993-1995 Cardston Elementary Junior Choir

This is where it all began. I don't remember why but for some reason I figured I needed to audition for this. Which was pretty uncharacteristic of me since I was quite shy on my own. And deciding to audition was something I did completely by myself. In fact, I was nervous to tell my Mom when I made it in, because it cost $15. And I didn't have $15. Obviously she didn't mind covering me. I loved singing in choir right from the beginning. There was most certainly a divine hand guiding me towards it. We had bright red gowns which we wore over white tights (for girls) and dress pants (for boys). I found a picture of the choir, much more recently, but the uniforms haven't changed. So just picture my crazy little face in one of those gems.

1995-1996 Cardston Elementary Senior Choir

Much the same as Junior Choir, it was for Grades 5-6. We traveled to Camrose from Cardston (a big trip for a 10 year old) to compete in Provincials. And we won, best Children's choir in the Province that year. Woot woot!! The uniforms were exactly the same as Jr. choir, except blue instead of red. Once again, I am not in this photo.

 1997-2002 Cardston Girls Choir

This was such a big chunk of my growing up. My first year we went on a huge tour to Europe. I was 12 and the youngest member on the tour. I'm surprised they took me, but so glad they did. It was incredible!! I love touring with a choir because you are given so many opportunities you wouldn't get if traveling on your own. I stayed with people living there, sang in beautiful cathedrals, saw amazing sites, all so far from home. This is the choir outside the Cantebury Cathedral, if I remember correctly. You can't tell, but our uniform consisted of a lovely green and blue plaid kilt, blue sweater vest over a white blouse, complete with cross ties and penny loafers. This was the same through out my time in Girls choir. I am second from the left on the front row. For some reason my feet were crossed...

This is outside the Charles Dickens Centre. You cant see in this picture, but I am rocking the socks and sandals like a true Canadian. My choir director Mrs. Dittmann is on the right end. She taught me so much and I still adore her. I am second from the left. So young, and in Europe.

I didn't call my Mom the entire trip cause I didn't know how to work international phones, and I was too shy to ask. Poor woman. I didn't realize how crazy that was for my Mom until I got back and was a bit older. I did miss my family very much, but was well cared for on the tour. This picture earned us a full page in the town newspaper, and they interviewed me. I was pretty much a celebrity. 

We also went on a tour to Eastern Canada and some of the Eastern States in 2000. This is me in the Sacred Grove in New York state.

 Atlantic Ocean.

 Canada Day on Parliament Hill. Some of my best friends growing up! Ashley, Heather, Amy, and I.

2003-2008 Edmonton Institute of Religion Choir

No pictures here. But I had a lot of fun singing with other Young Single Adults from my church. It was a non-auditioned group, and we only did two big performances a year. We did get to tour down to Calgary once, which was fun. This gave me the chance to continue singing, but it had a lot less time and commitments.

2007-2009 University of Alberta Mixed Chorus

I was in many music classes at the U of A with my minor, and the head of the department was Dr. de Frece. Having many classes with him he suggested that I join the chorus as he was the conductor. I figured I had better listen to him and audition shortly after. I joined with my friend and old roommate Sarah. We sang amazing music and I met a lot of wonderful people. I have two favorite moments from my time in Mixed chorus. The first being Choir of Choirs. All the choirs at the U of A came together for a concert along with the Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the Universities 100th Birthday. And they paid for all of us to go to Calgary overnight and perform the concert there as well. Magical!

The second favorite of mine was performing with a small group of Mixed Chorus as back up for three cast members of the Broadway show "The Lion King". They were doing a sneak peak and asked us. I was in heaven! Getting to meet them and sing with them was incredible! Here is me with Nala and Simba.

 This is Rafiki in full make up, not in costume though. She was super cool!

Yes. We had black stretchy velvet long sleeved floor length dresses. Hot. I named mine Agatha.

 At the Winspear after a concert. Good view of the hall. Guys didn't have to wear the lovely dresses. Liz(on the right) became one of my dear friends, thanks to UAMC.

2008-2010 Kokopelli Youth Choir

So many amazing opportunities and incredible moments. On a 'mini life crisis' I decided to audition and got in. I had no idea how it would change my life. It has definitely been the biggest time commitment out of all my choirs. But also with Kokopelli I have had more performances a year than any other of my choirs. Kokopelli is a very innovative choir, so I had a lot of variety in the pieces we did. A lot more movement as well.  Here are some photographic highlights. I definitely have more pictures of Koko so prepare to be bombarded since I had a hard time narrowing down the highlights. So many good times.

 Singing "Mita Kai". A Finnish piece originally by Rajaton. Its about the old woman in the village trying to get the younger ones to marry. In this picture that is exactly what we are trying to get Lauren to do. :)

 Me with Rochelle and Lisa at a Wintersong concert

 Ukutula. Stories concert 2009

We even did a concert from a roof top. It was a little bit sketch getting up there.....hence the victory pose of mine. In our African tunics.

On tour to Saskatchewan, here with Kaitlyn.

At the Olympic torch ceremony, one of the biggest crowds I've sung for. Over 10,000 people estimated were there braving the cold.

Singing with Oran at the Winspear.

In 2010 we got invited to go the a festival in Dresden, Germany. It was so amazing. We got to sing in some incredible places. This here is us singing in a Volkswagen factory. It had glass walls so you could see the cars being made, and it doubled as a concert hall. Cool eh? 

Us at the Frauenkirche in Dresden. Beautiful. I even sang a solo here with the choir. We surrounded the audience and the effect was absolutely breath taking! Talk about a life experience!

Group picture in Deustchland

 At the Brandenburg Gate

 One of my last concerts as a Kokopelli

Probably my favorite picture from Kokopelli. Having a blast singing African music at our 24 hour Sing-along fundraiser for choirs in Africa.

2012-now Oran

Part of the Kokopelli Choir Organization, so I still get to sing with many of my friends from Koko. Oran is a young adult choir, we perform at many of the same concerts as Kokopelli. Such talent in this group this year. I have had a blast with all the music we have done. And I look forward to much more!

One of the first concerts of the year. In my new uniform with old Koko pals.

 We got to go to Banff to the music festival there and had a blast! So much fun with these lovely ladies. :)

And there is my own personal history of choir involvement. I am so grateful for every one of the choirs I have sung with, because it really has shaped me into the person I am now and made me so much better as an individual. Choir has given me amazing moments that I will never forget. At times when I've been sad due to something happening in life, choir has lifted me up and reminded me there is always hope. Heavenly Father has certainly blessed me through choir.

In Dumbledore's fine words "Music, a magic beyond all we do here". Indeed that is true.