Day 10: Best Day Ever!

We began our slow misty morning with breakfast sandwiches and potatoes before Voice Teacher Liz led warm-ups again this week so we could sing an energetic “Someone’s swipin’ my soda pop cans.'“ This time teaching it to our week 2 Joyful Voices campers and making it progressively higher keys as a way to work on their 3-part harmony singing while warming up their voices.

Concert Choir took a chance to rest their voices by listening to some choral and orchestral music by Tchaikovsky, the same composer who wrote The Nutcracker music they’ve been working on. Joyful Voices has been working hard on a song about an owl to showcase at the camp concert at the end of the week. Finally adding in their alto part, percussion using rocks they found here at camp, and worked on a special painting to go with the song. Ensemble had a memory check for O Fortuna, a section of their song Carmina Burana complete with hand movements to memorize the latin. They also had section leader auditions and will hear back soon. Many of the Ensemble campers spent their free time rehearsing for these, and serenaded the arts and crafts tables with the audition song ‘Koit’.

Lunch was a quick meal of turkey/chicken tacos with rice and beans. Followed by a mandatory rest period then a release for free time! In addition to the usual lanyards and friendship bracelets, campers at Arts and Crafts played a multitude of different board games on the patio, including Apples to Apples, Dominotes, and a short game of Ancora (a choir game where campers think of songs with common words in the lyrics). There was also a Hammock set up by camper Felix and counselors that was enjoyed as a reading and swinging space for the afternoon. Other free time excitement included Mignon confronting her fear of the pond and taking an exhilarating jump in.

Camp Joyful Voices had a very exciting afternoon activity — painting their counselors! After locating their CIT’s in a game of hide-and-seek campers created chaotic and wonderful designs all over Counselors Cat and Grace’s arms and legs, and even a little bit on Cat’s face. There are no words to describe the end result, so you’ll have to check out the photos to see their artwork. This afternoon activity is often the most chaotic for counselors, but the most anticipated for our Joyful Voices campers.

Tonight’s evening activity was “Chorcella,” pur open mic night for campers. Choristers performed everything from silly skits to fully choreographed Disney tunes and supported their brave and insanely talented CC and Ensemble peers. The lineup consisted of Josie and Avi singing a duet from Spongebob “Best Day Ever” including a choreographed dance. They were followed by Zuri who faced her fears with a solo on ‘Traitor’ by Olivia Rodrigo prompting a thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Next, Loki gave an emotional rendition as ‘jane doe’ singing ‘Ride the Cyclone’. They were followed by Ember singing ‘It Could’ve Been Me’ adding her own flair and getting lots of love from the audience. Keira surprised us all with a beautiful original piece accompanied by our Pianist Katy, which she wrote with another camper, Emiko during camp free time. Our next singer Audrey performed an original Ukulele arrangement of Model Etudes, a 7 section piece that Concert Choir sang in the last couple years. Conductors and campers alike were stunned into complete silence by the effort and accuracy of the performance! The next performers, Ayla and Sara came up to give us a silly, costumed and laugh filled execution of ‘Love is an Open Door’. Next Stella hyped up the crowd with a fun fulled (and lyrically modified) version of ‘Super Ultra Modern Girl’ that left us all dancing. Juniper then came up to sing us an another original piece, this year’s being about the ocean. Keanna followed with a similarly moving version of Vienna, adding that her family sings this commonly as a group. Sophia W gave us a bit of a group sing-along with ‘Never Enough’. And finally Emi and Nora P. ended our camper performances with a silly and upbeat theme song for Nora’s favorite childhood show, Sophia the First. Lastly, Counselor Ken ended us off with some meditative guitar playing and a quiet send off of ‘tears in heaven’ to end our day.