Day 4: Nature and New Beginnings
Today’s camp started with a quiet misty morning and a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, yogurt, granola, cheerios and assorted fresh melons and berries. Campers, dressed in Wilderness & Wildlife attire for the spirit day, were surprised in the warm up space by a flurry of toy turtles, mysteriously placed as a welcome to new members by an older singer. Every camper then learned a new warm up from Liz that chromatically increased desperation about losing soda pop cans. Warm ups were quickly followed by musicianship classes. Anna and Kailamae’s class finished their first dictation, and are reported to be really good at sight reading/duets and are working on their rhythm. Eric’s class is improving on note names vs. solfedge and are learning advanced musicianship skills.
After musicianship classes, singers went to their respective rehearsals and learned a score of new music, which they immediately showed off upon their release. Lunch today consisted of barbeque chicken sandwiches with lettuce, cheese, and tomatoes, homemade baked potato chips and watermelon (which was a fan favorite). Emiko and Bebe were excellent helpers at making sure the lunch space was pristine post meal time. After lunch was spirit photography and rest period, when all the campers dressed as animals went into a lovely hibernation.
The much anticipated free time had a plethora of activities. Paper mache was a hit, and will continue tomorrow with the decoration of many assorted objects. Apples to apples entertained a wide variety of campers, in particular Josie, Nora F., Anar and Nora B., who stayed playing for the majority of free time. Many campers also swam and boated in Turtle Pond, and Avi showed everyone a fish he caught. Concert Choir mentos had individual voice lessons, and the altos in Ensemble had a master class with Alice.
Recital consisted of many fantastic staff performances which the singers listened to attentively. Camper favorites were Kaz who played “Rush E” on piano, Ms. Anne who sang a Cleopatra inspired aria, and Tim who sang a song about dragonflies. Campers were excited to learn about the spirit day winners and cheered each other on in true choir spirit. Winners were Cabin Otter in first place, Cabin Owl in second place, Cabin Badger in third place, and Cabin Hawk with a shoutout for creativity. The spirit winners were released to dinner first, and everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal of teriyaki chicken, jasmine rice, steamed broccoli and carrots, followed by ice cream sandwiches for dessert, which were quickly demolished.
Singers followed dinner with their nighttime rehearsal, which ended early for today’s night activity. Each choir led their own Night in Nature, a longstanding choir tradition where conductors lead an introduction to the choral year. Joyful Voices’ Night in Nature was a CIT led scavenger hunt ending in a surprise of shrinky dinked badger and otter figurines. Concert Choir went on a light hike where they listened to sounds of nature and made individual wishes for the upcoming year, followed by a rendition of the Campfire Song. Ensemble walked to the creek, where they sat in silence and mediated before their opening circle, where each camper shared their goals for this year’s Ensemble. Counselors were particularly touched by Aidan, Adrian, Maeve and Andrea’s goals.
Campers settled down to bed and listened to some lovely vespers, including a samba piece by Ken and Talia, as well as a trio vocal of Circle Game by Mimi, Grace and Will, and will sleep soundly until tomorrow morning.
We are looking forward to enacting our new goals tomorrow, and we will see you soon!