Day 9: Sunday Singing with the Sutton Coldfield Singers
The hotel group woke up this beautiful Sunday to a typical British summer - drizzly and a little gloomy. Singers grabbed another full English breakfast at the restaurant next door and after breakfast, singers got more rest time before heading over to Walsall Arena for our big rehearsal and concert.
Since we were without a coach, the Sutton Coldfield Community Singers generously gave the 29 hotel guests a lift to the rehearsal space. We crammed into multiple cars and minivans to drive 20 minutes to Walsall Arena where we met back up with our homestay singers, as well as the Sutton Coldfield Singing Community of Choirs.
After eating a subpar sandwich lunch, singers rehearsed together with the other choirs, as well as by themselves. The rehearsal space was an old school that was converted into an arts center arena. The stage lights were set to Ensemble indigo blue and the sound engineers, who most likely have not mixed sounds for children's choirs before, was lucky to get Liz’s help who worked her magic with the sound engineer and improved the overall sound of all of the choirs!
The concert was split into two sections. The first half included all of the singers from the Sutton Coldfield Singing Community of Choirs–ages of the singers ranged from 2-85 years old! The concert was very reminiscent of our very own Spring Sing, including a “semi-improvised” mass piece, and the littles waving to their families from the stage.
Ensemble took the stage and the audience was amazed! The repertoire was similar to the other performances. During Panda Chant II, even the squirmiest and littlest singers were silent and attentive. The other singers joined and multiple massed pieces were sung. It was a beautiful representation of our cultural exchange! An important part of what we do during tours is to spread music and to create inspiration within other communities, which we can say, was a success today.
Based on cumulative group feedback, we ordered Chinese food for the hotel crew while a few select hotel crew members got to get a home cooked meal from their car ride people. Since we have been ordering such large quantities of food in small towns from smaller businesses, we’ve been given free sides every time. In Warwick we got bags of Italian cookies and from this meal we got free curry, wontons, and crisps. Singers scarfed down their dinners and gladly went back for seconds and thirds and even fourths.
After dinner, singers enjoyed their last bits of freetime before the competition. Some decided to craft, others decided to read, and a different group decided to get a light trim right before competition.
We are so excited to explore the rest of what the UK has to offer! Singers are also excited to compete at Llangollen in the coming days.
