ACDA - Oklahoma Day III

I'm going to keep this brief, as I have to admit that I've had my share of Cab. Sauv. this evening at the Canadian Reception.

Lecture on 21st century technology for choirs delivered by Philip Copeland of UAB Choirs and Choralblog was fantastic, and I wish it could have gone for 2 hours (although I did skip breakfast, so I was afraid that stomach rumbles might have caused disruption). It was also great to meet Philip, albeit, quite briefly. I'm looking forward to starting a blog for Da Camera Singers in the months to come and begin to implement many of the things I learned in this session to my rehearsal procees. And I think that tatango just might change the way I communicate with University students for ever. And now that I've finally got my church to use Google Calendar, it's time to start up Google Documents!

I think I'll wait until I get home to expand more on this session, but I can say that by far it's been the most informative session I've been to yet.

I then headed off to the finals of the conducting competition. Yes, I know I mentioned previously that they make me uncomfortable, and I was still uncomfortable in this one as well. Not only because the venue was so small, but also because watching a conducting compeition rehearsal still seems so wrong to me. I'll leave it at that for now. However, I am happy to say that they did pick all the right winners.

After another run through the exhibits, and the purchasing of two CDs (yes, I said I was done buying stuff, but they called out to me ... and I couldn't just leave them there without a home), I headed to the concert which opened with The American Boy Choir. It was, in a word, fantastic! Not that I would ever expect anything less of this world renowned group - but it was so wonderful to have the opportunity to see them live, as I doubt that a Canadian tour would see them in Edmonton anytime soon. After they finished their set, it hit me that I was choral concerted out, and it was time for my intermission.

Then off to the Canadian reception, where I was able to connect with so many friends - many of whom I didn't even know were here. It was a lovely evening - catching up with the past, and looking at the future of conducting in Canada. All in all, a great day!

Tomorrow's schedule looks incredibly full - but it ends with Rachmaninoff. A work I know quite well, having conducted it once, and sung it thrice.

A perfect day really.

Oh ... and just so you can feel slightly sorry for me... here's the 14 day forecast temperature for Edmonton. You may notice, that it is going to be so cold on Monday, my first day back, that the graph just bottoms out with no temperature reference.

Click on the graph for a larger image.

All degrees in Celsius: 0 degrees Celsius equals 32 Fahrenheit, and both scales come together at -40 - so the high of -30 or so on Monday translates to -22 Fahrenheit From 80 F to -22 F in four days for me.

By the way, if you don't have the conversion tool "A2Z pro" for your iPod touch or iPhone yet, you really should. It's free, and is by far the most useful application I've ever downloaded.