From what I saw when I went to breakfast around 10 am, I was not the only one who had a slower morning! The late nights and busy days start adding up. At 12:30 the choir met in a conference room here at the hotel, and talked through this evening’s competition pieces. They were absolutely ready in every way. Those of you with sharp eyes might notice that Dr. Brent Wells has joined us for our time in Thessaloniki.
People went their separate ways for lunch and whatever else before we met again, ready for the pre-concert soundcheck at 5 pm.
Tonight’s concert was in the Ceremony Hall at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Some of the same choirs from last night’s performance were part of the competition performances tonight.
What was the 11th festival last night was the 14th tonight. Time moves quickly in Greece!
The first choir was a children’s choir called Emmelia; the members do not have any special musical education and there is no audition to join the choir. Knowing all of that, it becomes even more impressive that they participated! They came from Athens.
The second choir was the Kosovo Siparantum Choir who we heard last night. This is a well-trained choir who are noted in their bio as being “a bridge between traditional and contemporary music.” We heard mostly contemporary music tonight, with lots of rhythmic stomping and dancing. The gestures and dissonance seemed to come from pain, but with the language difference, I really am only guessing.
Next was the Choral Workshop of the Church of the Nativity of Theotokos in Kardia, Greece. Its intent is to use music to help the spiritual development of its participants. They sang some Greek pieces that had the locals in the audience humming and singing along. You might notice most of the choir is women, with three brave children in front and one even braver man on the back row.
Bella Musica also returned from last night, an amateur women’s choir. One of the requirements of this festival is at least one piece from musical theater. They chose to sing arrangements of four: a Gershwin, “Wonderful World” (it was in some show, right??), “Mama Mia,” and “The Pink Panther.” It was an eclectic choice of music that their choir loved singing.
Fifth in the program was BYU Singers. Their pieces were “Platiyu usuv” by Galdassare Galuppi; “Al sommo d’una porta” by Paolo Orlandi, “Catareté” by Francisco Mignone, and “Wheels of a Dream” from Ragtime. The choir gave a wonderful performance, and were met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Throughout the evening all the choirs were very supportive of each other’s performances, which made for a very welcoming audience for every choir. With such a wide variety of experience and training, that might not have been the case in another situation.
The Girls Youth Choir from Slovakia followed BYU Singers. This choir is well-known in its country, and competes regularly in European competitions. They sang a good program, ending with “America” from West Side Story. They used lots of dance throughout the program, and had beautiful costumes.
The evening closed with the Youth Mixed Choir of the State Music School in Warsaw. The fun of this choir is that it is made up of students from many specialties within music, but mostly instrumental. They obviously had a great time on stage, and threw themselves totally into their well-choreographed closer of “The Greatest Show.”
We’ll find out tomorrow evening who won the audience favorite award, and the top three choirs chosen by the six judges of the competition.
There was a gathering of all the choirs afterwards that BYU Singers joined in until the bus showed up. It seemed that everyone was ready to come back to the hotel and get sleep before a big day tomorrow.