Spain Tour Day 5: A Powerful Performance

     Kaixo! It's me, Camden of the tenors, posting again, this time not about flying but about an inspiring rehearsal,  a short walk to the beach, a little exploration, and a powerful concert even better than the last.

     Our day started with a light breakfast, as usual, but our rehearsal following it was different. Ethan gave us some more insight on his interpretation of Samuel Barber's "The Coolin." He invited us to bring out a personal part of ourselves while performing that song. One of his mottos about being a musician is that the great ones specialize in "focus and vulnerability." "The Coolin" and "Aho" are two songs that are an exercise in vulnerability. The former is about the love of your life, the latter is about the loss of a life dear to you. We left that rehearsal with a new understanding of emotional expression.

     Our concert wasn't until later in the evening, so many spent our afternoon at the beach. We waded out into the Atlantic and let the waves splash (and sometimes jostle) us. The most memorable wave would be the one we faced while in a chorus line kicking our legs. Once we had our fun out there, we headed closer to shore to play a game of Ninja in ankle-deep water. The waves made the game... interesting to say the least, they seemed to come by more often after someone dove for a quick attack.

     We rode our tour bus over to Ordizia where that night's concert would be. During our sound check, Ethan wanted us to change the way we made a section feel rhythmically; he wanted us to sing it like we were ribbon dancers. To help us visualize, he took a tie and used it as a ribbon (check out the video). After our sound check we got to explore the town a bit. I got to relax with a small cup of vanilla tea and some potato chips. What shocked me about this cafè was their choice of music: they had some (in my opinion) pretty bad American pop music playing on the radio. I didn't realize our country's music got radio plays in a Basque cafè where they didn't even  speak English.

      The concert was in a reverberant cathedral not unlike our first concert. We performed much of the same set with a few differences. We removed one song and replaced it with another. We prepared a new, fun spiritual as an encore: "In Dat Great Gittin' Up Mornin'." It's full of soloists doing a call and response with the choir. We also had, for the first time,  two females (Michelle and Grace) sing the opening solos for "Hallelujah." They showcased their rich low-range by singing in the same range as the men that usually started off the song. When it came time to sing "The Coolin" and "Aho" we showed the audience a part of ourselves that many don't share. It's hard to describe the feeling of putting everything you have emotionally into a piece, but it's an experience I'd love to repeat at our next concert.