All's well that ends in Wells

Wow. The final festival performance was an amazing, emotional experience for everyone involved. The kids sang right under the famous scissors arches in Wells cathedral, and there wasn't a dry eye on any parent, chaperone or other adult that was with us on our trip.

The cathedral was a packed house, and the performance benefitted the Make a Wish foundation. We only discovered when a representative from the organization was describing their work that one of our choir friends from Chicago was able to come to the Somerset International Youth Choral Festival and perform as HER wish. It made the evenening even more poignant.

The difficult Brewbaker pieces came together beautifully with percussion, and the American music, most specifically "Music Down in My Soul" absolutely rocked.

Today we got up early, took the bus to Stonehenge to enjoy the monument in beautiful sunny weather, and then we said goodbye to our wonderful tour guide Angela and Wayne the bus driver at Heathrow. 2/3 of the group went on to a direct British Air flight, and will be home in Savannah tonight, and the rest stayed in London to enjoy the rest of the weekend before returning Monday.

Looking back over the entire experience, the delays, some sick and travel sick-kids, any problems were outweighed by the benefits, which include:

• Traveling abroad, for some of us the first time
• Being away from the familiar, and embracing the unfamiliar
• Meeting other young singers from across the country and world
• Working with top directors, and seeing how other singers work in a rehearsal setting
• Performing in front of our friends, family and complete strangers in HUGE cathedrals with ENORMOUS audiences
• Making lots of new discoveries that will make future trips even better!

All in all, the trip was an amazing success, and the lives of the kids participating are a whole lot different as a result.

This will be our concluding post. Want to know more? Go to www.savannahchoir.org, and plan on coming to our End of Camp concert on Friday, July 31 at 7 pm at Savannah Country Day school. The concert is free and open to the public.

Thursday, Wells

Our concert last night was a great success! We were the youngest choir both in the age of our kids and the age of our organization, and we received so many positive comments on how well the kids did, the word "miraculous" was used on several occasions. Several of the directors of the other choirs had tears (of joy!) in their eyes listening to our kids. We also discovered last night that all the other choirs like our choice of performance clothing the best!

This morning we were up and out to Wells. A beautiful drive through the English countryside on an often sunny day brought us to a beautiful Medieval town with an enormous cathedral and Bishop's palace, complete with moat and swans. And great shopping.

Tonight will be the concert from the massed choirs. The directors were impressed with how well prepared our kids are.

Tonight, Sherborne Abbey

Today the kids rehearsed in Sherborne Abbey, in preparation of tonight's concert. Unlike tomorrow's concert where the entire 240+ voices will perform the same music, tonight's concert features each choir and the music they prepared to share.

It is unbelievable to hear them sing in this acoustically rich room, with tracery on the ceilings and gorgeous stained glass. Not many kids get to do stuff this cool.

The whole town seems to know about tonight's concert, so we hope to have a good crowd.

After our rehearsal we explored the main shopping street, found the candy stores, and enjoyed the architecture, narrow streets, and beautiful hanging baskets of flowers.

A Foggy Day in Londontown

One of our members, a Frank Sinatra fan, has been giving us the "Frank Sinatra Song of the Day". Yesterday, when we finally landed in London, "A Rainy Day in Londontown" was our song.

We finally made it yesterday, were met at the airport, and got on a bus that took us directly to the beautiful town of Bath, where we joyfully met up with the rest of our group.

We toured the Royal Crescent and the Bath museum, which described and illustrated the development of the Roman temples and the fashionable era of the town, particularly as described in Jane Austin's times.

We then came back to Sherborne to settle into our dorm rooms, enjoy a surprisingly good meal, and an evening rehearsal. The group of 240+ kids sound truly amazing together.

Today (Wednesday) we're having a special rehearsal with Michael Kibblewhite top catch the kids up with what they missed on Monday, and then a regular group rehearsal today prior to our evening concert. It's cool (yay!) and rainy (boo!) and the adults and chaperones (who were given the morning off) are on their way to Weymouth to tour a Victorian seaside town.

Leaving, on a jet plane...

Only after top level pressure did British Air release the tickets to allow us to rebook on an American Airlines plane that leaves Atlanta at 6:25 to Chicago, and heading out from Chicago at 8:15 to Heathrow.

Music Celebrations has been on the phone trying to work this out since early this morning, and our broke-back bus company, Sampon Trailways, has truly shown us what customer service looks like.

The kids are now enjoying touring the World of Coke and having lunch at the CNN center.

Our deepest thanks go to our many Savannah pals who have dropped EVERYTHING to help make calls and whup up public support.

Our adventure continues...

Aside from having a broke-back bus, Sampon Trailways wins the customer service award of the century. They've given us a 24 hour point person, Tyson, who arranged a hotel, brought us dinner, was here before dawn to bring us breakfast, and is now taking the kids to the World of Coke to keep them busy until we work out with Music Celebrations International how and when we're getting the kids to England.

Kids are still seeing this as an adventure, and the adults are trying to see it through the eyes of the kids. One choir member wanted to go back to the airport just to hang out because it was "cool".

Big girls don't cry...

Seems like something is conspiring against us so far.

About an hour out of Savannah, the bus taking us to the Atlanta airport inexplicably stopped working. The bus company, also out of Atlanta, sent a bus, but with frantic phone calling we were able to find a closer bus in Savannah. After 2 1/2 hours in the heat, sitting in the weeds along I-16 feeding the gnats, we have never been happier to see an (air conditioned) bus. In the worst situation, our kids were troopers.

12 members of our party were already in Atlanta, and were phoning us frantically to see where we were, communicating our status with the British Air representatives.

We arrived at the British Airways gate with a few minutes to spare, but the gate agent really didn't seem to want to work to get us on the plane.

We said goodbye via cell phone to the 5 of our choir members and accompanying parents as they flew off without us.

We made some other discoveries. The only people that can unbook and rebook a flight made as a group is the people at the 'group desk', and while there might be some great early morning flights to get us closer to our destination, it doesn't matter, because the 'group desk' doesn't open until 9 am. Also, that many of the other flights we might have gone on are booked.

We're so fortunate to have Jennifer Dickinson, our board chair, along with us. Mrs. Sullivan went into hysterics at the gate when she realized they wouldn't let us on the plane, but Ms. Dickinson's cool legal mind helped us find some options.

The broke-back bus company sent a representative to the airport, who actually did a good job finding us dinner and a hotel near the airport. If they only had sent a bus that worked in the first place.....

So, now 1/3 of our group is sleeping peacefully on a plane over the Atlantic ocean, and another 2/3 is sleeping peacefully in an airport hotel. The only bright spot is that we'll get to take showers in the morning, while our airborne friends have still have another 12 hours before they see running water.

Sunday

We've all been making our lists and checking them twice, and making sure everything fits into a suitcase that also weighs 50 pounds or less.

At 2:00 the bus leaves Savannah to drive to the Atlanta airport. We take 20 choir members and an additional 27 adults (chaperones, parents, family, directors, and even our board chair!)

After three years of being in existence, the fact we're taking an international trip is pretty amazing. We've been busy preparing some incredibly challenging music - will we be ready? How will we stack up against the other choirs there? Or, as the girls in the choir want to know, "Will there be BOYS?"

Here's where we're staying - Harper House

Here is a video made by the boys in Harper House - very cute, and some good interior shots of the house we'll be staying in.

Here's the itinerary!

Click here to read the complete itinerary.

There will be rehearsal time and tours each day, with concerts on Wednesday and Thursday evening.