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.