Oops...we're a little behind!

Sorry for the silence as we make our way to the Carolinas for our Spring Break tour. The guys left Charlottesville on Saturday morning, heading to DC to participate in the National Seminar of Intercollegiate Men's Choruses. IMC was founded in 1914 by the University Glee Club of New York City as a way to provide services to collegiate men's choruses, mostly in New England. As the organization grew and evolved, it started working with secondary school groups as well as adult amateur and professional men's choruses--all with the goal of supporting the unique sounds and repertoire of men's choruses in North America and around the world.

The National Seminar (what we call a conference, for some reason) happens every two years. We participated four years ago when it was at Rutgers University. This time, the Seminar was hosted by the Washington Men's Camerata, the adult community chorus I conduct in Washington, DC. You can read more about the Seminar here if you're interested. The Glee Club was one of a dozen men's choruses that sang in the Seminar. We also had interest and reading sessions, and there were more than 500 participating singers and conductors. Since I'm the president of IMC and the host of the conference, it was a crazy weekend. But everything seemed to go pretty well!

Our performance was Saturday night, in the closing session of the Seminar. We shared the program with Measure for Measure, an adult men's chorus from Ann Arbor, Michigan. We were performing in the magnificent National City Christian Church (James Garfield and LBJ were members), and the guys really rose to the occasion, making us all proud. When the conductor of Measure for Measure noticed that we'd both programmed Grace in the Sun, he suggested we sing it together to close the concert session. It was a great idea and everyone sounded fantastic, but it wasn't quite enough. So we invited anyone up on "stage" who knew Franz Biebl's Ave Maria, and closed the entire conference singing that together, with more than 100 men. It was a truly memorable moment, and a great way to kick off the tour!

On Sunday, we met up at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Falls Church to sing in the home church of one of our members, Andrew Orvedahl (Bumi). The congregation turned out in full force to support us, and we had several Glee Club fossils (alumni) and other UVa alums to make for a very supportive crowd. After the concert, the guys returned to their Glee Club family hosts, and prepared to really hit the road this morning (Monday).

One Glee Club fossil, Jay Jahari (Cinderblock) was so moved by the performance that he wrote a lovely Facebook post about his participation. It was great to have him and so many other alumni there!

We only left about 30 minutes late this morning, and had an uneventful drive south as we headed for Chapel Hill, NC, our first stop in the Carolinas. We had an amusing lunch break at a truck stop (with the strangest gift shop items one could hope to find on the interstate in rural VA), and made it to Chapel Hill in good time to warm-up and then eat a delicious meal of authentic NC BBQ prepared by our hosts at the church. The audience was great, there were two Glee Club fossils and a bunch of other alumni, and a good time was had by all. The guys are staying with church families from Binkley Memorial Baptist Church tonight, and in the morning, we'll head farther south for a performance in Shallotte, NC. More photos to follow--I promise!