Chicago!

Chicago was a blast!

For those of you that may not know, Kantorei was selected to sing at this year's national ACDA convention. It was an honor to get this opportunity.

Anyway, it was a great time - mostly just having a change of the norm. It was fun to be in a big city and hang out with adults and eat out and not have to work. I was of course a bit worried about how Mary would do. But knowing her history and her disposition and how attentive Jeff is to her, I thought it would be fine. I left on Thursday mid morning and returned Saturday evening. So it wasn't too long. When Jeff and Mary came to pick me up, it was the biggest "non-reunion" ever. Mary wasn't the least concerned.

Got to meet some living composers including John Duggan, Eric Barnum, and the superstar Eric Whitacre (I should also mention that Tim Tharaldson is already a member of Kantorei - BYU singers just sang one of his pieces on tour).

We got to perform in two of the most beautiful auditoriums ever and we sang well. According to one person we were the "buzz of the convention". Fun fun!


We had some time for a little sight seeing as well. Here are some pics!

A church where we rehearsed


My friend Eldeen and me at the pizza party on Thursday night


The Sears Tower glass window box. Cool huh?


A pic of Eldeen in one of the boxes taken from another box


The "Cloud Gate" sculpture in Millenium Park. Known better as the giant reflective silver jelly bean.


And one final note is that we had some donors who gave enough that most of us had our travel and hotel costs covered! Now that is my kind of trip!!! The only bummer is that I didn't get to see everything - particularly the museums. Oh well. Guess Jeff will just have to take me back there. : )