Singing up a storm
One of the interesting, and sometimes strange, things about the International Barbershop Convention is that it's always the week of 4th of July. While it usually means that we don't do much celebrating of Independence Day because we're wrapped up in our singing, when the host city has a big celebration, it sometimes makes the logistics a bit complicated.
In Nashville, the arena where we were competing is a couple blocks from where they were having their celebratory performances and fireworks. So, in order to prevent distractions from the competitors, the contest was paused for the duration of the fireworks. Good thinking.
Unfortunately, nobody thought to warn us about the fly-over of several military jets to punctuate the National Anthem during the opening ceremonies. Two blocks away, said fly-over coincided with one of the softest, most sensitive parts of our ballad, just before we finished the song. The sonic booms were like a big lightning bolt struck the top of the arena, with the "thunder" lasting for 8 seconds or so. [EDIT: Turns out they were pyrotechnics, not airplanes.] Later, everyone said how impressed we were that we didn't appear to break focus, but of course it was a distraction, and I think it cost us a few points. The contest administrators offered us the chance to redo the set at the end of the contest, but after some deliberation, we decided that we were happy enough with our shot that we didn't want to look like we were seeking an advantage by getting to do it twice.
And it turned out to be the right decision, as we placed solidly in third. Even though we were hoping to improve from our seed going into the contest, the Masters and Ambassadors both gave great performances, and even if we took our absolute best on stage, we wouldn't have beaten either of them. So, we're happy bringing home a bronze medal, and have lots of motivation to keep improving for next year's shot in Anaheim.
Tonight is the quartet finals, and it's going to be an amazing show! But I probably won't have time to update between then and when I get on the plane for Italy, since I'll be up late (maybe all night) singing tags afterward. After all, I have 14 hours or something to sleep on the plane. Now I'm off to do some laundry, and get some more time in with my music for Umbrian Serenades.
I only took a couple photos here so far. Click through to the album (via the link below the photo) if you want to see a couple shots of our rehearsal.
From Nashville 200...
In Nashville, the arena where we were competing is a couple blocks from where they were having their celebratory performances and fireworks. So, in order to prevent distractions from the competitors, the contest was paused for the duration of the fireworks. Good thinking.
Unfortunately, nobody thought to warn us about the fly-over of several military jets to punctuate the National Anthem during the opening ceremonies. Two blocks away, said fly-over coincided with one of the softest, most sensitive parts of our ballad, just before we finished the song. The sonic booms were like a big lightning bolt struck the top of the arena, with the "thunder" lasting for 8 seconds or so. [EDIT: Turns out they were pyrotechnics, not airplanes.] Later, everyone said how impressed we were that we didn't appear to break focus, but of course it was a distraction, and I think it cost us a few points. The contest administrators offered us the chance to redo the set at the end of the contest, but after some deliberation, we decided that we were happy enough with our shot that we didn't want to look like we were seeking an advantage by getting to do it twice.
And it turned out to be the right decision, as we placed solidly in third. Even though we were hoping to improve from our seed going into the contest, the Masters and Ambassadors both gave great performances, and even if we took our absolute best on stage, we wouldn't have beaten either of them. So, we're happy bringing home a bronze medal, and have lots of motivation to keep improving for next year's shot in Anaheim.
Tonight is the quartet finals, and it's going to be an amazing show! But I probably won't have time to update between then and when I get on the plane for Italy, since I'll be up late (maybe all night) singing tags afterward. After all, I have 14 hours or something to sleep on the plane. Now I'm off to do some laundry, and get some more time in with my music for Umbrian Serenades.
I only took a couple photos here so far. Click through to the album (via the link below the photo) if you want to see a couple shots of our rehearsal.
From Nashville 200...