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We came 5TH at the 2016 Sweet Adelines International competition in Vegas!

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As a Sweet Adelines member you can be a member of more than one chorus and at the current time I am a member of:

  1. Greater Auckland chorus (currently on long term leave as I’m overseas)
  2. Christchurch City Chorus (I’ve been an Out of Town member [OOTM] since Jan 2016)
  3. Lions Gate Chorus (I just moved to Vancouver to study)

Let’s just say I kind of like singing barbershop and being involved in this organisation…… just a little bit!

Christchurch City Chorus  has been preparing to travel to Las Vegas to represent NZ at the international Sweet Adelines Competition and compete against around 30 odd choruses from around the world (after winning the NZ national competition in 2015).

As an OOTM, I attended coaching weekends on average once a month from January to August (sneakily flew to Canada at the end of August) and then reunited with the ladies in Vegas on October 13th for the contest.

My delightful Mama is also a member so I got to spend the 10 days in Vegas with her! Who could possibly wish for more!

This was my second time at the annual international competition after competing with Greater Auckland Chorus in October of last year (see blog post here).

It was a CRAZY 10 days. Most of us arrived on Thursday 13th and we then spent the next 6 days rehearsing for 5-6 hours a day. It was exhausting but exhilarating! We had our favourite coaches coming in to work with us – Darlene Rogers, Lynne Smith and Lea Beverly, along with short appearances from Ryan Heller, Jim + Renee and other celebrities!

We had a joint show on the Tuesday night with Rönninge Chorus 0our directors have been good friends for many years and this joint concert has become a tradition. We performed our semi-finals and finals packages which was a great test run. It was a real pleasure and, of course, we were all blown away by Rönninge.

Long story short, semifinals day came along, we hit the stage in our green dresses (pictured below – spot me and my mother behind me to the left) and after a NERVE WRACKING announcement of the ten finalists, we were announced as contest #10 in the finals! Oh the agony of having to sit through the announcement of the nine other finalists and not knowing if ours would come next…. I don’t know if I have ever been in such a nervous state IN.MY.LIFE.

Friday was spent rehearsing for the finals and Saturday was another early morning to do our make-up, have breakfast, get our hair styled, warm-up, rehearse and get back on the stage! We were so pumped to get out there and perform the package that we’d been preparing for so long. And we nailed it. The reaction from the crowd was amazing. It was over so quickly and we couldn’t be any prouder of how it went.

Another long story short, we received 5TH PLACE and the MOST ENTERTAINING CHORUS AWARD! Our director Virge put an unspeakable amount of time and effort into conceptualising the finals package and bringing it to life, it was honestly her baby, so it was such a treat for her to be able to go up and receive that award. We were super happy! It was the end of a magical time spent with the amazing ladies of CCC.

I look forward to the next time I have the opportunity to learn, grow, sing and perform with this wonderful group of women. But for the next 6 months I will be singing with the Lions Gate Chorus in Vancouver – I’m so ready to learn from them! xx

 

The Nelson gang ready to perform in the Finals!

**ADVICE for future competitors who will compete at the MGM Grand – the air is VERY DRY. There is air conditioning everywhere (and cigarette smoke near the casinos). We were advised to leave the air conditioning on in our rooms while we were away and turn it off when we get back, and keep it off at night. I went as far as to bring a humidifier with me to leave on 24/7 in our room. Sickness spread through our chorus far and wide unfortunately, I managed to avoid it myself ONLY JUST – by non-stop hydrating, taking multitudes of vitamins, washing my hands a lot, trying to still eat fruit and vegetables over the 10 days, and just generally looking after myself very carefully. Unfortunately a number of our chorus were struck down with a terrible flu. Some disturbingly effective steroids of some kind allowed them to still get on stage with us. Most important thing: look after yourself and keep those vocal cords MOIST!

 

 

 

Incredible week at the Canadian Rockies!

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Only two days after my flight across the world to an unknown land, I embarked upon a very exciting trip to the CANADIAN ROCKIES! Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of photos of magnificent landscapes.

I went on this trip with a fellow UBC exchange student, Erica from Belgium, who I had met the day before…. but we had organised the trip through Facebook the week before. Ah, the joys of the internet!

After a 13-hour bus trip to Banff and a very deep sleep, the highlight of our first day was Sulphur Mountain. I quickly developed a love-hate relationship with this mountain. It’s extraordinarily steep and I nearly died walking up it…… but at the top was the MOST STUNNING view I had ever seen in my life. Little did I know what the rest of the week would bring…

The view of Banff township from the top of Sulphur Mountain

That night we got our rental car, which involved a little drama but luckily everything worked out, drove to our Lake Louise campground and spent our first glorious night (of four) sleeping in the car. It was COLD. Note to self, next time bring extra blankets even though it’s summer..

The next day we did a massive 6-hour hike at Lake Louise to the Plain of 6 Glaciers via Lake Agnes.

This hike was full of ups and downs (geologically and mentally), rain and shine, a lot of sweating uphill climbing, but best of all – beautiful and awe-inspiring nature. The struggle is all part of the journey and there was definitely a lot of struggle but each time we reached a milestone it felt so so worth it. Pictured below is our view of Lake Agnes after walking right around it and then up a steep incline. It felt SO GOOD to reach that point. Pictured just above  is us feeling triumphant after finally arriving back at the Lake after our long hike.

Down below is Lake Agnes….. had to include the magical rainbow shot <3

We then high-tailed it to Lake Moraine before we lost our motivation to move. We did a lovely short hike along the side of the lake, as pictured on the right of the picture below. At this point the post-Lake-Louise-hike endorphins were starting to drop but I told Erica to take her time as she still had muchos energy to take pics of the wonderful view!

One of Erica’s many stunning shots taken on her magical iPhone
A very wet morning visit to Takkakaw Falls

The next day, we rose early after a delightful night of sleep in the car and drove down to Yoho National Park to explore. As seen to the right, our first stop was Takkakaw Falls…. very wet :P

We also visited the beautiful Emerald Lake as seen below and did the loop hike around the Lake. It had stopped raining by this point which was a bonus. To be quite honest, it was bringing down the mood a little!

Finally we did a short hike to the Wapta falls that day, before making our way through the Icefields Parkway to Jasper.

Emerald Lake

To the left you will see our sleeping arrangements in the Whistlers campground on our second to last night. This is basically what all four of our camping nights looked like :P

Our Jasper day turned out to be absolutely MAGNIFICENT as you can see from the panorama below! It started out cloudy and we first visited the Mt Edith Cavell and then did a hike to the Maligne canyon and back. We certainly managed to fit in a huge amount of activities into the 5 days we had… mainly thanks to Erica, adventurer extraordinaire!

The captivating view from the top of Old Fort Point in Jasper.

With our pal Ken who we gave a ride through the Icefields Parkway to Lake Louise village.

Our last day consisted of the drive back through the Icefields Parkway to Banff for our overnight bus back to Vancouver. We picked up a cool hitch-hiker called Ken who came along with us as we stopped at various spots along the way. We (or me, at least) were a little worn down by this point – a long bus ride, four nights of (minimal) sleep in the front seat of a car, and a LOT of physical activity! But truth be told, by the time we got back to Banff, I did not want to leave. I REALLY did not want to leave this magical place.

NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: As fate would have it….. this would not be the only trip to the Rockies that I took to the Rockies that year! I went again in winter in December and had a White Christmas and it was incredible <3

ZEAL comes 3rd in Rising Star Contest + 2nd Place in Pan Pacific!

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ZEAL at Aotea Centre for the Rising Star Contest.

You are now looking at the Under-25 women’s barbershop quartet ranked 3rd in the WORLD and 2nd in the Pan Pacific Region!!!!

Since competing at the national competition in Wellington in April we have been rehearsing and performing like crazy people to get ourselves up to scratch. With coaching from some barbershop greats like the magnificent Carole Persinger, Lori Lyford and Kim Vaughn, we transformed our ballad and added some sparkle to the showmanship plan for our uptune.

In the weeks leading up to the big day, we had an intense performance schedule lined up including a trip to Nelson in early July where we performed at a number of schools promoting the Young Women in Harmony organisation. We really wanted to work on overcoming our nerves and all the performance experience was the perfect way to achieve this. It also kept our vocal cords nice and warm and stretchy since we were doing so much singing!

ZEAL on stage at Aotea Centre.

The Sweet Adelines Rising Star Contest and Pan Pacific Harmony Festival were held in conjunction with each other at the Aotea Centre in Auckland on July 13-14. We were drawn to go first so had the pleasure of getting up at 4am so we could be fully dressed, hair-styled, made-up and warmed up by our 9am backstage call.

It was all over in a FLASH – and we felt incredibly happy with how we did. We had worked so hard and gave the best performance we could have hoped for. When we got off that stage – WOW, the adrenaline! We were so stoked with how far we’d come since April and our commitment to the performance we’d just done.

We had really high hopes for the contest but knew there was some very strong competition so we were happy with our 3rd placing in Rising Star and 2nd place in the Pan Pacific Festival.

Being part of a quartet is such a special journey. There are always ups and downs but the thrill of performing with your sisters on stage and leaving with the adrenaline running through your veins is addictive. I’m excited to see where our journey continues to take us! x

 

ZEAL with previous Rising Star champions, C’est La Vie!

 

 

My quartet ZEAL won at our first ever contest!

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ZEAL performing at Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington.

ZEAL first formed in around April 2015 when I finally joined the Greater Auckland Chorus (a Sweet Adelines women’s barbershop group) after having already lived in Auckland for TWO YEARS! I met two lovely young gals at GAC who were looking for a fourth member of their quartet. It was almost like fate as I was crossing my fingers that I would be able to get myself into a quartet since I had always dreamed of doing this….. so just like that things were off to a great start.

Our first ever performance was at the Auckland regional Young Women in Harmony competition, held at Macleans College in June. I was unbelievably nervous, which was unusual since I’m used to performing solo but I think something about singing tenor in a quartet is quite exposing! But, I got through it and I was PROUD!

 

ZEAL’z first ever performance, 19th June 2015 guest performing at YWIH contest.

 

We spent most of last year getting a couple of contest songs together as preparation for the national Sweet Adelines competition which just took place – we’re all students so we have to work around each others schedules to find time to practice but we do what we can.

I was back home to Nelson for the summer but when I returned in February 2016 it was full steam ahead with only 8 or 9 weeks lead up to contest. We did a test run of our contest package at a chorus performance 10 days before competition, it went alright but we were definitely getting ready to put our BEST ever performance onto that stage.

On the afternoon of the 29th April, we hit the stage of the Michael Fowler Centre. To say we were nervous was an understatement but we went out there and we held it together! Our ballad was the lovely ‘At Last’ and we sang popular uptune ‘Driving Me Crazy’.

In terms of the results of the competition, we had absolutely zero expectations – we just wanted to do the best performance we could and to be able to say that we gave it 100%. Suffice to say, we were extraordinarily shocked and thrilled when we received 3rd place and the Novice Quartet award (for the best first time competitor)!

HOORAH!

It was such an amazing weekend and the support we received from our fellow chorus members, quartet competitors, and Sweet Adelines was utterly astounding.

And now we prepare to compete in the International Rising Star Youth Quartet Contest…. bring it on! xx

SUPER excited after receiving our 3rd place medals and the Novice Quartet award!

MUST-LISTEN new collab from Jacob Collier!

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Snarky Puppy feat. Jacob Collier & Big Ed Lee - "Don't You Know" (Family Dinner Volume Two)

That’s right…… two incredible musical acts have joined forces to create the above MASTERPIECE. If you haven’t watched it yet, I highly suggest you click play.

Jacob Collier is a young jazz prodigy from London, raised with music in his blood – he can play pretty much any instrument, creates intricate a cappella arrangements, writes authentic and fresh original music, and also wrote, recorded and produced his album In My Room in. his. room.

Snarky Puppy is a musical collective led my Michael League who play groovy instrumental music and, for their albums Family Dinner Vols 1 & 2, collab with singers and make awesome tracks such as this one. They’ve been around since 2004 and have released many many albums, toured the world a bunch of times and continue to make addictively fresh sounds.

I think what makes these artists stand out from the crowd, in my opinion at least, (other than talent, hard work, general creativity) is innovation, authenticity, a never-ending passion for music and a commitment to create music that genuinely stirs their souls. And then they give us the pleasure of being able to hear that music, for which I am eternally grateful.

Look out for more fantastic tracks from these guys!