Spain Tour: Concerts and Competition

I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated this blog. We have had many busy days in a row with extremely late nights, and there just has not been time! So here is a longer update about what has been going on since Tuesday.

The concert in Pamplona was great fun. The audience seemed to enjoy us very much, and we had a great time with them! We also enjoyed a little time running with the bulls.


On Wednesday, we enjoyed spending some rehearsal time with Josu Elberdin, who wrote "Segalariak," which is one of the compulsory pieces for the competition. He gave us a lot of great pointers and we are very grateful for his help!


Later that day, we headed to Tafalla for another concert in a great place called the San Pedro church.


The concert was fun and we were starting to feel really good about competition! But we also needed a break, and conveniently, Thursday was our free day. We decided to spend some time in San Sebastian, which has some beautiful beaches and lots of shops.




It was lovely and a much needed break.

On Friday, the competition began! Friday was the first round---secular music---for the small group (max 16 voices). We had a short rehearsal in the morning and then a very brief sound check in the hall...and then we were off!


It went quite well, and we were happy to relax after it was over, because on Saturday morning we had round two for the small group---sacred music. This round took place in a nice little church in Tolosa.


Again, we felt pretty good about what we did. The other choirs here are really quite good! It's a very fun and very intense competition! We are very happy to be here doing this!

After round two yesterday, we headed off to a new city for a concert, and on the way we took a spin through Bilbao just to see the Guggenheim museum.


What an amazing building! Thanks to our guides and our bus driver for taking us there! Afterwards, we headed on toward our concert in a church whose name escapes me right now, in a town that I also can't recall at this moment. (Very informative!)


The concert was absolutely fantastic---our best to date---and left us feeling very charged for the large group competition (max 40 voices) that happens today. We feel very ready and very excited!

It's hard for all of us to believe that we have already been here for a week and we are almost ready to come home! It's been great so far...thanks to everyone who made this possible for us!