Thursday was a cheerful and busy day at Encore! Our music is coming together and we are engrossed in our workshops and electives. Thursday held quite a few surprises for us and we’ll have quite a few surprises for the concert on Sunday!
It was a beautiful day to be outside and we made the most of it, with outside recreation and games as a break between sectional rehearsals, led by Mr. Snyder and Mrs. Beth Vaughn, and part rehearsals led by Ms. Haley Evans, Mr. Chad Putka, Mr. Matt Dowing, and Mr. Peter Hampton.
Jamie Duling, our sound manager, and James Vaughn, vocal music teacher at Van Buren Local Schools, a taught a popular sound equipment elective today. From the differences in dynamic microphones and condenser microphones, to learning how to use a sound board, Jamie and James taught us how to shape sound.
Caroline Heading, one of our accompanists, gave us the chance to learn and play a variety of instruments, as an instrument is an excellent parallel learning tool for understanding our instruments- our voices!
Mindy Brems and the kitchen staff have provided three wonderful meals a day for us all week, but it was a pleasant surprise to have our very own Chipotle Grill catered in and to give them the evening off.
With Chipotle for dinner, the evening just continued to excel, as composer Garry Cornell led our evening rehearsal. Mr. Cornell composed “Come Lift Your Voice and Sing,” which Encore will be premiering on Sunday!
The highlights of the day didn’t end there- the Con Men gifted us with a phenomenal evening program! Barbershop quartet from Capital University, the Con Men are Johnny Appleseed District Quartet and three time International Collegiate Quartet Competition bronze medal winners. Chad Putka, who earned a degree from Oberlin College in Barbershop and is now an intern for Mr. Snyder, has been leading a barbershop workshop and a barbershop elective all week and we were thrilled culminate all we’ve been learning in the Con Men’s performance. The Con Men not only performed, they also taught us about barbershop and taught us several barbershop tags!
As a final garnish on the evening, we were finally able to have a campfire! As we enjoyed the campfire, sipping our rootbeer floats and munching on popcorn provided by our fantastic kitchen staff, we reveled in the skits performed by our fellow friends.
