Written by: Brody R.
Greetings to one and all. Welcome back to the blog. I know you missed me, but ~do not be afraid~ I have returned with one final blog for the 2026 Cardinal Chorale workshop. I know you all have been dying to hear what’s been going on in my life as of lately and boy am I excited to blog about it.
The penultimate day of the workshop was an absolute blast. The day was filled with games, much singing, but most importantly rest. Throughout this entire week, the whole Chorale has put much hard work into every song and choice that we have made. So, we did earn some well-deserved rest during the day.
The amount of progress that we have made within the last week is absolutely remarkable. As I stated in the first blog this week, I felt like I was a deer in headlights with most of this music. It is crazy how far we have come with most of this music. I am so proud of this Chorale with how quickly we were able to all come together as one family and prepare a repertoire of quite a few tough pieces. The amount of hard work and dedication that every member has put into this week is unmatched by one another. We have truly outdone ourselves this year and I’m so blessed to have been able to be a part of it. I am beyond excited for the premiere concert of the 31st Edition of The Cardinal Chorale.
Besides all of that ol’ sappy stuff. I want to talk about how fantastic this day was. We did a lot of work together on polishing many of our pieces into such minute details. That’s such a fantastic quality to have in rehearsals where everything is almost there and where being picky is the last thing you have to do until it’s just right. I loved hearing all of the pieces being cohesive with one another. Although I can definitely feel the sleepiness getting to me, this is the final sprint to the finish line.
We had our annual Opus Olympics! Each Opus competes against each other in a high stakes (not really) battle for who is the best of all of the opera. The events this year were very enjoyable. A couple of the events that we had were: being blindly guided to a bucket with a cup of water to dump into the bucket, replicating an image, that happened to be a mansion, out of skewers and marshmallows, and some paper/pencil tests of sorts. These unique games allow for many members of the Chorale to let out a little more of their creative side and work closely together with each other. This year’s Opus Olympics were probably my favorite, but I definitely may be biased because I haven’t even gotten to the best part of the Olympics yet. Our Opus, Opus 2, were the victors of the Olympics this year. We worked so very hard for this victory, and I would say that it was quite well-deserved. I am so proud of my Opus and all that we have accomplished this week as a group. Spreading positivity is our key goal as a member of Opus 2. Thank you to our fantastic staff leaders, Erin and Peter. Along with Garrett being our intern buddy, who was also in our opus. Opus 2 is so grateful for this opportunity to take the victory.
Afterwards, as I mentioned, we were given some time to rest. Unfortunately, I don’t like to rest, even when given the chance. I took the time to get some people together to sing some barbershop tags. Tags are usually ending of popular barbershop arrangements. They tend to be 15-30 second snippets of a piece, but they end up being the most iconic parts of a barbershop piece. We learned a little bit of one of a tag and I ended up recording my own of another which I would say went decently well, but you can be the judge of that. By the time we had finished with all that jazz, it was dinner time. Time well-spent, I would say.
Lunch and dinner served my worst nightmare and kryptonite. Being at workshop pretty much requires me to actually eat three meals a day, which I normally don’t. But, worst of all, they serve dessert at lunch and dinner. For both meals, they had the infamous Oreo cheesecake. I could’ve melted from the inside at how absolutely, deliciously evil the two slices I consumed were. Meals were 10/10 today I would say. They were all so fantastic and I give my utmost thanks once again to the Muskie Dining Staff for being the absolute amazing human beings they have been for the last 5 years that I have been a part of the Chorale. Not once have they missed with a single one of their meals. I am always satisfied no matter the day with Muskie Dining.
We spent the final hours of our day fully running through the first half of our concert set. This went way better than I expected to go. Obviously, little hiccups here and there, but that’ll always happen when you’re in a new space and singing for such an extended period of time. After this rehearsal, we participated in a yearly tradition with our opus. These are called “Opus Affirmations” Each member of the opus is tasked with writing an affirmation for every other member. This is one of my favorite workshop traditions to partake in. It is always just a raw display of emotion and is always such a sweet time. Opus 2 was so fantastic this year (I apologize my past opera) and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else.
The end of workshop is always quite bittersweet. Yes, we get to go back to our normal lives, but many of us here are able to create a second family or even feel at home when with the Chorale. Leaving workshop is just like leaving home again. We will meet again, but we have at least 5 months before that’ll happen and that’s quite a scary thought to have. The time I have spent at workshop the last 5 years has been extraordinary. This is truly a lifechanging experience and I’m so very grateful to have gotten involved when I did.
Well, I believe this is the last time you’ll be hearing from me a while. I’m never the greatest at saying “goodbye”, so we’ll consider this a “see you later.” I hope you all have enjoyed hearing from me this last week along with my many entries into the tour blog (one of which is in the archive somewhere and is itching to escape) I am truly honored to have been able to serve under the blog team for another year and I’m so excited to continue onto another chapter of my life and hopefully return to you all once again. Thank every one of you for being something that I always look forward to doing every night I have the chance. Until we meet again. We are all currently on the path to become the best version of ourselves. Never falter. Difficult challenges may arise, but it is futile for us that we continue persevering.
One World, One Voice, One Song. 🌎 🗣️🎶
With all of the love in my heart,
Brody Rodriguez