Kathaumixw Choral Festival 2006

July 10th, 2006

I just got back from a really amazing week with my chamber choir (Wild Mountain Thyme) at the Kathaumixw International Choral Festival in Powell River, British Columbia (you pronounce Kathaumixw like "kah-THOW-mew"). It's the first time I've participated in a choral competition since high school. I am so glad I joined this group! We spent the week listening to some spectacular singers from around the world as well as performing our own concerts and competing in several different categories.

I love my choir and we have a lot of fun. It's probably not surprising that singing in a place like Bonners Ferry, Idaho (population 2,500) can make you feel like you are really something.... until you come to a festival like this and see how amazing a choir can sound!

Here were some of my favorites:

Aliqua - an amazing group from Vancouver B.C. who combine their angelic voices with a gymnastic enthusiasm for movement. Their Hawaiian Challenge song was incredible.

Adelaide Chamber Choir - this group had some of the strongest female singers I've ever heard.

Philippine Saringhimig Singers - a very energetic group from San Francisco who knocked our socks off with a rendition of "Circle of Life".

Being at this festival gave me a lot of great ideas about what we can do in our group next year. I also (for the first time in my life) started to think I'd like to take voice lessons.... There's nothing like a little competitive jealousy to get you motivated!

On the way to Powell River we stopped and saw Kayla's brother Nathan in Seattle. It was actually a good visit despite my aversion to large, congested, traffic-snarled cities. We visited the Woodland Park Zoo (which was obviously early to the Internet... their URL is zoo.org) and also the Bellevue Botanical Garden which is literally right next door to Nathan's apartment. The kids had fun playing with Nate and his girlfriend Monica. She's a motorcycle-riding event planner from central Washington who majored in Comparative Literature: that last characteristic alone garners a high score in my "Evaluation of Brother-in-Law's Girlfriends" book. Plus I always like hanging out with Nathan, it's really the only time I get intellectually stimulating conversation these days.