Sunday 2 January 2011

Amarillo Girls' Choir, Texas

The silent choir from Amarillo, Texas, USA
Up the stairs and along the corridor...silence.
Down the stairs and along the next corridor....silence.
Across the bridge, through the playground and up the staris to the next corridor...silence.
Can 100 persons move through an entire building in complete silence?
They can when they are the amazingly well disciplined Amarillo Girls' Choir from Texas, under the eagle eye of their Music Director Jerry Perales. When I say 100 persons, I mean 70 girls and their 30 chaperones.
Why were they being so silent?
In my school in Madrid, Spain, I offered them a tour of the building but asked them to be as quiet as possible, never thinking they would all follow in absolute silence. They visited recently to offer us a wonderful concert of American folk songs, some European songs, and, yes, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Pie Jesu. What a lovely range of repertoire, what a fine control of tone quality, and what a beautiful blend these young singers have. It was a pleasure to listen and admire the fruits of all their hard work.
On top of that, they gave some really clear and well thought - out commentaries and snippets about life in Texas, in English, which were all really ueful for the local Madrid teens.
So, thank you to all the parent chaperones who made the trip possible, thank you to the wonderful Mr Jerry Perales, and, especially thank you to the singers of the Amarillo Girls' Choir from Texas.
And thanks to Wens Travel, in Holland, who made all the travel arrangements to make their experience so smooth.www.wens.nl
By the way, although I love it that you can all do a tour of the school building in absolute silence, I like it even more when you sing.
Please come back to Madrid soon.

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