Day 13 - Relaxing Activities and Harry Potter's Birthday
This morning the campers arose for a standard breakfast of cheesy eggs, turkey sausage, grapes, and biscuits. Some adventurous campers filled bowls of oatmeal, granola, or yogurt with various toppings. After all the campers had arrived for warmups, voice teacher Tim began by leading some dancing before helping to warm up the campers voices. The campers then trekked off to their theory classes. One class of Concert Choir singers focused on learning how to hear and sing intervals. They had fun hearing the melodies of songs they knew and listening for specific intervals.
In rehearsals, Ensemble started learning conductor Eric Tuan's composition, Nagasaki, which is a favorite among Ensemble mentors. Meanwhile, Concert Choir continued working on Give Us Hope and Carol of the Bells. All of the choirs, including camp Joyful Voices, joined together to rehearse The Star Spangled Banner in preparation for the upcoming A's game. The campers then eagerly made their way to the dining hall for a long-awaited lunch, which today was hot dogs with baked mac & cheese and various veggie sides. After rest period, the campers dispersed for the usual free time activities. Some artistic campers decorated rocks they found into very animated pet rocks, with googly eyes and feather hair. Camp Joyful Voices went to the lake for boating and swimming. They were excited to spot turtles at the lake before they had to get back for recital.
Today we had many talented campers perform at recital, in addition to a few staff members! Eva Beck-Ruiz, Lily Greenberg, Sarah Sullivan, and Kasandra Dagnese from Concert Choir performed an arrangement of Shenandoah. Emma Leibowitz and Alisia Marques from Ensemble also performed lovely solos. Voice teachers Audrey and Theresa performed a duet, and counselor Will shared a vocal solo after a stunning flute solo just a few days ago.
After a dinner of chicken pot pie and salad, the campers went to the second rehearsal of the day and then gathered together to hear about the evening activity. Tonight, the singers had a choice of four relaxing activities: yoga and meditation, games like Apples to Apples and Mafia, arts and crafts, and book club. Counselor Emily Szerdy read Harry Potter to campers, some of whom had dressed up earlier in the day to celebrate Harry Potter's fictional birthday (July 31). The activities calmed the campers before bed. With Harry Potter and meditation in their heads, they went to sleep ready for another day at Walker Creek Ranch.
