DAY 1: Welcome to Choir Camp!

Hello and welcome to the camp blog!

At 10 AM, the campers arrived to a quiet, misty morning here at Walker Creek Ranch. After a greeting from all of our wonderful staff, campers brought their luggage to their cabins, which will become their temporary homes for the next week(s)! In their cabins, campers chose their bunks and got to know their counselors and their cabin mates through some super fun games. Cabin Otter made a super cute mini-library with all of their combined books! Char in Cabin Salmon showed off all of their bead bracelets - and offered to make more at arts and crafts.

After a quick campus tour, the singers went off to meetings with their respective choirs. Camp Joyful Voices met with Ms. Anne, Concert Choir with Mr. Brown, and Ensemble with Eric. For lunch, we had a yummy and nutritious meal of chicken salad sandwiches, potato chips, carrots, and orange slices.

After lunch, campers in Concert Choir and Ensemble took their musicianship assessments and received a delicious treat of a chocolate chip cookie after completing them! Then it was time to get into the busiest portion of the day, where campers did swim checks, voice checks, and med checks with our wonderful camp nurse, Sarah! During voice checks, Concert Choir and Ensemble were placed into their voice parts by their conductors. Instead of voice checks, Camp Joyful Voices played fun games with their CITs and counselors, including Telephone (which was super popular today!) and poison dart frog!

While waiting in line during med check, playing “Down by the Banks” and other hand games was super popular. We were also serenaded by Ensemble members Sarah, Ayla, Georgia, and Alex with a wonderful rendition of “Baby” by Justin Bieber (complete with choreography!).

Swim checks happened at the beautiful Turtle Creek Pond, where campers were initially scared to get into the water on such an overcast day, but were pleasantly surprised when the water was warmer than the air outside! Everyone was super proud to pass their swim checks and get a pleasant dip in the lovely pond. Our youngest Joyful Voices camper Shai, absolutely crushed the deep water test and was given a shout-out by the Walker Creek Ranch lifeguards!

Then, after every camper showered and changed from their swimsuits, we headed to recital, where we come together every night to listen to our staff and our own campers perform and share their beautiful music with one another. Tonight, we got the privilege to hear the world premiere of an art song about birds in Yosemite that Eric composed for our amazing Voice teacher Alice (and his long-time PEBCC bestie!). We also got to hear our lovely Ensemble Counselor Anna sing Scarlatti’s Tecum Principium from Dixit Dominus accompanied by Eric. Then, we headed off to dinner, where we had some delicious pasta, salad, garlic bread, and lemon bars for dessert.

The kids went to an evening rehearsal with their choirs, where Ensemble and Concert Choir got their binders full of music for the year! Finally, we had our annual welcome campfire. We sang some fun camp song favorites like “Aroostasha”, “Princess Pat”, “Cabin in the Woods” and “I’ve Been Waiting”, a beautiful bedtime round. We had our chip ceremony, where every camper got the chance to introduce themselves to the camp, say what they were looking forward to during their time here, and dedicate their stick to something before tossing them in the fire! Some stand out dedications were the sibling dedications to one another (June and Eve, Isabella and Josie, Sophi and Chloe, and Avi and Bebe), Audrey’s hope that anyone who is looking for somewhere to belong will find belonging here at choir camp, and Eric’s heartfelt last message about our 20th anniversary of our camp here at walker creek, before we all headed off to bed.

As we got ready for bed, Camp Joyful Voices camper Ilsa asked to do theory, but alas, it was time to sleep. After brushing teeth, getting cozy, and washing faces, campers got snuggled up in their bunk beds and listened to lullabies from their counselors as they fell asleep. Goodnight, campers, and see you all tomorrow!