Blast from the Past: Newfoundland

So I was looking through some of my old photos, and I was surprised to find some photos I took when I was 14 which don't look half as bad as I would expect them to look. So....here we go, a blast from the past: 
 
Once upon a time, a long long long time ago, my choir, High Park Choirs of Toronto (yes...I'm forever a choir girl) went to St. John's, Newfoundland for a music festival (Festival 500).  It was 2007, and it was my first long-ish trip away from home (apart from summer camp). We had a ridiculously fun couple of weeks meeting choirs from around the world and causing a ruckus at Memorial University.  We were introduced to some amazing adult and children's choirs such as the professional group Anuna and the Australian Children's Chorus (I think the only reason they stand out in my mind was because I couldn't get enough of their accents...).  We sang almost every day attending workshops and performing for the other choirs. 

The trip was great because we had some time to travel around Newfoundland and look at the sights (even though it rained 80% of the trip and I don't think I appreciated it as much as I should have seeing as I was 14/15).  We went whale watching, saw some of the landmarks, and visited a couple of the museums. And no, those aren't penguins...I know, I was disappointed too - I half expected them to break out into song and dance like in Happy Feet but ya....they're Puffins.
 

And there it is, I'm extremely proud of past me for taking scenic photos, rather than just photos of people doing dumb things which is literally the only thing I did from age 15 - 17.   The photos I took from our choir trip to Germany is a perfect example of this & therefore un-bloggable....*sigh*

-M

Pirates of Penzance

Any Gilbert and Sullivan fans around? 

In March 2013 I took part in Vic Chorus' production of The Pirates of Penzance.  For the past four years, the chorus has put together a Gilbert and Sullivan show in commemoration of the fact the Chorus used to be "The Gilbert and Sullivan Society" back in the day.  This year I acted as one of the Co - Producers as well as a last minute Assistant Stage Manager; two roles I never thought I'd ever experience.  It was an incredibly stressful process as I (along with my wonderful partner in crime aka my other half) was forced to deal with one insane crisis after another.  Thankfully it all came together in the end, and it was overall a pretty rewarding experience.  The photos in this post were taken by a couple students from the photography club who came in during our dress rehearsal.  

Most of the actors had been a part of our productions in previous years, so there were many familiar faces in the cast.  At the same time, we had a handful of new members and we were extremely lucky to find our male actors both within the University and outside of the University community. 

For the first time in Vic Chorus history, we had a two night run of the production and it went extremely well with only a couple minor costume malfunctions.

One of the actor's father filmed the entire performance and it's been uploaded onto YouTube.  If you're really bored on a rainy day feel free to check it out! :) -M