Choir— A Spain Send-Off
Christopher Bankhead, Staff Writer
While our quadrennial trip to Spain was incredibly fun for everyone who went, it's important to remember the real reason for the trip: the performing arts. The Casady Choir worked hard to perform their best in these new and wonderful venues, and for that, they deserve to be recognized. The choir, along with the Casady Band and Orchestra, performed in three different cities all across Spain.
The first of these performances took place in the beautiful, artistic city of Barcelona at the Parroquita Sant Joan de Mata chapel. Before every concert, all of the performing arts had a small window of time to warm up and practice. The practice we took in Barcelona was the most prolonged, however, our group was allotted an entire hour of preparation. After we finished our warm-ups, we enjoyed the performance of a local Spanish group, "Orquestra Simfònica del Escola Municipal de Música de Sant Andreu." At last, it was our turn, and the Choir performed all of their contest songs, including Festival Sanctus, Three Madrigals, Bonse Aba, Ubi Caritas, the Casady Hymn, and Oklahoma, our state song. Overall, this was an incredible performance to begin the trip. Mrs. Knous, the choir director, best describes this experience:
"Personally, I think it was the best acoustics we experienced the entire time. Some backpackers came in from off the street to watch us, and I thought that was a really great performance!"
Our second performance took place in Granada, a city with a unique blend of Islamic and Christian history, art, and culture. We only had half an hour to warm up, so it was a bit rushed. We then watched another local band,, the "Banda de Música Cájar-Monachil,'' before we performed. For the choir, there was a minor issue with the sound and acoustics of the venue. As Mrs. Knous explained:
"It was a smaller auditorium, along with the felt seats blocking the sound. I feel like we weren't as confident, but the audience loved us, and it felt like a whole community event. And it's also memorable that the mayor of Montechill followed the Casady Choir's Instagram." The choir's final performance in Madrid, the capital of Spain— a maze of small streets and beautiful buildings. After an unbelievably long bus ride, we arrived at Auditorio C. C. Sanchinarro. Another incredible band and orchestra called the "Tierra de Segovia" played before the choir, but after that, we went right on stage. We live streamed the concert and is still available to watch on the Casady Choir Instagram. For our rendition of the Casady Hymn, our four seniors Ria Shah ('23), Kate Sparling ('23), Bryce Johnson ('23), and Eileen Burger ('23) came up to sing a verse of the song by themselves as a send-off to all their time in Spain and Choir as a whole. This performance took place on one of our last days in Spain, and even though everyone was absurdly tired, the choir sang its best and ended the trip with an excellent performance.
While all of our main concerts were a great success, as a choir there was one opportunity that we were unfortunately not able to grasp. Mrs. Knous, along with the Casady Choir, asked to have a flash mob in a mosque-turned-cathedral while performing Ubi Caritas. This request was unfortunately shot down by the people running the cathedral in Madrid, but they did say we could do it if we ever returned to Spain. Besides that minor setback, the trip to Spain and the performances given by the Casady Choir and the rest of the performing arts were incredibly fun and a rewarding experience for all of us.
