So, Cardinal was once again invited to perform at the ACDA convention, this time at the National level, in Minneapolis, a very chilly city. For national, you do two runs of the same concert, as the convention is setup with everyone on different "tracks" so participants can see as many concerts as possible. This also meant two different venues for our performance. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Before we got to Minneapolis, we stopped off for the night at a rough halfway mark, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, chose because it's where Dr. Hatteberg used to teach high school. That was pretty neat, honestly, and it was lucky that this locale was where it was, so as to break up the 12-ish hour busride into manageable chunks. We did a concert at a Presbyterian church alongside the choir from Hatteberg's high school (currently directed by one of his former students, even), then turned in for the night. So it was only a brief stay, but fun.
Then, onto Minneapolis the next morning. These are the only photos I took while still in Iowa:
...it was pretty flat.
Arrived in Minneapolis early that afternoon. First blurry bus window shot:
The hotel we stayed in was situated in the heart of the downtown area, and took a series of elevators to get from street level to lobby to room.
We found that unfortunately not all of our rooms were ready, so some had to leave their belongings with the hotel staff, as we had an important concert to get to:
The Eric Whitacre Singers, conducted by the man himself! Whitacre was an early influence on my compositional life, so it was great to finally get to see him in person. As you can see, though, I was about as far away from the group as one could get in that concert hall. Thus, blurry photos.
A few more groups performed after the Whitacre Singers. The concerts are typically structured so that 3-4 groups go right in a row for about 25 minutes each. There was I think a high school men's choir, a middle school women's choir, and a university mixed choir.
Outside the venue, after the performances:
That night we were able to rehearse with Ešenvalds, who we had commissioned yet again for this convention, and yet again he sprinkled his magic upon us and bettered our singing of his piece, a setting of the Teasdale poem "There Will Come Soft Rains". Last year's catchphrase was "open the book", this year, his admonishment to us was to "paint the picture".
Here's the grad crew with him and Hatteberg:
Then dinner at a place called Hell's Kitchen, then back to the hotel and to bed. The next day was our performance day, so it meant an early rise. Early enough to catch the first light from my hotel window:
A small group of us ventured out to find a substantial breakfast, since the hotel provided none. This photo captures our exuberance at our morning bounty:
We had to get to the church, one of our two venues, at 8AM. The warmup room:
And the church itself:
Had a good warmup. Then it was on to Orchestra Hall, where the concert had been the day before. Holding room:
And on stage:
Then we had a brief interval in which to eat before beginning the concerts themselves. First at Orchestral Hall, then at the church. They seemed to go over pretty well.
Here's the side of a building I thought was neat:
Hung out with the group that night, then went to bed. The next day was totally open for us to attend the conference and go to sessions and concerts we were interested in. Made my way down in the morning by way of the skyway:
I had an app to guide me through the skyway but it was still very confusing. The problem is that you lose track of where you are in regards to the streets below, so even if you have a clear idea of which direction you want to go, it's hard to actually do so.
Anyway, I eventually made it down:
Went to a couple sessions. Made it over to the lunch area to find many of my friends who had just been treated to lunch by Sheldon Poon, our guide from the China trip last summer. They were literally just leaving as I walked up, so I missed out. What a bummer!
Then, I went to a concert at the church:
Then a session about Bernstein, then back to the hotel for a bit before the big concert that night, Kammerchor Stuttgart. They were very good. Did a program of all older (i.e. early 1800s and before) music, which is unusual for ACDA it seems. There's a lot of contemporary done here.
Bumped into a director that did my O Nata Lux last December on my walk to that concert. That was pretty neat!
Dinner followed at some pub, then back to the hotel for more hanging out. We loaded up the bus the next morning, but still had the full day to attend sessions and concerts. I saw a snippet of the big concert with the St. Olaf choirs, then snuck out to get some food before our departure at around 7:00 PM:
We drove all night, stopping once for gas and another time to switch drivers. I actually managed to get a few consecutive hours of sleep, which surprised me. I figured I'd just be continuously jostled awake, but with my suit jacket as a pillow and a window seat, I made it work. Somewhere in Indiana, not quite an hour from home, I awoke to the palest line of sun in the distance:
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