This morning the
boys had breakfast in the hotel at 08h00. At 08h30 Chef received a phone call
from Darren Maule from the ECR Breakfast Show who is in Switzerland at the
moment. They spoke about our concert at the United Nations this evening as well
as the World Choir Games. At the end of the interview, the whole choir gathered
around Chef’s phone and gave a shout-out to all our supporters, friends and
family in South Africa. Listen to the podcast.
We were scheduled
to have a rehearsal at the International School of Geneva this morning from 09h00
to 11h30 but because our rehearsal down in the car park of the hotel proved to
be so efficient and successful yesterday, Chef decided to save time and to practise
there again today. Since we were only performing the pop repertoire at this
evening’s concert at the UN, the boys worked on that intensely today and worked
on perfectly synchronising their movements.
While the boys were rehearsing Mrs Coleman and Mr Moerdyk set off to buy lunch for the boys with the stipends provided for them by our tour operator. They returned with a variety of delicious Swiss cheese and ham sandwiches, as well as Snickers bars for dessert and the boys were not disappointed as they enjoyed their early lunch at 11h30.
The boys had to
be ready with their pop costume attires and instruments at 12h30 for our
transfer to the UN in Geneva. (See the UN Geneva official website). Security
is very strict at the UN buildings and we had to present passports for each boy
and were given pre-printed individual visitor’s name cards.
Almost every
surface, walls and floors, in the UN are made of marble. The inside of the General Assembly Hall
(where the concert was to be held this evening) is a massive impressive auditorium with an automated roof which can transform the venue in seconds from a
light-filled to a completely dark theatre venue.
We had a massed
choir rehearsal, sound check and dress rehearsal from 14h00 to 16h30. The
concert started at 18h00 with all seven choirs participating in The Rhythms of One World Festival. As this evening’s concert was hosted by the
Romanian permanent mission to the UN there was a new choir featuring on the
programme - the Romanian National Children’s Choir.
Kearsney was once
again the last choir to perform, doing their pop set. This was a good dress
rehearsal for our competition in Scenic Pop at the World Choir Games.
The intensive
rehearsals over the past few days have paid off amazing dividends with the boys
giving a truly remarkable rendition of their pop repertoire. Because they are now much more confident of their
moves and voice parts, this allowed them to have so much fun on the stage,
which created a dynamic and magical vibe.
The Choir thoroughly deserved the spontaneous standing ovations from the
audience and Chef gave them 7 out of 10 for tonight’s performance!
