Canadian Showtime sends two members to International Education Symposium (24-Aug-2022)

One of the most wonderful things about Sweet Adelines is the focus on personal improvement and growth – both as singers and individuals. In late July, two members of Canadian Showtime Chorus (CSC) packed our bags and braved the airports to attend SAI’s International Education Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. It was an exciting adventure and a tremendous learning experience for both of us!

Wendy: I was thrilled that IES this year offered several classes led by Kay Bromert, a Certified Master Arranger, that focused on Arranger training, including “The Alpha and Omega of Creative Arranging” (for Intros and Tags), and “Happiness is Solving that Tricky Passage”, in which constructive comments & suggestions were offered to help us finesse our own works. 

As well, I was able to participate in the Symposium Chorus, led by Master Directors Dale Syverson & Lori Lyford. THAT was great fun! 6 hours of rehearsal to prepare & present 3 songs that started off the final celebrations of IES 2022 on Saturday evening, including choreography as taught by Judy Pozsgay and Kim Wonders! 

Julie:  The variety of course offerings at IES was truly impressive, and it was difficult to decide which ones I wanted to attend the most. The class delivered by Joan Boutilier on how to develop fun and creative rehearsal activities was particularly memorable (we all had the opportunity to create our own activities using rubber bands, strings, rubber duckies, and other random bobbles). I also really enjoyed the classes on unit sound and breathing/posture with Dale Syverson & Kim Vaughn, which offered a fresh approach to teaching some of the fundamentals. 

One of the highlights of my week was the Rising Star competition on Friday night. The winning quartet (Valkyries quartet) delivered an astounding performance, and it was great to see how far they have come since I first saw them perform in 2018. It’s always exciting to see such talented young singers in the organization.

Both:  One other non-scheduled activity that we both enjoyed was “Tag-Singing in the Pool”. This is a tradition at IES, and it certainly was a great way to practice breath support, especially for Wendy, who was singing while treading water in the deep end (Julie preferred to dip her toes from the poolside). 

We would both like to thank Canadian Showtime Chorus as well as Sing Canada for providing the financial means to take part in this fantastic experience. (If you haven’t heard of Sing Canada, we encourage you to look them up!) We can hardly wait to share these newfound skills with our chorus when rehearsals resume in the fall!

By:  Wendy Hall and Julie Sykes