Adventures in Flospy: Ottawa

One Accord singing in the lobby on parliament hill
Photo by Selim Sayegh

Richard, who doesn't consider writing among his favourite pastimes, is putting me to shame on the blog front. During our recent trip across the country he wrote a blog post every day. There was a wee bit of whining some days about why he thought it was a good idea in the first place but he wrote faithfully and his followers enjoyed the adventures. Since the list of readers doesn't necessarily overlap, I thought I'd take the chance to bring you up to date on our comings and goings so far this summer. It has been an adventure in many senses of the word.

One Accord, the community choir in which we both sing, got the opportunity to go to Ottawa for the Unisong festival of choirs from across Canada. We decided to drive “Flopsy” our 1984 Dodge camper van to Ottawa and then point her nose east to see how far we could get. In Ottawa we sang our heads off for four days and had a great time. The culmination of the rehearsals was three performances at the National Arts Centre on Canada Day. The first, in the morning, included all the choirs singing the pieces we worked on the previous three days. Of course, we worked on the pieces before we got to Ottawa but it was up to guest conductor Kelly Walsh to put it all together beginning on June 28. It was great to sing for her. She was very clear in what she wanted, was always positive and had a terrific sense of humour.

There was one concert in the afternoon and one in the evening both with the National Arts Centre Orchestra and conductor Alain Trudel. Kelly Walsh prepped us ahead of our rehearsal with Trudel saying that if the conductor didn't have to tell us to speed up we would truly have made the grade. In her experience it's common for orchestral conductors to remind choirs to keep up. We were pleased with ourselves when Trudel didn't have to remind us even once to keep up.

Mi'kmaq Honour Song during the choral concert
Photo by Selim Sayegh

The concerts at the NAC were fun and in some ways much like any other concert. It might have been a different experience for folks from smaller communities who are not used to having performance opportunities in large venues. The most difficult thing for me was trying to memorize the words especially the ones in French. I confess to even needing a cheat sheet for the French verse of 'O Canada.'

Concert with the NAC orchestra
Photo by Selim Sayegh

I was seated beside a grade 11 student from Ontario who was quite willing to help me with the French. I enjoyed talking with her at breaks and remembered fondly why I like that age-group so much. Although the powers-that-be really wanted us to perform without music they weren't actually standing in the wings taking it away from us which, from my point of view, was wise. As far as this particular chorister is concerned they had a choice of gibberish words and improvised notes if I sang without music or something far closer to being accurate and musical if I sang with music. I did try to memorize the songs and, these days, I find it much more difficult to get words and music to stick than I used to. I can usually remember the notes but get mixed up when phrases repeat with slight differences or lose count when we repeat the same phrase a number of times. I'm not the only one. Thank heavens for the kids' choirs and the high school and college singers who were able to get the stuff into their heads.

While in Ottawa we toured the mint which I really enjoyed. We also had a river cruise and were able to find a spot to watch the fireworks on Canada Day. Our accommodation while in Ottawa was in the university residence. Richard and I shared a suite with our good friends Deb and Steve and we had a riot. It was hard to fit in enough sleep because we stayed up late after rehearsals and performances laughing talking and telling stories. You're never too old to be silly and have a good laugh.

The only down side to Ottawa was the humidity. I am not good in the heat. End of story. I have a few chores to do so I'll save the rest of the adventure for a few more posts, not exactly immediate news but a good way to recall a fun summer nonetheless.