Our Nashville Journey October 2009
We proudly represented Australia at Sweet Adelines International Convention in Nashville Tennessee
The background:
Each year Sweet Adelines International holds an international convention at which the winning choruses and quartets from each Sweet Adelines Region compete. In October 2009 the Convention was held in Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Circular Keys Chorus was invited to represent Australia because in our Regional 2008 Convention in Hobart we were awarded second place and the first place winners, Melbourne Harmony Chorus, chose not to compete in Nashville.
We were honoured to be invited, and thrilled to compete in what was, for most of us, our very first international competition. And we had the opportunity to hear the best choruses and quartets from around the world perform.
Our preparation:
To do Australia proud we had extra coaching from some wonderful international coaches including Ase Hagermann, Darlene Rogers, Pat LeVezu, Lynne Smith, Barbara Smith and Cathy Rainey.
We also wanted to share this exciting opportunity with other Sweet Adelines, so we invited members of other Australian choruses to sing with us in Nashville. They went through an audition process and joined us for special rehearsals over the preceding 12 months.
Our journey:
On our way to Nashville our good friends the River Blenders Chorus invited us to stay with them in St.Louis Missouri and sing on their annual show on Saturday 17th October 2009. Then on to Nashville where we took to the International stage at 10:55am on Thursday 22nd October. See our performance on YouTube by clicking here.
Our achievement:
We placed 25th out of 33 competing choruses, with a total score of 1110. That was better than we had expected or hoped for, and made all our hard work worthwhile.
Fundraising:
The cost of taking 60 members to Nashville was formidable, and the chorus undertook a wide range of fundraising activities over the preceding 15 months to help with the costs. We raised over $45,000 which paid for our buses from St Louis to Nashville, a chorus breakfast, and some of our accommodation costs in Nashville.
