What’s a better way to spend spring break than with all the choir in the mostly warm deserts of Arizona and New Mexico? The Northwestern A Cappella Choir took a trip down through the Southwest of the United States making memories in the Grand Canyon, embracing hospitality from host homes and, of course, performing for many churches.
The choir tour performed at just under a dozen locations mostly residing in the Phoenix, AZ area. Each location had such wonderful people who treated the choir so well with hospitality after performances. The hosts exceeded many of the choir’s expectations by providing an abundance of snacks along with other necesities.
While performing the choir had many very notable responses from the crowds from two of the favorite songs. “Ritual”, one of the two songs without words, by Jake Runestad, had many people from every location jumping out of their seats with Benjamin Geary’s startling percussion entrance. Many of the choir members chuckled during every performance in response. A song brought back from two years ago, “Dawn and Dusk”, the other song without words by Kim Steven, was once again loved by many, especially many of the animal sounds created by our members of the choir and the two solos by Olivia Lott and Sarah Sundet.
Between performances, the choir had time to visit the Grand Canyon. Many have not had the opportunity to see it before. Thankfully, there were two days to see it, as the first day was very foggy. It was at first disappointing, but the sight of slivers of the canyon through the fog were unforgettable and very unique to most experiences. The next day the fog had lifted, and we could see the Grand Canyon in its full glory.
Some of the choir’s favorite parts of the trip were right before the concerts. Allison Sjaarda, alto in the a cappella choir, said, “My favorite part had to be the devotionals and the songs sang together after as a choir. Especially this year trying some new songs to worship together in.” Before concerts the choir has the tradition of one of its members doing a short devotional on what was on their hearts, and after the closing prayer continues a spirit of a cappella worship of any song or hymn the majority of the choir knew. This pure worship guides each choir members performances and centers themselves before the concert to most accurately share God’s gift of music.
Overall, this choir tour was best summed up by Stephen “Spoons” Danner, “This trip was great and awesome and fun.”
