Sharon Downs's Page

Where has the week gone!? I'd intended to blog every day, but it's been such a whirlwind! Yesterday was incredibly full, and just simply incredible. We stayed with our billets the night before, had breakfast with them, sang a mass service, ate our lunches on the bus, and went straight to the site of our huge concert, where we rehearsed and then performed in a concert that lasted almost 2 1/2 hours. The Amabile choir sang both national anthems with us, then they sang the first set. After an inter… Continue

Today was a travel day. We took a coach to Montreal, had a two and a half hour practice, then had the rest of the evening free. Montreal is enormous, and we won't have anywhere near enough time to explore it like we would like to. I think we were all tired from the last couple of days, because many of us came back after dinner, and a group of us went to the hot tub. At one point there were ten of us women in the hot tub, and we decided we should sing to test the acoustics. They were phenomenal!… Continue

After a long travel day yesterday, we slept, ate breakfast, and sang at Holy Trinity Cathedral, the oldest church in Quebec City. We sang in the service, and did a concert immediately after. The acoustics in that cathedral were absolutely amazing! For lunch some of us went to Chez AshTon, at Kira Keating's suggestion. She had raved about 'la pontine' which is a basket of french fries topped with a brown gravy and curd cheese. It was delicious, just like she said it would be - the ultimate in com… Continue

We all made it to the airport, mostly on time, and we're starting to trickle in to the gate area. A group is playing Magic in the corner, and teaching a couple of others how to play. The group is quiet for the most part, musicians typically not being morning people. Dr. Keating has said we'll be doing some rehearsing in the airports today, so that should be interesting. Hopefully he won't ask us to sing at this ungodly hour. Maybe he'll wait til Detroit...