Summer is in full swing here at Rhodes College.
Until June 13th, I will be here participating in a CODA sponsored tour with my chamber ensemble. We have about 15 performances scheduled over 6 weeks at non-profits…mostly churches, schools, and assisted living facilities.
Our first performances were last weekend in my hometown McMinnville, TN. We played for a friend’s wedding on Saturday and at my grandmother’s church on Sunday morning. We stayed with my grandparents all weekend and had a really good time just relaxing and enjoying our music. This was also a great time to introduce Rhodes and our growing music department to the people in McMinnville. We often were asked where we were from and we had the chance to tell them about Rhodes and all of the great things going on here. I was walking around all weekend with my flipcam going. On Saturday night, we found a piece in our repertoire that we forgot we had that ended up being perfect for the service. The video below is of us warming up on Sunday morning:
After our first two performances, we took about a week off and then performed at two assited living facilities here in Memphis on Friday. This was a unique experience for us. Before and after the performances, we all talked about how different this kind of performance is than anything else we have done before. We talked about some of our previous experiences in nursing homes and assisted living facilities and came away from the experience feeling really good about what we had done. We performed at both locations for about 40 minutes and it was amazing to see the residents respond to our music in such a positive way.
This week, we will be traveling to Nashville for 2 performances. Then we are headed to North Carolina, Middle Tennessee, Oklahoma, and back to Memphis. I will try to keep everyone updated on our progress!
P.S. (There was an adoreable puppy at my grandparents house….see the video below!)
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