Today began with a short, 30-minute, morning service. It was a very traditional Christian service - we sung two hymns, "Jesus Loves Me" and "Stand Up for Jesus", heard a sermon on David and Goliath, and ended with the Doxology. The hymn singing was accompanied by a handbell choir from Japan who also performed a short prelude and postlude. The spoken parts of the service were presented in both English and Japanese. The hymn singing was neat in that everyone sang in their own language - so a mix of Japanese, Korean and English-speaking voices blended in song - very cool actually.
Following the service we immediately started a massed ringing rehearsal - final run throughs for most of our conductors. From there, registrants split in two groups - while one got free time and lunch, and the other attended classes - then they switched. Classes today included "Ringing Japanese ANIME Themes", "Chinese Paper Cutting Art", "Traditional Games and Toys from Japan", "Analysis of 4-in-Hand Ringing", "Canadian Culture", "Mixed Meter Mastery" (taught by our Kath Wissinger), "Korean Cultural Experience", "Malmark Maintenance" (Kathy Ebling-Shaw), "Plum Flower and Beads", a treble technique class by Lynne Marks, "Scottish Country Dance", "Latin Dance" (taught by the choir from Campanas Universitarias), "Creative Use of Bells in Worship"(taught by David Weck and Jane Holstein), "Advanced Conducting".
In total, during the event, registrants had the option to attend 4 classes or to participate in one of six festival choirs. All the classes were well attended and full.
After class, there was one more massed ringing rehearsal before dinner. Following the rehearsal, everyone had to pack up bells, foam pads and covers, and load everything onto carts to be moved to our performance location which is the Main Hall where all the solo performances have been held. The Handbell Ringers of Japan have decided to go a different way for the final concert than has been tradition at past Symposia. Instead of all 850 ringers performing one final concert together, the group has been split. Half will perform at 11:00 AM this morning and the other half will perform at 4:00 PM this afternoon. Both perform on the same stage which means Group 1 will set-up at 8:30 this morning, have one run-through dress-rehearsal, perform their concert for the other half and public audience, and then tear the whole set-up down. After lunch, Group 2 will do the same thing all over again - set-up, rehearse, perform. It's going to be interesting. The conductors only get one run-through of their piece to check balance, etc. in the new performance space. Plus, ringers will be configured differently then they have been for all the rehearsals. For example - the AGEHR Ad-Hoc choir has been ringing in the 2nd row to the left of the conductor in rehearsals all week. For the concert this afternoon, we will be in the front row, to the right of the conductor. It just means we will all need to be more alert. I'll let you know how it goes!
Yesterday concluded with the Echoes for Peace Concert. This was basically a solo concert that was open to the public. Performers representing each IHC member country presented one piece. Then, following an intermission and stage re-set, the Echoes for Peace Choirs performed two pieces each. The Echoes for Peace Choirs are two of the festival choirs that registrants could choose to ring with instead of taking classes. These two were directed by Bill Griffin from AGEHR and Toshikazu Yoshida from HRJ. Each had four 1-hour rehearsals to pull together their two pieces. They were excellent! Videos of both are on the AGEHR Facebook page.
Following the concert, a group of us visited what has become one of our favorite landing places in the hotel, a bar called the Cellar. It is in the basement of the hotel and somewhat off the beaten path - you have to know where you're going to find it. They have a great "mixed pizza" - that savior for many whose taste buds have been challenged by the food provided at the event. With our pizza we enjoyed some good wine and Japanese beer. I have a feeling we'll be returning there after tonight's final banquet!
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