SLVA Spain Tour: More Competition and Results

Today we competed in our final two categories: large group polyphony and large group folklore (folk music, jazz, etc.). Both of our sets went very well. The audience seemed to love us, and we sang with so much energy in our second set that I think it would have been impossible not to tap your feet along with us!

Also, we are pretty sure we called the rain in Tolosa when we sang "Cloudburst."

After a long dinner and an agonizing wait through a bunch of beautiful traditional Basque dancing, we learned the results. Here's the breakdown:

SMALL GROUP SACRED MUSIC - First Prize
SMALL GROUP SECULAR MUSIC - First Prize
LARGE GROUP POLYPHONY - First Prize
LARGE GROUP FOLKLORE - First Prize

Additionally, we won the prize for being the audience favorite!

The only thing we didn't win was the overall Grand Prize, which went to an amazing Hungarian children's choir. But it's the best of all possible scenarios for us! This way, we won every single category we entered, plus the audience prize, and now we don't have to come back to Tolosa next year to compete in the European Grand Prix, which we would be forced to do if we had won that prize.

We could not be happier!

Tomorrow we have a prizewinners concert and then a final concert in Tolosa before we head home dark and early on Tuesday morning.

Thanks again to everyone who has made this possible, especially the festival organizers and all of the wonderful people here in Spain who have lead us around, fed us, housed us, and listened to us sing. We love you!

SLVA Spain Tour: Concerts and Competition!

I apologize that it has been so long since I have updated this blog. We have had many busy days in a row with extremely late nights, and there just has not been time! So here is a longer update about what has been going on since Tuesday.

The concert in Pamplona was great fun. The audience seemed to enjoy us very much, and we had a great time with them! We also enjoyed a little time running with the bulls.


On Wednesday, we enjoyed spending some rehearsal time with Josu Elberdin, who wrote "Segalariak," which is one of the compulsory pieces for the competition. He gave us a lot of great pointers and we are very grateful for his help!


Later that day, we headed to Tafalla for another concert in a great place called the San Pedro church.


The concert was fun and we were starting to feel really good about competition! But we also needed a break, and conveniently, Thursday was our free day. We decided to spend some time in San Sebastian, which has some beautiful beaches and lots of shops.




It was lovely and a much needed break.

On Friday, the competition began! Friday was the first round---secular music---for the small group (max 16 voices). We had a short rehearsal in the morning and then a very brief sound check in the hall...and then we were off!


It went quite well, and we were happy to relax after it was over, because on Saturday morning we had round two for the small group---sacred music. This round took place in a nice little church in Tolosa.


Again, we felt pretty good about what we did. The other choirs here are really quite good! It's a very fun and very intense competition! We are very happy to be here doing this!

After round two yesterday, we headed off to a new city for a concert, and on the way we took a spin through Bilbao just to see the Guggenheim museum.


What an amazing building! Thanks to our guides and our bus driver for taking us there! Afterwards, we headed on toward our concert in a church whose name escapes me right now, in a town that I also can't recall at this moment. (Very informative!)


The concert was absolutely fantastic---our best to date---and left us feeling very charged for the large group competition (max 40 voices) that happens today. We feel very ready and very excited!

It's hard for all of us to believe that we have already been here for a week and we are almost ready to come home! It's been great so far...thanks to everyone who made this possible for us!

SLVA Spain Tour: Sing, Sing, Sing!

It's Tuesday afternoon here in Spain, and we're smack in the middle of our daily siesta (which, by the way, America should definitely adopt). In about an hour we'll head off to Pamplona for a little bit of shopping, then a rehearsal and a concert.


Yesterday, we also had siesta, which was great---and a video was made during that time which you can view on the Salt Lake Vocal Artists facebook page. In the video, the concert from last night is referenced---we sang in a church in Basauri called San Pedro of Eliza.


The concert was very fun and pretty well attended---they definitely liked us and really appreciated our Basque songs. They fed us a very late meal afterwards which we very much appreciated!

Tonight we'll sing in Pamplona and hopefully it will go better than it did yesterday---not that last night was bad, just that there is always room to improve and the competition is approaching very quickly!

Spain is very cold right now but very beautiful. We are happy to be here!

SLVA Spain Tour: Flight and Arrival

Did you know the Salt Lake Choral Artists have a new addition to their choral family? The Salt Lake Vocal Artists are a small chamber choir of about 40 voices that have just begun a 10-day tour of the Basque region in Spain. We left Salt Lake City at noon on Saturday, October 22, and, after a flight to Atlanta and another to Madrid, arrived here in Spain on Sunday safely.

It's beautiful and very rainy---whether on the plain or not!


We are staying in a little town called Oiartzun which is not far from Tolosa. What is happening in Tolosa near the end of this week is the reason we are here.


SLVA has come to compete in the Tolosa Choral Competition, which is a very prestigious competition attended by some of the best choirs in the world. We are competing in both the large (40 voice maximum) and small (16 voice maximum) categories. Before the competition begins, we'll give a few concerts in towns around the area.

We're all looking forward to performing, meeting the Spanish people, and giving our best at the competition! Hopefully the wifi at our hotel will continue to work so we can keep you updated. You can also follow us on facebook!

We hope you enjoy SLVA's first tour blog!