TO SING AMERICA IN ANOTHER LAND

TO SING AMERICA IN ANOTHER LAND by Barbara Biddison

They flew across the ocean to land in Yorkshire, England, these young singers in the HG Treble Choir. And, of course, they were accompanied by some parents and a few other adults as well as the director, Thomas Putnam. They left on a Wednesday and returned the following Wednesday. All the reports from kids as well as adults revealed their joy in singing for these audiences and their personal growth as they sang in another land. It was clearly an experience with memories to last a lifetime. The reports suggest that they sang everywhere they went---churches, and schools, and museums, and castles and parks, and in the streets. The adults came back with happy memories as well. I'm loving hearing and reading about it everywhere!!!! And, yes, reading about it in joyful detail in our local newspaper.

Less than two weeks after their return to the States they were in concert again in Wellsboro, sharing their songs and their talent with the local folk. The Methodist Church generously provided the space for the Treble Choir amid the added delights as well: The Brothers and the HG Choir Too. I could have sat happily on that church bench for hours more. 

By the way, there is something, a learning experience, that Putnam often has the singers do that I appreciate. He has individual choir singers write in their own words and read aloud a sentence or 2 or 3 that gives the title and composer and perhaps subject matter of the song they are about to sung and we are about to hear. A great idea.

This concert included two groups that did not travel to England----groups that I love to see and hear. HG Choir Too, about 9 or 10 of them, sang a few very appropriate-for-that-age pieces with great enthusiasm and attention to director. And The Brothers who achieved their rightful fame in JOSEPH concluded their bit with YOU RAISE ME UP. Oh yes...

It was a rich and full afternoon, and we are so fortunate to have such music with us.