Concert Day No. 1

Greetings to all after a very long day in Limerick, and the completion of our first concert! I must warn you all that it is currently 1:40 am here in Cork, and this is being written by a very tired blogger. But, there is much news to report, and I didn't want to disappoint the reading audience - however, I am sure to miss something or misspell atrociously, so please bear with me!

But the best part about blogs are the fun behind-the-scenes stuff that you might not hear about otherwise. For example, there was some unexpected excitement last night when the batteries the fancy card-readers on the door lock went dead and needed to be replaced. Eric, a trusty chaperone, discovered the dilemma when he brought a bag of Burger King for the hungry boys (really just boy - apparently Stephen didn't have enough dinner and came home starving after rehearsal). In any case - fun pictures were taken! I got to chat with Stephen and John for quite some time while we waited for the front desk to send up someone to correct the situation.









The problem did get solved, even though it was well after the official "lights out". However, some pictures from this morning's busride to Limerick seem to indicate that it was a late night for everyone:



Including the conductor:


We arrived at the University of Limerick around 11:30am after a 2 hour drive from Cork, and went straightaway to have lunch in the dining hall with the members of the Irish Youth Choir. After lunch there was an afternoon rehearsal from 1:30-5:00 to get adjusted to the hall and make final corrections in the pieces before the performance.
















After rehearsal we had dinner with the choir, again in the university dining hall. Our dear friend, and orchestra member, Kevin, celebrated his birthday with the help of the Irish Youth choir and NJYS students, who sang "Happy Birthday" to him, in full harmony no less!





We changed into our concert clothes after dinner and assembled to perform an excellent concert to a full, though not sold-out, audience! Sadly, again, I don't have many photos of the event - but I assure you that many others do. Wendy, our resident photographer, has been very busy capturing images and I am trying to find the best and most effective way to have them accessible to everyone without posting them here. I'll be sure to post my final solution so that you may look through even more photos of all the adventures.

Tomorrow we're headed off to the Blarney Castle and maybe even to kiss the Blarney stone. Then, we have another concert - this one at the Cork City Hall, where we had rehearsal yesterday. It will be another long, but fun, day so I now must say goodnight!

p/s: for anyone who was truly interested, here's an Irish breakfast - the only thing missing is tea!