Ladies First in the USA

A dream became true.

It was Manfred Adams  who else- who had a vision a year ago. He shared it with Cindy Hansen late at night in a bar somewhere in Dortmund and the plan was born.
It was a long way to this point. Financial questions had to be answered and a huge amount of work was ahead of us.

Not much later Rena Klocke and Christiane Köhne started off to make it real. The Ladies were easy to convince as soon as David Wright expressed that the Ambassadors of Harmony wanted us to sing in their spring Show!
Financing had to be planned and a huge amount of work was ahead of us. We were all determined to make it happen, and finally on the 22nd of June we took off in different airplanes (because of the ticket price not because of the weight!!) our travel westwards the home country of Barbershop.

Our hosts of the Chorus Ambassadors Of Harmony were waiting already at the St.Louis airport with the usual big signs.

Neverstheless already at our first audience "Voices in Harmony" with AoH we missed four Ladies. They just enjoyed staying another night in their connection city Philadelphia. So due to the mistake of the airline we were not complete in our first concert. Not necessary to say that they were picked up by our wonderful hosts and taken right to the theatre in order to attend the second performance  from the plane right onto the stage!! The audiences thanked us the overcoming of the jetlag with standing ovations.

To stay in hte hosting Families was probably one of the greatest experiences we could make on our journey. We knew that the Americans are very friendly and open people, but we didnt expect this hospitality. Thank you all so very much, Ambassadors.

Apart from the great experience of seeing this great Chorus on Stage we shared the daily family life of american famlilies.
So for example we were introduced to the rather complicated rule of Baseball during a visit of a match.
For the most of us Baseball stayed as a confusing game, where for a long time nothing happens, in the last five minutes all of for sudden everything happens and then we have lost.
But anyway afterwards there will be a good party with wonderful take away pizza and beer.

Our first concerts in St.Louis we had already one day after arriving in the States. And the audiences thanked us the overcoming of the jetlag with standing ovations.

In spite of our success at the audiences: There is always room to improve. This we had to realize during our first coachings with Jim Henry and David Wright. There is still a lot to learn for us.

We had indeed Parties on our trip. We love to remember the wonderful reception we had with the St.Louis Harmony Chorus with their director Sandy Wright and their president Jean Lowry.
We were very impressed by the shows the american womens Barbershop Choruses.till they invited us to join and sing with them ...ooops, some of us didnt expect that, but our first row did their best to fit in and keep track and we had a lot of fun together.

Our next stop on our trip was Breckenridge. There was a big challenge waiting for us. Breckenridge is usually known as ski resort in about 10000 feet altitude. Skiing is ok at that high but singing? Quite often we had to gasp for breath. Thats why we were pretty happy to have Dieter Braun with us. As a professor of the drama school in Bochum he not only improved our facial expression but could give us a lot of hints for energy recovery out of his wide repertoire.

Especially to get to know a lot of other choruses and quartets we liked very much. We love to remember the guys of Vocal Spectrum or OC Times, which not only of their achievement of singing were very beloved at us.
Some of us said these boys will make your heart beat faster...the pulse starts to race
(Oh Manni, dont complain: You had 170 wonderful women of the Skyline Chorus on stage)

Skyline: what a Women Chorus. 170 times women power with a breath taking show on stage

Another Highlight was our appearance on local TV where we promoted the Sing High Festival.

To join all the other Choruses and Quartets in the River Walk Center in Breckenridge was not only a great experience but also we had a lot of fun. Cindy Hanson managed the whole event in great way and had even time to spare with us for an enlightening coaching. Thank you Cindy for everything.

The way from Breckenridge to Denver we joined already our new hosts. New experiences and new impressions were waiting for us.
We stayed with families of the Skyline Chorus which did a lot to entertain us. The most awe-inspiring event in our time off was probably the visit of a real rodeo. Lots of sweating Cowboys were just unbreakable. It was unbelievable what they could take.
Thank You Skyline, for the wonderful time we could spent together.

Then in Denver we joined the greatest Barbershop event in our life. The International Barbershop Convention of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Choruses and Quartets from around the world went on stage and gave their best to go for gold.

The Westminster Chorus made in the end.

Anybody who has seen "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix might remember this "W

Just behind this fabulous chorus the favourites of our hearts the Ambassadors Of Harmony won the silver medal. They just had two points out of 3000 missing up to the gold medal.

In Denver we also sang for a big audience. At the World Harmony Jamboree we shared the Stage with choruses and quartets from round the world in a full house.
We did our best and got standing ovations.

One last evening and then all of for sudden it was over.our journey to the States, and sometimes we remember it just as a dream.

We love to say Thank You to everybody who helped us to get to the States and made our stay as the most remarkable event we had.
And Im sure, the next dream will come..