Day 5 - New York City Concert

Well what a day.......
Up early as ever and today and out by 8am - Monday in NYC is obviously a busy day so the traffic was not so easy. 8:30 saw us working with the innovative vocal group Choral Chameleon. This group are 'THE' New York up and coming vocal ensemble as reviewed in the New York Times. They came especially to work with us on our repertoire and vocal technique. Our students worked for 4 hours with the group who really took our singing to another level - it was a pleasure to be amongst such good musicians, some of whom I see being life long friends - as people, we never stop learning and today, adults and students alike learned huge amounts.
Lunch (we were totally in need of a break by 12pm) was at the Rockerfeller Centre - students had some free time and I met the choral director of Choral Chameleon to go over the evening concert.
This afternoon, we were able to go on the NBC Studios Tour and were able to see the working studios of  'Dr Oz' and 'Saturday Night Live' amongst others. Very cool indeed and this was enjoyed by all students.
6pm this evening we were back at the Unitarian Church on Lexington for a quick change and rehearsal and at 7pm we began our concert - complete with two pieces performed by Choral Chameleon.
The concert was excellent and were even joined by a St George's student (who was on vacation with her parents) for support..........
Today concluded  with a 'Hard Rock Cafe' dinner in Times Square.
Tomorrow is our Statue of Liberty / 911 Memorial / Guided visit to New York day to be topped off with the 'Lion King' on Broadway and our last meal in NYC in Planet Hollywood......Below are the highlights.......

Early Morning Vocal Call

Going through the music with the professionals

Just the way you look tonight...............

The evening concert (it was 92 in New York today)

Morning Stretches

Day 4 - Leaving Boston for New York City

Day 4 began slightly more leisurely (we didn't leave until 9am) as we needed to make the 3 1/2 hour transfer to New York City.
Everyone was up and ready on time and we left Boston on time, a stop en route to NYC in Connecticut for lunch and we eventually hit New York city just before 3pm.
My idea was to pull up along side the Dakota Building and show the students the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. When Lennon was assassinated in 1980, Yoko Ono (who still lives in the same apartment in the Dakota building) decided there would be no funeral but instead she would scatter his ashes in the park - this eventually became the Strawberry fields memorial. I also promised the students we would call in FAO Schwartz (the best toy shop in the world - http://www.fao.com/home/index.jsp ) and the Apple Shop on 5th Avenue. The students loved all of these things. After a late check in we are at the Double Tree Metropolitan on Lexington and all is good. An evening meal at HB Burger and a quick trip to Times Square before heading back to the Hotel and bed......
Busy day tomorrow.......early workshop with a fine Choir and two Choral directors in the morning.......
Below are today's highlight.....plus a picture of the students singing at Harvard last night......

St Paul's Harvard

Strawberry Fields Forever NYC

The best toy store on the planet...

Outside the Hotel on Lexington

The Choir enjoying Times Square

Day 3 - long but great day.

Well day three was a very long day indeed!
We began with another early wake up call at 6:30 and headed away to tour Boston by coach ( guided by Charlie) and then to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, some quite amazing things to see here ranging from Egyptian antiquities to the works of Jackson Pollock http://www.mfa.org/
Early lunch for my team (Mr Roberts) who were in need of food in order to appreciate the art.
The Museum is truly amazing and though we were there for 3 hours, you could easily spend two days taking everything in........
Next stop was the JFK Library at Columbus Point - amazing views and one of the most interesting museums I have ever seen.... http://www.jfklibrary.org/ the students really enjoyed this visit as they also got to take in the sun and the views.
Late afternoon saw us in Cambridge Massachusetts and Harvard University http://www.harvard.edu/ and a quick rehearsal at St Paul's Catholic Cathedral http://www.stpaulparish.org/homepage.html to be fair the students gave an exceptional concert and were once again very well received. Evening meal at the Mongolian kitchen in Harvard square and suddenly it's 11:30pm and we are all ready for sleep - New York City departure at 9am........
Anyway........................below are today's day 3 highlights..................

On the water front looking at USS Constitution 

The boys at the MFA

Museum of Fine Art

On the campaign trail

All the Presidents Women

Fun at the shore

Late afternoon crossing the George River Boston

Day 2 Concert at Rivers

Entonces, second very busy day indeed today. Everyone up and about early (6:15 wake up calls to all rooms) and ready to leave by 8am. We arrived at Rivers school just before 9am, beautiful part of the world, rolling green fields and wonderful woodland areas......http://www.rivers.org/
Wonderful welcome Dr David Tierney and his staff - so a very big thank you to them all.
The music concert hall and practice suits are just 4 years old and have been housed in a wonderful self contained building including Steinway piano (every pianist is happy to see one)
Anyway, I am so proud to report that your sons and daughters were excellent and did a fantastic concert for staff and students of the music summer camp.........they really gave everything at 10am in the morning!
We were then treated to lunch before heading away for a guided tour of Boston the seat of American independence and liberty. Plenty of history, plenty of culture, plenty of learning and then plenty of tired looking faces........day 2 was topped off with some final shopping time in Boston before eating our evening meal at the world famous 'Cheers' restaurant http://www.cheersboston.com/pub/ .............
Anyway in answer to the blog question RE our concert dates to come, they are as follows......
Saturday 9th July - St Pauls Cathedral Harvard University at 7pm
Monday July 11th Vocal concert workshop - Unitarian Church of All Souls - Lexington
Monday July 11th 7pm Concert Unitarian Church of All Souls - Lexington
Friday July 15th 6pm - Concert at the Argentine Embassy Washington DC
And finally for today......................please see below for today's highlights....more tomorrow..

Ready to sing......(very hot and humid indeed)

 

 Downtown guided tour

Looking at Boston Common

State Government Building - Boston Common - Beacon Hill

Trolley Bus Tour

Again on the common

Day 1 Part 2 - Downtown for Theatre

Hello to all our followers again.
It's very late but I just thought I would blog our day part two for everyone to wake up to on Friday.
We had a wonderful meal this evening at http://www.maggianos.com/en/Pages/home.aspx
One of our youngest boys described it as 'the best meal he ever had'
Anyway, having just got back to the hotel from seeing the amazing Blue Man Group:-
http://www.blueman.com/index.php I just thought I would post some of today's highlight pictures.
I can safely say the students have had a wonderful day and have all now gone off to bed. Early call at 6:15 in full best uniform as we have our first concert. I am sure the students will be fantastic...below are today's best bits..

Our girls enjoying Italian Pizza at Quincy Market

The Old Court House downtown Boston

Heading for Maggiano's

The Blue Man Group

Waiting for the Blue Man Experience

The evening walk home........

All safe and sound Day 1

Good afternoon to you all!
Just a quick blog message to let everyone back in Argentina and around the world that we arrived safe and sound after a long 10 hour flight and a connecting flight in Washington DC. United were totally on time and we made our connection with about 20 minutes to spare.
All students and staff were then taken to wonderful Faneuil hall market place. http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/

Here we ate lunch and are now safely checked into our Hotel in Boston and we have only one hour turn around before dinner in a nice local Italian Diner.Busy day tomorrow also - all students very tired indeed -staff also. Here are just a couple of pictures - the view as we flew over New York and my lunch - New England's best Clam Chowder served in a bread bowl!! Will post again later.....Mr R and the students and staff

1 Day to go!

Dear parents and friends,

We have created this blog for you so that it is easy to find out what we are doing daily in the USA!
We will be posting pictures, important updates, daily accounts of what we have been doing and showcasing our performances.

You can also leave comments below each post with any questions, queries or comments you may have and we will try and get back to you as quick as we can!

Everyone is very excited and we hope this is enjoyable and helpful for you!

Besos,
~ Creative Arts Tour Team