Harmony Rag Quartet of Nations Newsletter, Region 31 Sweet Adelines International Winter 2009
Tone-Acity
The Nashville Experience!
By Claire Heighway Well!! What an experience that was!! If someone had told us a year ago that we’d have had the chance to fly half way around the world to compete against a whole host of regional champs and past queens, we’d have laughed out loud! But that’s exactly what we did and it’s certainly something we will never forget. We had a few issues getting there (Jen had to spend the night in New York with her dad as there weren’t enough seats on the internal flight, and the guy at the hotel check in was a total star sorting out our complicated room arrangements at almost 3am when the rest of us finally arrived) but by Saturday morning we were reunited safe and sound and were ready to enjoy the experience. We did the obligatory sightseeing trip around the town on a freezing cold, open sided
bus, marking out all the places we wanted to visit while we were there (for places read bars!). We had a fantastic few days of relaxation, eating lots, drinking lots and generally enjoying the wonderful local hospitality and the company of the great group of family and friends who had saved hard and made the long trip with us. Then it was time to get down to business and start preparing for the biggest and most important competition of our lives. Our daily rehearsals got longer and more intense
would be singing, and the other quartets we would be competing against, we were beginning to feel more and more nervous. This was it. No turning back, the pressure was on. Sitting in the auditorium listening to all the rules and regulations has to rank as one of the scariest experiences of our lives! But then it was mission mode. We were here and we were determined to go on that stage, do our absolute best, and most of all enjoy it. The day of competition arrived and we felt like movie stars with all the attention and support from not only our own chorus members, but all the ladies from Lace
and we were raring to go. As we entered the backstage area and went into holding, we knew that this was what we’d been working towards for the past 10 years. This was our time. The cheering and flag waving as we bounced onto stage was unbelievable and we could feel all the vibes from our friends watching the webcast back home. Singing on that stage, where so many of our idols had sung before us, was a total dream come true. We did our best, we
and we were focused on the task in hand. By the time Tuesday came around and we finally got to see the huge arena where we
City, Surrey Harmony and various other Region 31 choruses who had also made the trip. It really boosted our confidence
sang as well as we could have sung and we came off stage feeling on top of the world. Ok, so we didn’t win, we didn’t even
come close to breaking into the top ten, but the feeling of elation when we were greeted by all our supporters in the tunnel as we came off stage made us feel absolutely on top of the world. It was the best experience we’ve had together and something we will never, ever forget. We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped us to get to Nashville; to all our family and friends who travelled with us; and to everyone back home for your texts, messages and calls of support. You made us feel very proud and honoured to represent such a wonderful region. We also want to say a huge congratulations to Surrey Harmony and Lace City for their wonderful achievements in both making the International top 20! We were very proud to cheer and support you both. Region 31 is well and truly on the map and I think we’ll be there for a long time to come. Watch out world – the Brits are coming!!!