I know, I know I haven't posted in an actual month. Over an actual month. I'm aware. But I have so much to catch up on before school starts this week, so I'm going to just post away!
Ah man, where do I even begin? Let me start this post off by saying THANK YOU Pacific Chorale and Cal State Fullerton! Choral Camp at CSUF has been one of my favorite camps I've attended by far! I am so lucky to have met so many wonderful people and I feel so special to have been able to make music with these insanely talented humans.
Now, I guess I'm just going to talk about my experience?
The camp was from 9:00 to 6:00 every day at CSUF and it was pretty hardcore, not going to lie.
Everything, as fun as it all was, was extremely fast paced and kind of stressful, not going to lie.
We started our mornings with warm ups and the mass choir with every student from camp in it. We'd work with Dr. P for all of that and then from there we went to our morning classes. I had my voice class in the morning with Dr. Mark Goodrich and that class was basically just our chance to have open masterclasses on a daily basis. After that, we'd go to our bonding activities with Professor Alderman and this part of the day was always a favorite of mine.
Bonding activities were the part of the day where I got to hang out with all of these folks. Raelyn and Camille are two of my Trab pals who I am so lucky to go to school with, but these two boys are two of my newest friends! Kayden and Seba!
Kayden- you are so stinkin' creative and I'm so grateful that I got to meet you on the Tuesday. Thanks for being the best at improving comedic skits that somehow involve both Wonder Woman and the Little Mermaid. That take real talent. Additionally, you're sense of style is impeccable. Like- can I be you? Dang! Everyday you'd come in lookin' so fly and I'm over here in jeans in a t-shirt like where did this kid learn to dress? Because I need 'fits like his!
Seba- Bro. I have no words so yo girl is gonna have to sum it all up briefly so that my entire blog post isn't all about how much I appreciate you and love you (although that would be pretty rad, wouldn't it?) Thanks for not laughing at me when I thought you were on staff on the first day. You're just really tall and I was just really lost. Having lunch with you every day was super fun and I loved that I got the chance to get to know you! You're incredibly creative and totally funny and not only are you one heck of a vocalist, but your beatboxing skills? Shoot kid! I don't know how you do it! *insert a bunch of inside jokes here like "Good Morning!" and stuff about being the best gosh darn Modern Major General I've ever had the pleasure of meeting*
Okay enough mushy stuff for the moment, after bonding activities we ate lunch (which I spent with these homies) and then after lunch was more mass/mixed choir with Dr. Peterson. And after all thaaaat, I had my elective, musical theater class! This one was a blast because we performed "Masquerade" from Phantom of the Opera and I've never hated that song more than I did last week. It was a rough one for sure.
I do have to thank that class though, because they made it so enjoyable. If it weren't for that specific group of people, I probably would have just ditched that class. (I'm joking! I'm joking! It was fun, I just needed to prove how much I love these folks and that was my hypothetical scenario for a situation in which this class was not full of the people that it was.)
I do want to specifically mention Sammy in this post though, because that dude is one of the most EXTRA humans I have ever met, but he wasn't annoying about it. I enjoyed every second of him yelling at us (specifically us sopranos who struggled to use our diction during the key changes) and of his over exaggerating his lyrics and motions in "The Jaberwocky" because that was a classic. Sammy, if you do happen to be reading this though, I'd like to affirm you because you are going to make one heck of a good teacher and I'm so stoked for you to grow! You have some serious God gifted talent and it blows me away. I'm so honored to have had the privilege of working with you.
So after my Musical theater elective, I made my way to my Music Theory III class where I kicked some major music booty. Never did I ever imagine that I'd be reading music written in the early 1000s. Never did I ever imagine that I'd be learning music dictation on day two. Never did I ever imagine that I'd be in a class with seven kids in it. It was overall a pretty neat experience.
And then after theory we had our professional recitals and those, although I don't want to take the time to elaborate on everything, I will say they were pretty cool. And then after alllllllll of that, we'd do one last all choir meet up and then we'd discuss what we learned for the day.
So with my schedule listed and photos now posted and everything, I guess I'd like to give one final thank you to both Cal State Fullerton and Pacific Chorale for this experience. For a scholarshipped student like me, this opportunity was so special. I'm so grateful to have attended this camp and I can't wait to go back next year.
Much Love,
Delaney Miller
