AACS Upper School Choirs: Tour Day 2: A day dedicated to school visits and performances

Day Two:

Friday, April 14 2014

Linfield Christian School

The first stop of the day was Linfield Christian School in Temecula where we lead the Easter Chapel for the middle and high school students. As we were arriving at the school Abbey S. remarked, “This is the first time we’ve ever sung at a school [since she has been going on AACS choir tours], and I love it!” The students at Linfield returned the sentiment, clapping and singing along with our choirs. (Of course the middle school girls just melted when the Men of Note sang their “Nylons Medley!”)

Another memorable moment of the performance was the Bell’Arte rendition of “All the Beauty” (written by J.J. Heller and arranged by AACS alumnus Adam Cogliano). The piece focuses on the thoughts of a young woman as she looks in the mirror and must battle the “lies” she hears about what she sees. The Bellas interjected a moving “spoken word” section into the piece where they shouted some of the lies that they must confront: “You’re worthless. You’re legs don’t look good in a skirt. Every time I look in the mirror, all I see is ‘gross!’” The piece then confronts those lies with the truth: “You were fearfully and wonderfully made. You were made in my image. I know every hair on your head. You are a daughter of the King, and I love you!” Several of the Bellas commented that they felt the power in the texts they spoke today and hoped that the piece blessed the audience as much as performing it blessed them.

After the performance we invited the high school performing arts students to hang out for an informal Q and A session before we enjoyed a delicious, and authentic, Mexican food buffet for lunch. Dessert was a full pallet of huge, ripe, fresh, luscious, local strawberries. They were so juicy they required a “splash zone!”

Friends Christian School—Middle School Assembly

The next stop of the day was Rick and Barbara Kempton’s former school, Friends Christian School, in Yorba Linda. Here we performed an assembly for 500 middle school students who had earned a much needed break from a round of standardized testing. Mr. K received a boisterous standing ovation from his former students, and during his introduction he thanked them saying, “Barbara and I are visiting those we love, and we’re introducing them to those [from Maryland] we are falling in love with.”

After the assembly we enjoyed some “down time” on the sprawling Friends campus and were treated to Lamppost Pizza, a favorite of the Kemptons, followed by root beer floats. (Whitney V.’s first root beer ever!)

Rose Drive Friends Church—Evening Concert

As the sun was setting , we began an evening concert at the Rose Drive Friends Church. Besides the Kemptons,, Mrs. Joseph, Ms. Kauffman, Whitney Vandenheuvel, Brook Bloomquist, Hannah Holden, and Mr. Vineyard all had friends and family who were able to join us for the concert, making the evening a very special event for everyone.

Following the concert the students went to stay the night in the homes of host families who were all close friends and family members of the Kemptons.

More exciting tour moments to come! Including a hilarious, late night bus debacle with the chaperones. :)