Oasis in Ontario

       

We just finished a week on tour, mostly in Ontario, with the Oasis Chorale.  While Jeff, Mary, and Levi are singing, I'm doing a bit of staging and choreography--and selling CDs.  We celebrated our anniversary, once again, on tour.  

                                                      

Mary got to meet one of her vocal heros, Kaitlyn Gerber from Rescue Junction.  

Ontario has some great art.  The church with the quilt squares painted on it has been turned into a fabulous toy store.  
                      

This isn't great art, but Oasis basses and tenors in a vacation Bible school submarine is somewhat compelling.  And there were enough purposeful and humorous misspellings on this sign to make me laugh every single time I saw it.  Laughter and chocolate are good things.  

Vintage Globes and Quiet Libraries

While my husband, son, and daughter sing with the Oasis Chorale (tour schedule below), I'm spending time at the lovely Dover Public Library and going thrift shopping.  I've gotten all kinds of school prep work done: schedules, book ordering, etc.  And, I found this intriguing vintage globe at a thrift store.  It has Israel on it so it's post-1948, but look at the U.S.S.R.!  

                                                    My office this week:  

And I loved this nifty little painted sign at the library.  

Oasis Chorale 2024 Tour Schedule

Friday, July 5, 7:00 PM

Concert at Leamington United Mennonite Church

78 Oak St E, Leamington, Ontario

Saturday, July 6, 7:00 PM

Concert at Woodlawn Mennonite Fellowship

6449 Wellington County Rd 11, Moorefield, Ontario

Sunday, July 7, 3:30 PM

Concert at St. Jacob’s Mennonite Church

1310 King St N, St. Jacobs, Ontario

Monday, July 8, 7:00 PM

FUNDRAISER CONCERT at The Village Table

295 Main St. W, Listowel, Ontario

OC Tour Memoirs - That's Nice, Now Go Back and Mop the Floor

I believe that this post would turn into a short novel if I wrote about all the wonderful times we enjoyed the past two weeks while singing and touring with the Oasis Chorale.  So, I offer instead a few highlights and a brief commentary.  That should suffice.  
After the first few days of rehearsal we relaxed at a park in Hutchinson one evening. We decided that the basses should be the horses pulling our wagon.  

And, it had been exactly thirty-two years since I was last in Hutchinson, Kansas, loading a bus to go on tour with the Sky Ryders Drum and Bugle Corps.  So one evening we drove around and visited the old practice field at Hutchinson Community College and the infamous Landmark Hotel where I actually stayed one summer. 
     


After recording Hymns of the Church, Volume 3  and giving a concert in Hutchinson, we boarded a bus with these delightful people and embarked on our tour of the midwest.  

This interesting contraption was in the ladies' dressing room at one concert.  The next morning we found out that it contained twenty-two urns with the remains of twenty-two inviduals.  Opppps.  Sorry!  

  We had a day off in St. Louis in which we went to the top of the St. Louis Arch, of course, and visited the amazing City Museum where we could've spent hours.  After dinner with the choir atop a hotel, we walked a few blocks to get rolled ice cream.  The ice cream was great, but Jeff was tired.  Really.  

Our amazing tour manager Jason Martin kept everything running smoothly and kept us laughing with his hysterical comments.  One morning he and Jeff had what I called a "bad talk show" at the front of the bus over the microphone.  That was quite entertaining.

It is always fun to meet up with friends old and new.  Here is Jeff with Eldo Miller-- who held the same position teaching music as Jeff does now at Terre Hill Mennonite High School.  

    Former OC bass Nelson Martin came up with these creative sound projector thingys that worked amazingly well.  His new bride Hannah cooked us the MOST delicious international meals.  We were treated very well by our hosts in Hutchinson.   
The next evening found us in Wichita for our final evening singing together.


The last concert is always so bittersweet.   The people, the music, the conversations, the friendships-- these all create such a rich experience that it is difficult to say goodbye and have the experience come to an end.
Most of us met for breakfast the next morning, and then, one by one, the flights left, our group dwindled, and the last person went home.  We and our choir folders returned home, tired and happy, with rapturous melodies ringing in our ears. 

And to explain the title - In 1986 a group I had the privilege to teach (Odyssey Winter Guard from the University of Texas at Arlington) won the Winter Guard International championship.  We all  had medals hung around our necks at a grand celebration in Dayton, Ohio, and basked in the glory of the moment. Then we returned home.  A wise clinician had warned us about this.  She told us that after her group had won the national championship she returned home and went back to work.  Her boss asked her, "How was your trip?"  She told her all about winning nationals and how great it was, and then the boss replied, "That's nice.  Now go back and mop the floor."  It's just reality.  :-)  

1986 Odyssey Winter Guard from the University of Texas at Arlington

An Evening in St. Louis with the Oasis Chorale

After a long, relaxing day of sight-seeing, we enjoyed dinner together and then several of us headed out to get some rolled ice cream.  

Jeff and I loved the City Museum which was full of secret passageways, tunnels, slides, fountains, swings, artifacts, log cabins, castles, and much more.  

Oasis Chorale's 2018 Tour Schedule

Oasis Chorale's 2018 Tour Schedule 

Thursday, July 5, 7:00 pm
First Presbyterian Church
201 E. Sherman St.
Hutchinson, KS

Saturday, July 7, 7:00 pm.
Central Christian Church
650 W William St.
Decatur, IL

Sunday, July 8, 4:00 pm
Penn Station
122 E Progress St.
Arthur, IL

Tuesday, July 10, 7:00 pm
First Baptist Church
605 W Mack Rd.
Seymour, MO

Wednesday, July 11, 7:00 pm
First Christian Church
6 East 7th Street
Fulton, MO

Thursday, July 12, 7:30 pm
First United Methodist Church
600 SW Topeka Blvd.
Topeka, KS

Saturday, July 14, 7:00 pm
Pleasant View Activity Center
4823-5307 S Dean Rd.
Hutchinson, KS

Sunday, July 15, 4:00 pm
Eastminster Presbyterian Church
1958 N Webb Rd.
Wichita, KS

A Disturbing -- I Mean Inspiring Photo Shoot with the Oasis Basses

Because I am married to one of the Oasis Chorale's basses, I am privy to some very interesting emails.  Before tour, as their shirts arrived in the mail, the guys posed in their shirts and sent the pictures to each other.  I thought the pictures were hysterical, so I requested their permission to share them, which they graciously granted.  While it was Jeff's idea to get the shirts, Jared Shetler gets the credit for getting the model photo shoots started.  

Last Concert, First Flash Mob

Regina played Brahms while we set up at St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Chambersburg, PA for our last concert.  

After the last concert we met at John Strickler's place for dinner and fellowship.

And Monday morning we had our traditional last breakfast together before everyone went their separate ways back to "real life".  But before that, we headed over to Good's Store for a flash mob.  

Click on the link below to see the flash mob at Good's Store in East Earl.  There are two videos with two separate songs, "Ndikhokhele Bawo" and "I Can Tell the World".

https://www.facebook.com/OasisChorale/