2011 Grand View Choir Trip: One last stop

After seven hours on our lovely charter bus, we arrived at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Henderson, NV around 4:00 pm. Henderson is a suburb of Las Vegas, about 20 minutes southeast of the big city. Tonight’s concert is a benefit concert for Lutheran Social Services of Nevada. Admission is $10 per person, half of which will go to the Grand View Choir. The Faith Lutheran High School Choir and members of surrounding church choirs will be singing at the benefit concert as well.

After the concert the plan is to pack the bus and head to the Las Vegas Strip for a couple hours before making our beds on the bus and heading home. Google Maps says we’re looking at a 22-hour drive from Las Vegas home. However, with the amount of stops we made on the way to Butte combined with mountain passes, I’m guessing it to be more like 26 hours. And I’m estimating we leave Vegas around midnight our time, 2 am Iowa time. You do the math, I’m refusing…

This could be the last you hear from me until we get back to Iowa. Wish us safe travels :)

Last night’s concert in Solvang:

The choir performing at Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang, CA.

Solvang locals, Grand View alumni and people from the surrounding area piled into the Danish-style Bethania Lutheran Church Friday night to hear the Grand View Choir. With only a few empty pews in the fairly spacious church, I’d say it was the biggest crowd on the tour yet. Eleven alumni, including a former professor, from Solvang and the surrounding area were scattered throughout the crowd. Seeing such a large group of former Vikings gathered 1800 miles away from Des Moines made it apparent how important their Danish heritage and ties to Grand View are.

Grand View Alumni from the Solvang area.

As for the concert itself, it was better than the Salinas show but not as good as some of the previous ones. By the way, if you haven’t noticed already, I don’t have a sense of pitch and usually can’t tell if something goes wrong during a song. So when I commentate on the concert, it’s based off what I hear students saying. After talking to several choir members, its agreed last night’s concert had its high and low moments. Simple mistakes and timing issues occurred, but nothing the audience would have noticed. Many agreed exhaust and lack of enthusiasm may have played a role, but for the most part the show went smoothly.

The choir singing the closing song.

Dr. Duffy was especially happy to stop in Solvang, as its something she’s wanted to do for quite some time.

“It was kind of like a mythical land that you finally get to reach, so it was fun,” Duffy said.

Despite small errors, Duffy said she was happy with the performance and thought it was a fun show.

“While I was conducting, we were just so in sync with one another and they were being very attentive,” Duffy said. “Every little gesture I made, they responded to and it’s something you work all year for to get that kind of cohesion and beauty, sound, flexibility and response between my gestures and their singing.”

Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang, CA.

The concert was well received and the crowd embraced the last set of songs, closing with a standing ovation. As we near the end of the 2011 tour, Duffy said she is very proud of the choir and their growth in the last year.

“I had a dream, an expectation of what this sound could be and to have them be there, last night was just fun, Duffy said. “This is what you work all year for, when you are able to pick the harvest and savor it.”