Cookout

This evening the boys were invited to a cookout given by Tom D and Louis de S's hosts. Their house is just a two minute walk from the cathedral and it soon became apparent why this area, Buckhead, is known as the Beverly Hills of the South. Here is the entrance - unfortunately I didn't get a chance to take any other pictures.

One of locals told me that the really big houses were on the other side of Piedmont Avenue, but it was hard to imagine anything bigger than this.

Earlier we had rehearsed in a small, dry practice room for a couple of hours. I used the time to look more closely at the (mostly Latin) texts of tomorrow's programme and encouraged the choristers to use their imaginations to help convey the meaning of the words to the audience. They also need to look engaged as they sing - there is a visual element to the performance which we don't encounter when singing in the Apse back home. We then spent some time learning the Victoria Requiem which comes up later in the tour and on a radio broadcast just after half term.

They were looking rather tired by the time they were taken away by their hosts and hopefully they'll sleep well tonight.