Tour - Berkeley, Hearst Greek Theater (performance)

The choir made San Francisco it's base while we performed three concerts in adjoining areas. The first was at Berkeley at the William Randolph Hearst Greek Theatre. The theatre was built in 1903 and funded by William Randolph Hearst. The design is based on the Greek theatre Epidaurus. It has hosted a number of famous musicians and groups over the years and is used by the school for various ceremonies. In 1982 it was registered in the  National Registry.

This was the first outside concert venue and we had a different program than the ones we performed for the inside venues. We arrived and hiked up to the theater. It is impressive.

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Panorama view. Impressive. This theater can seat a little over 8,000 people.

The heat was too much and so staff members came in to help protect the instruments and players from the sun. Everyone steps in to serve where they can. So fun to see this during rehearsal.

Me and my choir buddies. Left to right: Dennis Flynn, Me and Grant Jex.

One of the challenges of this concert was that the choir was separated into three different areas. The separation of everyone makes things difficult for us to sing as an ensemble and yet, I think it worked out well. It took some time to adjust the sound during this sound check and I'm sure it was tricky. We were asked to do quite a few things to adjust to this space which made it an interesting challenge.

All the music we sing on tour is memorized. The benefit of having music memorized is that we know it well enough that we can make adjustments as needed more easily. This is a prime example of why memorization is essential for the tour. 

Performing in this space was very different than the two previous concerts. It was a lot more studio singing and dependence on microphones to unify the sound. 

The audience was enthusiastically responsive and engaged during the concert. I focused on one group of people behind Mack during the concert and watched their faces. It was a good way to gauge how the audience was receiving the concert. After the sunset and the coolness of the evening settled in the night seemed to become magical. I noticed a young teenager enthusiastically clapping after the songs of the second portion of the program. 

The lighting is something we do not get to see during a concert so seeing these picture is nice.

 After the concert, we entered the backstage. It was lighted by these beautiful lighted lanterns. It was quite a sight to behold. It was a perfect way to end the concert in such a historic place.

The tents below the lanterns is where we changed out of our performance clothing into our street clothing after the concert.

After concerts I tend to feel elated and happy. It's like a post concert "high" and I think that is normal. The adrenaline is probably still active and that is why I feel wired afterward. I remember as we drived back to the hotel how grateful I felt for being a part of this organization during this time.

I knew it would take some time for me to relax and go to bed but I knew I had some Tongan food waiting for me at the hotel lobby from Tongans in the area. I was looking forward to getting it. It was a wonderful day.