One of the most dramatic parts of the day came early. It was the opening chorus by VOENA children’s choire from Benicia. Part spirit guides part drummers part greek chorus they were guided with the remarkable hand and violin of Annabelle Marie, a visionary leader who allows the children to explore and excel. There are some great recordings of the day that I am working to make shareable. For now we can content ourselves with photos of the vibrant youths.
The great news is that I heard from EBRP last wee that they want to come and bring their mobile fish tank to the festival again this year! Remember how cool that was? Whoo hoo!
Things are in the crazy planning stage for the festival. I was sad to hear that the Alhambra Valley Band isn’t going to be joining us again this year. There was a generous offer from Hope Savage for her new trio “Savage Bond” to join us, and the UnConcord will of course finish the day. I did a bit of begging and got Extended Roots to play in the middle.
Dave Kwinter will kindly bag pipe us again through the children’s parade.
But how to start? I was in a quandary until I thought about asking the dynamo that is Voena. A famous children’ chorus from Benicia, they have performed at the Whitehouse and at the 2012 Olympics. I thought for sure they should visit a beaver festival. I dusted off my manners and pitched my best volley and guess what? The visionary director Annabelle Marie wants the children to be there! So for the first time in our history they will start the day.
VOENA “Sumbaie” from VOENA on Vimeo.
So far so good, but I still hadn’t heard from our sound guru John Koss that he could be there again. Since there’s so many things to set into motion at the same time that there’s a part of organizing a festival that is a bit like the story of “Stone Soup”. You ask people for things based on the promise of other things coming that haven’t actually been secured yet. And if that doesn’t work you just ask for something else until it does work. Just between us. The pessimist in me thought wouldn’t be ironic if I got the full day of music lined up and then we had no audio? hahaha.
But of course he called the other night and wants very much to join us. So there art thou happy!
Here they are singing for Dr. Maya Angelou…
Meanwhile are valiant artist FRogard Schmidt is back after knee surgery and ready and willing to help, We schemed about the idea of having children water color the INSIDE of beaver lodges for the art project and when I suggested making the outline of the lodge for kids to fill in she roared with laughter and insisted no no no they would tear the paper themselves just like beavers into the correct shape.
She just sent these that some students did last week to practice.
Something tells me that part is going to come out just fine…
