The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1955-07-21

1
choir sailed for home aboard
Miss Brown is the daughter of
"We are receiving a great deal
of attention from the Press
dozens Of 'em-and the crowds
have gotten to like us. There were
$4,000 admissions paid on Wed
nesday, July 6. The tent holds
5000 a wonderful sight to
stand before them! Loud speak
ers all over the place carry
sound with very little distortion
except if you are too close -
then they are too loud. The
judges are where they can't hear
loud speakers, but they are so
close they can hear too much!
They are very objective, fair and
discerning. A bit given to literal
ness, but that we expected.
The experiences yesterday,
Thursday, will last forever for
all of US. Our No. 13 youth choir
sang in the 18th position. After
we sang there was a terrific ex-
plosion of applause. These people
all Judge The Press came to me
afterwards and said "The old
timers have you listed to win.
/ May we stay here until the
results are announced to get your
statement?" The group just
ahead of us were tremendous
very significant work and others
were outstanding. | knew we had
done our best but l had no way
of knowing how we sounded.
have the worst seat in the
hall.
We'll, we were given second!
Honestly, I'd rather get last
place in that kind of company
than first place in the usual. 1t
is no dishonor here to rank
second. We've been besieged by
autograph hunters and compli-
mented sincerely by so many.
Gwyn Williams, after our ap-
pearances on concert last night,
said, I have been brought by
your choir a whole new concept
of American composing and per-
formance standards - it is Of
the highest He is the honorary
| music director - a top man here
in music and publishing. The
genius back of the Eisteddfod.
1t is all geared to international
good will and it works. The
| judges made us very happy with
their criticisms first statement.
This choir's whole performance
can he summed up in one word
- Message Then they went
on and said we don't know their
| personal lives but from what we
hear they really love each other,
the entire audience and even the
| judges They commented on our
staying power on long phrases,
etc. Criticism that several voices
were a bit rough - they were
| too close to miss this - we know
it is true, but we can cover it
| usually in a concert.
After our arrival, we found
they had booked us for every
nights concert - Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday and Saturday
instead of one. And we were also
chosen for BBC-TV broadcast on
stage. We've done four other
BBC shows so far.
"Out of 27 female choirs' we
ranked fifth in grade, but three
tied for fourth so we are eighth
- next after us five points
away,
"Just back after another tough
day, l wrote a piece for the
Echo today - comes out tomor-
row - Carol Pierce (Columbus)
took third in piano. A marvel,
since she had so little time or
place to practice (40 contest
ants). Eleanor Brown (Caldwell)
took second in soprano go con-
| testants). 1t is signal honor for
both girls and for us!
"We were put on BIC again
for tonight's concert. So that's
five and tomorrow the men are
taping a show for them in the
morning (six). Mems contest
tomorrow.
eve just learned We came in
fifth in the open chorus. After
we sang | felt we were up close.
There were % choruses in this
and some magnificent ones -
most of the chOirs were 70 and
| 80 in strength. This is higher
than | expected until today. For
we sang as we'll as we've sung
Our youth was against US since
most of these were older and
mature singers around 35 years
old.-Not always an sasset.
Tomorrow is another chance
I We were only five points behind
the winner! Isn't that rough?
had so much wanted to bring
the beautiful trophy back tc
present to our splendid sponsors
| We were SO close twice.