"Tour is not for the faint of heart"

The title is a quote from Christy and how true it is! Tour can be tiring but so worth it. This particular tour was terrific in so many ways! Hopefully your singer has come home and shared their many wonderful experiences in NYC. I think one of the nicest things about tour is how we all grow closer together. Hopefully many of our singers and even chaperones will stay in touch while we are not in our regular season and before you know it we will all be meeting in our new studio to create beautiful music together that we can share with others! Thank-you again parents for trusting us with your singer and allowing them to experience something special!
Kim

Pics

Rehearsal at Carnegie

A chilly walk to Carnegie

Our audience!

Just a few of our awesome chaperones!!!

the dance floor on the boat

Sweet Moto girls with flowers for Christy

Anything Can Happen When You Let It...

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
― quote on the Statue of Liberty

They did it! Allegro gave an exceptional performance as part of the Children's Festival Chorus at Carnegie Hall this afternoon. I even noticed that several audience members were moved to tears (I won't mention any names!) Today was the reward for all of their hard work.

After their performance we took a break before leaving on buses with the other choirs for our harbor tour. Although it was cold and rainy we still had a good time enjoying lots of food, music and dancing and views of the city from the water. We sailed past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty - a beacon of light shining amidst the rain and cold. After, we gave each person $10 to find more food - most chose pizza. We have all done our fair share of eating while we were here!

Tomorrow we head home after a great time in NYC. All families are making choices as to how they wish to spend their final hours here. Some of us will wake up early to walk to the Today Show and Top of the Rock while others are sleeping in or shopping before heading to the airport for our return flight. See you soon!

Another fun day... but oh, so cold!

Waiting outside the New Amsterdam Theater

Inside the theater - beautiful space and terrific show! 

Some famous actors walking the streets of New York City

Wating on the #2 metro train

Subway fun!

Wall Street gang

9/11 Memorial

Wearing some NYC purchases

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Today we were able to get a bit more sleep as the kids had rehearsal at 9am allowing the chaperones some time to explore. Several returned with heavier loads and lighter wallets! We gave "Mary Poppins" a standing ovation today! It was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Especially fun was the high energy "Step in Time" number in which the character Bert even scaled the sides and ceiling of the stage dancing upside down! There are so many great messages in this show. One of my favorite quotes was "If you reach for the stars, you get only stars-if you reach for the Heavens, you get the stars thrown in!" Navigating travel seems to be a daily theme with our tour. Not only are the elevators tricky in our hotel, but today we experienced the New York subway. We took it to see the 9/11 Memorial. It is difficult to choose the right words to convey the feeling of standing and reading the names of all of the people who lost their lives. They are inscribed in bronze and surround the pools with 30 foot waterfalls that descend into a center void. There is also a "Survivor Tree". It is a Callery pear tree that was planted on the original Trade Center plaza in the 70's. After 9/11 it was found in the wreckage at Ground Zero. It was nursed back to health and grew to be 30 feet tall, sprouting new branches and flowering in the springtime so we got to see it in all it's glory! Kim

Goodnight from NYC!

Today we (all 119 of us!) learned how to walk in NYC without getting in the way of other New Yorkers and without getting hit. We tried to hold true to the meaning of our Allegro name by being lively and quick as we moved ourselves through the streets. We have been SO very lucky to have Tim DeSett as our own personal guide today taking us safely to our destinations. Thank-you Tim!

We spent this afternoon at the Central Park Zoo. The weather couldn't have been more perfect to watch the sea lions, penguins, red pandas, snow leopard, and the birds and critters in the tropic house. After the zoo we walked back to the hotel via famous 5th Avenue passing The Plaza Hotel, Trump Tower, and several famous stores (FAO Schwartz, Apple, Abercrombie...).  Our singers headed straight into rehearsal with the Lawrence Children's Choir and 2 other choirs from Texas and Orlando.

After being awake for MANY hours several of us might have even preferred to head straight to bed without dinner however, we headed to Ellen's Stardust Diner...what FUN! We had the top floor of the restaurant that overlooked the lower level and NYC outside the windows. There was constant entertainment by aspiring broadway performers while we were served dinner. We heard many show tunes  and even some songs from the 70's and 80's that brought back a few memories for some of us. Our group was so engaged and singing along that we were asked to perform before we left. Moto sang "No Hidin' Place" for the crowd.

We headed back under the lights of Radio City Music Hall and Times Square. I think we all feel like we are a part of "the city that never sleeps" as we have all been awake for so long!

Pics from NYC!

Who's Watching Who?!

Fun at the Zoo

Ready For Rehearsal

Radio City Music Hall

NYC

Waiting on the corner to enter Ellen's Stardust Diner

"I'm A Soul Man"

"No Hidin' Place"