The Chattanooga Girls Choir

An Open Letter to the Parents from Our Choir Director, Ed Huey:

September 1998

Dear Girls Choir Family,

It's hard to believe that summer is gone and it is time for another concert season with the girls choir.

Our tour to New York turned out to be a great success. Ramona McEntyre [the choir's 1998 tour director] should be nominated for sainthood for all her work and relentless attention to details that made the trip so wonderful for our girls.

The first news we received after we checked in at the Atlanta airport was that our flight to New Jersey had been canceled. We were booked on succeeding flights; however, they too were canceled because of the bad weather in NJ. In fact, we were only eleven and a half hours late. The girls were intrepid travelers. I am really impressed with the flexibility they show if things do not go exactly as planned.

It was interesting to see the population of this great metropolis as they fearlessly entered traffic every day as drivers and pedestrians. The word gridlock has a whole new meaning in NY. Our bus drivers were amazing. They knew NJ and NY well, and even knew alternate routes to facilitate our arrival at specific destinations.

The service at St. Peter's Lutheran Church was excellent. Thomas Schmidt, the organist, sent us a letter after our return. He was complimentary of the choir, its sound and performance, and for our attentive participation in the service. The Chalice that we presented to St. Peter's is being used in daily noontime communion services.

Did we tell you we were in a parade? The Puerto Rican Day parade. Over a million were in attendance. We observed a wide variety of human types among the parade goers, including a person with an extremely large boa constrictor wrapped around his neck! New York has something for everyone. Our lunch at Hard Rock Cafe was postponed for a few days because of the delay in reaching the restaurant on time.

Our visit to the Empire State Building was interesting. The rain and fog had not yet cleared up. When we reached the top of the building to feast our eyes on the NY skyline lighting up for the evening we were greeted by fog so thick that the visibility was zero! You could see the guard rail and fencing, but nothing beyond that.

Central Park (Strawberry Fields), an informal concert at Lincoln Center (Damrosch Shell), American Museum of Natural History, Statue of Liberty, shopping at Sak's, Macy's, Bloomingdales, dinner at Lombardi's Pizza, a performance of Judy, Judy, Judy (a fabulous tribute to Judy Garland with an international cast of actors, musicians, and directors who had worked with Judy), a United Nations tour -- we had an ambitious itinerary, and Ramona saw to it that we saw all we could of the Big Apple.

While at Lincoln Center, we sat in on a rehearsal in progress of Sweet Charity, starring Shirley McClain. Also on stage were Dom DeLouise, Jack Klugman, and some said Whoopie Goldberg. At Carnegie Hall be made our debut. We sang Penny Tullock's arrangement of "How Can I Keep From Singing." Jennifer Blassingame made her debut as Soloist! The sound was fabulous!

After dinner at Planet Hollywood Wednesday evening, we went to see Phantom of the Opera. There is no theater like NY theater. The show is continually sold out, but we had great seats. The cast was wonderful, the special effects unbelievable, and everyone cried at the end. How could you spend a better evening?

The cathedral at St. John's Cathedral was wonderful. It is the world's largest gothic cathedral; again the sound was incredible. The concert at Riverside Church was very interesting. The church is in an office building. They have daily services at noon. Those who work in the building may attend if they wish. As the concert progressed our attendance grew; many stayed the whole lunch hour and missed lunch to hear the choir. As we neared the end of the concert people began to sing along and clap! It turns out that the church has a gospel choir, and they sing "The Storm is Passing Over." It was a wonderful concert. The girls really got into it, and the audience really got into it, and a large time was had by all.

New York, New York, the town they loved so much they had to name it twice. A large contribution to the success of the tour was made by the chaperones. Without them, none of this could happen. They were unflappable, and flexible. Thanks to all of you that made this possible.

Next year London, the Bournemouth Festival, and Paris!

Ed Huey

At the Bronx Zoo: Chaperones Pat Jones and Amy Campbell with Wendy, Krista, Alyson, and Dani

Last update: 9/16/99

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