Our last day…

We began our last day of tour by sleeping in. Nice! We arranged to have breakfast extended with a brunch menu of fresh Norwegian fish soup. Yum! Actually, it wasn’t until Mrs. O renamed it “seafood bisque” that the boys went for the fish soup.

We then headed to the park for another run around. It was just too beautiful not to enjoy it again. And there was one last bucket item left to check off – swimming in freezing Norwegian waters. Quite a few boys made the plunge. You had to go in over your head for it to count. Exhilarating! And really, really, really cold.

Then it was off to town. At the Polar Museum we enjoyed an Imax-like film on the Northern Lights (which unfortunately you can only see in winter) and Svalbard (been there done that), and then watched seals do tricks for food. Not unlike boys on tour. If you jump through the hoop boys, we’ll feed you.

From there we broke off into chap groups for last minute shopping and dinner. Some ate at the northern most Burger King in the world. Some ate at cafes. One group I heard got treated to a very nice dinner by their chaperone. Wait until that chaperone sees the credit card statement!

As for the infamous Grad Night, it came in two parts. The first involved the graduated and rising seniors and the second involved all those boys in high school. I can’t offer many more details than that, since what happens on Grad Night stays on Grad Night. But they were memorable outings.

The best part of our last day involved all the boys and all the staff and chaps. Yet another new tradition: “The Paper Plate Awards.” Any awards ceremony worth its salt has a performance or two. Ours began with the final scene from Ibsen’s masterpiece A Doll’s House. Our “Abington mob,” on their own initiative, decided to make their own history by staging the northernmost reading of the play. At any given moment during our time in Svalbard, you’d see them at it. You have to love these guys.

The challenge for the Paper Plate Awards was there was no one scene that included all the boys involved. So we did a bit of comedy sports. The final scene was selected, involving only the two main characters. The other actors could chose their favorite line of their character and interject it anywhere in the final scene. Hilarious. The curtain call went on for many minutes. The audience broken into the traditional Norwegian clap that signifies “more, more!” It was a rousing success.

Then, to the Awards. Every boy got at least one one. Some of the awards were silly. “Best PJs.” “Most intense card playing” Some were serous. “Best Tour Journal” “Most Improved Performance Focus” Those came with cash prizes. The big prize of the evening was the “KSB Tour Award” for the boy who personifies everything KSB stands for. His prize was the coveted polar bear drawing given to us on the Svalbard boat trip. Post-Award ceremony, we gave a second KSB Tour Award to a boy who has been a quiet but ever-present, steady, reliable, and most importantly, kind member of KSB. Going forward, this will be called the Ubuntu Award. Ubuntu, if you recall, is the South African word that means “a person is a person through other people.” It is a philosophy South Africans live by. It is not a coincidence that choral music is so important to South Africans. It is the perfect manifestation of ubuntu. Connectedness. Whole greater than the sum of the parts. Community. That’s what KSB strives to be. That’s the gift. More than the music, but only attainable through the power of music-making.

Of course, ubuntu went out the window when it came time for each big brother – little brother chap group to compete for the best performance of the Norwegian birthday song. The inventiveness of some was impressive. Others were impressive in how bad they were. The great part was seeing trebles and Grads working and singing together. And so in that way, ubuntu was at play. Each group, after their performance, received their official Norway pin, signifying the successful completion of tour. The pin will live on their Jacket, for all to see that they were part of the KSB 2012 Concert Tour to Norway and the Arctic Circle.

We finished the evening with important thank yous. To our chaperones who gave of their time and resources to care for the boys. It’s often a thankless job, but an essential one, without which we could not tour. (BTW: they all won the “Best Chaperone Award.”) To Martha, our fearless choir manager and author of our fantastic tour journal. To Mary Ann Case, our beloved membership coordinator and everyone’s choir mom – especially on tour. Fitz said lots of nice things about me and I said lots of nice things about him, and almost most of them are true. J

We closed out the tour with a final thought for the boys. Stephen Sondheim wrote a lyric I live by: “if life were only moments, you’d never know you had one.” Being a member of KSB takes commitment and dedication. We try to have fun all the time when making music, as Leonard Bernstein advocated, even when rehearsing music. But the reality is, sometimes its just plain hard work to meet the high choral standard of the Keystone State Boychoir. And that’s okay. It’s not supposed to be easy. Endeavors that are easy are usually fun, but are rarely special. What the Boychoir does is very special indeed. The “moments” are our reward, but they’re special because of the hard work, the sweat, and sometimes even tears, required. They’re also special because they don’t come every day. And many young people never experience such moments of achievement at such an early age. This taste of success will foster a desire for more successes, more achievement, more moments.

Our promise to the boys is, as long as they are willing to make the commitment to KSB, we the staff are committed to offering them unique life-changing musical, social, and cultural opportunities he cannot find anywhere else.

So job well done to the boys on representing their families, their choir, their city, state and country so well. Thank you to the parents who, with their leap of faith and trust, made all of these wonderful moments for their sons possible. I look forward to many more moments with them.

Peace.