Chamber and madrigal choirs´ weekend away

On Aug. 28th- Sep 1st, on Labor Day weekend, the chamber and madrigal choirs went on their annual retreat to Camp Wittle in the tall mountains of Big Bear as part of their yearly tradition. 

Art by Sara Polster

The goal of the retreat is to build community in the choir for all students and the teacher and to develop teamwork skills. It provided students with uninterrupted time to rehearse songs and refine musical knowledge, preparing singers for the upcoming year. 

Throughout the trip, the chamber and madrigal choirs split up into separate groups during rehearsals to work through songs or exercises. Even if they misstepped on a single note, they had to start over again in order to perfect their songs and dive deeper into the technicalities of the lyrics and rhythms. 

Alexandria Chaiet (’27), a singer in the Madrigal choir, reflected on the supportive environment within the groups. 

“Being put in the groups was helpful, because you can just focus on what your section is messing up on and you can go and clean up those mistakes,” Chaiet said. “You can get the same amount of teamwork in smaller groups as you can in larger groups.”

The students also engaged in a variety of games and physical activities, with one of the most memorable being ‘Human Foosball’, in which students held onto bars and attempted to kick the ball in the other goal, similar to regular foosball. If your team was able to kick the ball into the other team’s goal while holding onto the bar you would win a point. 

Singers also enjoyed the natural scenery that Big Bear and Camp Wittle had to offer. On Friday, Aug. 29, students from both choirs hiked up together to a lookout point to reflect as a choir on why they chose to and have continued to stay in choir. Many singers took this opportunity to reflect on how much they've enjoyed singing with the community that they've built. It also gave the choirs a chance to be vulnerable, talking through why it might have been hard to communicate with one another and what they can do to improve their relationships.

Outside of the hike, students enjoyed the outdoors by sitting around the fire together, bringing their guitars and singing group campfire songs, like ‘Kiss Me’ by Sixpence the Richer and other similar songs.

The Choir retreat offered a balance of work and non-work activities for the students, allowing each singer to learn new singing techniques and team-building skills. Without the retreat, singers would lack a basis of knowledge around the methods of connecting and working through the highs and lows with their choir.