Choir Camp Day 3

Day 3 is coming to a close. Choristers started the day with some energetic gospel music singing the theme to “The Jeffersons” which woke them up pretty fast! Who doesn’t love the energy of gospel music? Ending this morning’s rehearsal was some choreography to “Jump” from Glee. Energy must have been the theme to this morning’s rehearsal to get campers ready for an afternoon full of off campus performances.

After eating lunch, we headed to give a special cameo performance at the Erie Art Museum’s Mid Day Art Break. This performance set the tone for great performances to come. The audience really responded to the various TV theme songs and was eager to vote for us when they heard we were in the running for a $25,000 Pepsi Refresh Grant!

Next was a performance at Sarah Reed Retirement Center where we gave a performance for their residents. Following Sarah Reed was the Erie Zoo where we met many parents, Zoo patrons and a news crew. The concert went great and included a crowd-pleasing performance of the theme from “Sponge Bob Square Pants.” After the performance ended, campers got to explore the zoo with their chaperones. The weather was ideal and campers loved being able to see all the animals.

Tomorrow, campers will wake up early to give a live performance on WICU’s Morning Show at 6am. Be sure to tune in to the program to see the campers sing on live TV!

Choir Camp Day 2

Day 2 of choir camp was so much fun. Campers were busy making new friends, learning new vocal technique, and memorizing tons of music and lyrics. Learning TV theme songs seems like an easy task, but when put into a one-week setting with over a dozen songs, it’s quite difficult and these choristers are accepting the challenge like true professionals!

As most of you know by now, YPC Erie is in the middle of an intense Pepsi Refresh Project campaign where we are competing for $25,000 to send us to the World Choir Games. Our choristers know what it would mean for us if we won this grant, so they are actively helping us get votes! We are taking 30 minutes per day and asking our older choristers with cell phones and facebook to vote for us and help bring in the votes from their friends. We are currently in 10^th place, and this is much due to the hard work of our choristers.

We ended our evening tonight with a brilliant performance at the Millcreek Mall. Over 100 people watched and listened to the performance by our campers. The campers have had this music for less than 36 hours and received a roaring applause that could be heard all across the mall.

Tomorrow, our campers are giving a cameo performance at the Erie Art Museum’s Mid Day Art Break at 1pm, followed by performances at Sarah Reed Retirement Center and the Erie Zoo. We hope to see you tomorrow, but if not, we hope you are able to come to our family carnival on Saturday from 10:30-noon outside of the Reed Union Building on the Penn State campus and then for our final camp performance (with lots of surprises) at 12 noon!

YPC Erie Parent Blogs about Pepsi Refresh

The Pepsi Refresh challenge is a great way for Young People’s Chorus of Erie to earn money to help offset the costs of their trip to Cincinnati for the World Choir Games! By voting every day, every way, choristers, parents, siblings, friends, etc. can ensure that we’re one of the top 15 organizations at the end of the month! It’s simple and doesn’t cost a thing. The POWER VOTE codes, found on Pepsi products, are also a key to success. These codes provide from 5 to 100 extra votes!

As a YPC parent, I am doing my best to maximize my “voting power” and continue to remind my family, friends and colleagues to do the same. Many of the choristers rely on scholarships to assist with the costs of being a YPC member and may not have the means to fully pay for a weeklong trip. The Pepsi Refresh grant would ensure that the trip is affordable for everyone.

These young people have an amazing talent and the quality of their performances exceeds that of many college choirs! To showcase this ability to the world choir community is something they truly deserve and appreciate.

-Deb Turk

I'll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places...

Hello everyone! I am so excited to see you all in a month. Can you believe it, a month!! This will be my 2nd YPC Erie Choir Camp and I am thrilled to be a part of it again. When I transferred up to Erie for school, I was very anxious about not being a part of something or not fitting in. Then, one day, Dr. Bishop asked me to be a rehearsal assistant for YPC and I found a family to be a part of. I cannot wait to see all your shining faces and to hear you do what you do best, sing! I get the best feeling in the world when I listen to you sing. Seeing all of you new and returning choir camp members come together and do what you love for a week is one of the greatest experiences I have had. I am sure all of you will feel the same. We are all one big family, joined together by music, and it's a wonderful thing. I feel like a momma hen when I'm there, because I am so proud of all of you for what you accomplish at camp. All the camp counselors have been talking about this week for a very long time and we are all looking forward to reuniting with you and meeting some of you for the first time!

I'll be seeing you,

Danielle

Reflections from Past Choir Camps...

YPC Erie Choir Camp is not only a time to grow as a family, as a singer, and as an individual, it is a time to reflect on life. Choir Camp not only helped me to enhance qualities like leadership, communication and patience, it allowed me to create lifelong connections. I have never been to a more meaningful camp in my entire life. I always look forward to the week in August- to me it's more exciting that Christmas. I love being able to spend so much of each day singing, laughing, making new friends and strengthening my old friendships. Those that attend Choir Camp always inspire me to be a better person, to work harder and to love more deeply. Not only do you get to learn amazing music, you get to learn things about yourself and develop skills that you will carry with you for the rest of your life. Reflecting back on my past 2 years of Choir Camp I can see how much I have grown, and have watched the YPC Erie family grow- and I can't wait to see what this year brings. I'm counting down the days, and hope that you are too.

Below I'm including some of my favorite singing/choir quotes, and some of my favorite photos from Choir Camp!

With love and song,
Sarah Mobley

"Those who wish to sing always find a song."
"I don't sing because I'm happy; I'm happy because I sing." ~William James
"Life is a song. Love is the music."
"What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories." ~George Eliot

Come On, Come All

When I was in middle and high school, summer music camps were the highlight of my year. There is something exciting about one week straight of great music making with old and new friends. The friends that I made at these camps went on to become some of my best friends that I still talk to and see to this day. Spending a week with a group of people with similar interests and drive makes the experience even more worthwhile.

Consider the reasons you love music.

Do you love to sing because you can express yourself?
Because you enjoy the collaboration with other individuals?
Because of your drive for success and mastery?
Because of the people you sing with?

Well... if you answered yes to any of these then it is clear that camp is for you. You will get to experience all of these on an all new level. I hope to see you all there and share in making my first camp experience with YPC Erie a great one!

Mr. Rich Basler, YPC Erie Director of Community Engagement

Come and Knock on Our Door. . .

Hey guys and gals, camp is exactly one month away and I cannot wait! (Hopefully all of your registrations are in by now…) The thing that excites me the most is seeing a bunch of you guys come in, some knowing each other and some not, but all leaving with a feeling of family- and what a family to be a part of! I like to think of myself as that one uncle you can tell anything to and he’ll totally understand where you’re coming from. But that’s just me- you have all of the other rock star counselors to be able to talk to day or night, be it for a laugh on Monday or a shoulder to cry on that last day. We are all very excited to get to spend a week with you all again, and meeting some of you for the first time. We all know the main reason why we are here, but just as important are the friendships and experiences we all make together over the course of several days. For better or best, we’re in this together and we will all inspire one another to try harder than we think possible, have more fun than we can imagine, and all the while gaining a good hard look at just what we are capable of when we put our collective minds together. As they say, two heads are better than one but as I say, 100 heads are even better than that.

See y’all soon!

Mike (aka Ducky)