Choir retreats to Thousand Pines

Choir's Holiday concert will be held at Calvary Church in Santa Ana on Dec. 17. Photo by Tue Duong.
Choir’s Holiday concert will be held at Calvary Church in Santa Ana on Dec. 17. Photo by Tue Duong.

Concert Choir and Troubadours traveled to Crestline for their annual fall retreat at Thousand Pines Convention Center, from Nov. 15  to Nov. 18.

“The fall retreat is a time for us to get a significant amount of rehearsal time on our music for our Holiday Concert,” said choir director, Kevin Tison. “We practiced over 20 hours during the three days that we were there.”

However, between the many hours of practice, the choir members were still able to have fun and enjoy their time away from school with several group activities that had been prepared for the trip.

Brandon Doan (’15) said, “We had a bunch of team building activities, relay race type of events to confidence courses such as rock climbing and zip lining. We also had free time to play basketball and tell scary stories.”

Although Concert Choir is a large group with over 70 members and the Troubadours actually stayed a day longer than Concert Choir, the retreat gave Concert Choir and Troubadours an opportunity to bond with those they already knew and those they had not met yet during the times they were not rehearsing their holiday songs.

“As a first year member, it was the most fun I’ve had in a while,” stated Emerald Nguyen (’15). “The area was beautiful; I made a lot of new friends and I got into the spirit of Christmas,”

Because of the hours of rehearsal and preparation the hard working choir put in for the Holiday Concert, Tison said, “I think [the choir] is going to be spectacular. I think everybody should be there.”

The Holiday Concert will be held on Dec. 17 at the Calvary Church in Santa Ana.