Reinforcements Arrive!

Slowly but surely, more Mesilla Valley Chorale members are starting to arrrive in France. These two happen to be my brother and sister (Mike McFee and Cathy Boeker), but I was still happy to see them! We took the opportunity to do a little sightseeing, and our tourguide took this picture of us. We haven't been spending ALL our time sightseeing - we've been looking at the music too! Once Nancy arrives we'll try to avail ourselves of her expertise as well. By the way, again for those of you who may not be familiar with the group, Nancy Ritchey (our Chorale Director) brings a rich and diverse background to her leadership of the group. She graduated from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, is a skilled accompanist and choral director, who majored in voice performance and studied at the Mozarteum in Salsburg, Austria. She teaches voice and piano privately and also serves as Music Director for the Wellspring Church. I think there is not much question as to her devotion to music! Mike and I are both waiting anxiously for her to arrive so she can tutor us. We did note, however, that Ruth Ann Hanlin, one of the assistant directors of the chorale, is being hosted by the same family as Mike and I and we suspect that there was some reason behind that - so that RUTH ANN could help us out discreetly! Mike and I would both like to publicly thank Judy Bethmann (also an assistant director) AND Alegra Alexander as well, who graciously 'volunteered' (or did we 'commandeer'...) their time after the initial rehearsal in Las Cruces to help us through much of the music.