Observations from Lori Carroll - August 5th

I've been a performing musician for 40 years. (Well, 45 if you count the solos I sang at my kindergarten graduation.) But yesterday I had one of the most - if not THE most - moving experiences of my musical life.

After teaching music classes at Slovene Camp, which were fun but not as successful as our first ones (in my opinion, it was because of the change in barometric pressure after the previous night's thunderstorm and the resulting cooler - YAY - weather), a small group of us were just standing around in the large classroom. Besides myself, it was Michaella Calzaretta, Kate Johnson, Ric Smith and Ali, one of the Shropshire volunteers. We sort of slowly started singing rounds - 3 and 4-part - and it just kept getting better. We were so in tune...not just musically, but emotionally and mentally. There we were in a room that was built (I think) for the refugees' cooking and laundry facilities, but is now devoid of anything but 4 concrete walls, some nailed-shut windows, a low ceiling, and a filthy tiled floor. All of that disappeared from my consciousness, because the sound in there was amazing. (Italics and boldface, I'm sure, won't help to convey what I mean by that word.) We sang all the songs we've been teaching the kids. They always do a good job in an innocent-sounding way. Suddenly, though, there were 5 voices with fair amounts of training and experience that blended like the best colors, textures, feelings, that you can imagine.

At some point, Keith Porter started recording (with good equipment). By the time we stopped, we were all flushed and euphoric. Then we listened to the recording on Keith's headphones, which is very different from what you hear when you're actually singing. It felt as if I was seeing the face of God.

Amazing.