December 10, 2018

Spartanburg, SC

I’m writing this on a flight from Philadelphia to Charlotte, NC, from where we’re going to hop into rental cars and drive the final hour to Spartanburg, SC where we have a concert tonight. It will be our 6th concert of the tour, and the 4th out of 5 in a row (all requiring a flight in the morning).

Tours like this are great fun in lots of ways — we cover lots of ground and meet so many people around North America, and it’s great to sing the same programme a few times and to continue working on honing it to perfection — but it has its pitfalls too. We don’t get very long in each place, so even though we are in some wonderful places we only have a matter of hours to get a flavour!

Two things I’m particularly looking forward to on this trip are: Chicago, which is a city I really like (although I’ve never been in winter, and it’s plenty cold enough even in spring!), and Toronto, which I’ve visited twice and really enjoyed both times. The day in Toronto after our concert in its beautiful Koerner Hall, will be our only non-singing day from now until the end of the trip, so a valuable chance to temporarily unwind, rest up and enjoy being in such a great city.

Today, one of our jobs is to plan this year’s KS Secret Santa. As well as gifts, this also involves something creative like a poem or a motto reflecting the recipient. I can’t wait to see what the creative mission is this year. I’m voting for a rap, mainly because I desperately want to see my colleagues each deliver a rap during the gift-giving.