66th Choir Festival. All images by Paul Goldfinger Blogfinger.net. 8/30/20. Click to enlarge. Pandemic roaring around the world. 2020.
Only 100 people were allowed to enter the Great Auditorium. In the GA there was a virtual presentation. After the first 100, the audience was directed to the grassy areas or the Tabernacle.
Some peered in through the open doors. Choir Festival. 2020.
Others sat around the periphery of the Auditorium. These were tenters. Blogfinger.net
A few wandered around Tent Village. The sounds of the Festival carried. Blogfinger.net
And from the Blogfinger Choir Festival, here is “Alma Redemptoris Mater.” By the nuns and Michael Bell from the World Premier recording of Showboat.
By Jean Bredin. Blogfinger.net reporter/photographer.
Bob and Bonnie Harley have been tenters all their lives. Bob’s father and mother, Jack and Helen Harley, were the occupants to this tent over 60 years ago.
I asked them how has it been in Tent Village this year?
“Very quiet, ” Bonnie replied. Maybe 85-90% occupied, but mostly weekenders. They reminisced about many things. There is much history to be found among the tenters.
Bob said he learned to swim in the Ocean Grove Pool at the North End.
Jean noted: “Jack Harley was the maestro of the Teaneck Bergen Chorus many years ago. My father was a member. Jack encouraged his singers to join the Ocean Grove Choir Festival, which my father did.”
“The next year I came down to sing. The rest is history. I am a year round resident of Ocean Grove.”
Here’s an arrangement that Jack probably would appreciate. It’s Max Raabe with the Das Palast Orchester performing in Carnegie Hall: “Singing in the Rain.”