By Madison Mullen '19
On Sunday, September 18th, the Ursuline Choral Group gathered with the Xaverian Chorus for a day-long retreat, joining together both spiritually and in song. This event was run by the music directors from each school, Mrs. Glancy, our recently renamed Head of Fine Arts, and Mr. Brodeur, Xaverian's music director. On this retreat, not only was music made, but the students also took part in many different activities designed to unite our communities. As is part of our Catholic tradition, the day started off in prayer, centering everyone and bringing them closer to God and their call to music. Once this ended, they began to get to know one another with icebreakers, and then worked on individual musical pieces for each school. Next, they moved to Mrs. Glancy's specialty, Scottish dancing, in pairs. Following this were humorous skits performed by small groups, with each group of kids showing off their musical talents in a unique way. Lunch was then served, during which the conversation turned to each member stating his or her background and reason for their affiliation with music. This was more of a contemplative time, a period in which the students grew closer to one another, discovering the true depth and love of music within each other.
Of course, after every quiet activity, the energy comes out and that's when the competitive events began. First there was a Music Teacher Iron Chef bake-off between both of the music directors. Sadly, Ursuline lost, to what we say was due to the lack of population in comparison to Xaverian! They had one more student than we did! Following this was an intense soccer tournament. Xaverian unfortunately won once again, even with the slight mixing up of the teams at one point, but fun was had by all. Finally, the day ended just the way it started, in prayer and in song. The participants spent the entirety of this time by working on musical pieces for their upcoming concert scheduled for Thursday, February 2, 2017.
Overall, this was a very entertaining event, getting the brother and sister schools to meet one another and share in a shared passion of music with each other. They really expressed themselves in everything they did and in addition to the upcoming concert, they plan to meet up a few more times to sing and catch up as a community. All involved would like to thank Mrs. Glancy and Mr. Brodeur for everything they did to make this possible. 