We had a blast in Whistler!
By Clare
We had such a great time playing for all in Whistler! Thank you all for coming to hear us last night! The laughter and the fun interactions made this concert so memorable for us!
On the day of the concert, I taught one lesson in the morning. The father of the student actually was quite concerned for us traveling to Whistler after the lesson because the was a snowfall warning and it was raining quite heavily already when they were on the way to the lesson. So following his advice, we left maybe 5 hours before the concert and started heading to Whistler.
It was a good idea! As we were on the highway in Vancouver, huge flakes of snow started coming down. Later when we got to the mountain heading up, it definitely looked like white Christmas! (I was joking on the way that including The Nutcracker Suite in the program is so perfect!) Everyone was driving very carefully and cautiously, and no one was trying to pass anyone on the road. I have to say it was really beautiful though! (And you can probably tell, I wasn’t the one driving, so I had time to enjoy the scenery! Haha)
When we got to Whistler, it was definitely snowing heavily. We were a little early, so we were relieved! And we were also grateful for one of the directors’, Jane’s, offer for us to practice a bit at her place before heading to the Maury Young Arts Centre where we were giving the concert later. We were told the residents in Whistler are quite used to the snow! Haha… Sadly because we don’t ski, we had only been to Whistler a couple of times. (One time was to listen to VSO, and the other was our concert in 2018!)
Usually we don’t tend to eat right before the concert, but because we left early and had only some soup right before we left home, we were both so hungry! So we found a little cafe and got ourselves a sandwich. We both got a turkey sandwich, and right after placing the order, Scott said “doesn’t turkey make you sleepy? I read in an article that turkey makes you sleepy!” I looked at him wondering why he couldn’t have said something earlier…….haha….thanks……. Oh well, it was good!
Sound check
Our green room - 5 minutes before going on stage!
When we finished the first piece on the program, we right away felt the energy and the excitement of the audience! This is the beauty of performing live concerts! And because of that, we became more excited! We included a variety of genres in this program, a few beautiful pieces, a few energetic and exciting pieces, some funny moments, some serious pieces! The audiences were responsive, and we were even more excited when many asked us questions at the end of the concerts where we were able to share beyond music! That was definitely one of the most memorable concerts for us!
Oh yeah, one more thing…when we got in Vancouver we messaged one of the directors to let her know we were okay and safe, she told us that very soon after we said goodbye to each other at the arts centre, they saw a black bear heading our way where we parked! Haha…. we didn’t see the bear! Though I was curious to see a real bear, I guess it was good we didn’t come across it!
Special thanks to Whistler Chamber Music Society for having us back! We had a wonderful time! Thank you to all who came to see us, and we hope to see you again soon!
