Campus choral groups travel to Bass Lake for retreat, bonding

Continuing a six-year tradition, the Cantiamo concert choir and newly formed chamber choir departed to Bass Lake for the annual choir retreat, Sept. 7. Students learned different repertoires while participating in class activities and rehearsing songs for fall festivals. 

Entering her 19th year teaching on campus, music director Susan Ainley aims for students to grow closer at the retreat. Ainley’s goal is to build a unified sound on the risers as well as establish trust among students.

“It’s more about making friendships than learning songs,” Ainley said. “Once students get to know each other better, they trust each other more on the risers creating a better sound.” 

During the retreat, students rehearsed for their upcoming fall festivals in October and November. Both choirs will sing at Fresno State and the chamber choir will travel to Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Nov. 1.

“I think about how I ask everyone not to just sing together, but to have a unified sound,” Ainley continued. ‘I don’t think I can expect students to give sufficient effort to sing with beautiful tone unless they like and trust each other. Retreat is the starting point of that trust.”

In the following podcast, Celeste Castaneda interviews junior Riley Goldsborough about his experience at the choir retreat, Sept. 19.

Both choirs rehearsed at The Little Church in the Pines in Bass Lake Village. Most students view choir as vocally focused, but some students attended the retreat with a mindset beyond singing.

As a first-year choir member, junior Riley Goldsborough viewed the retreat as an opportunity to bond with fellow vocalists and team members.

“Of course choir includes lots of singing,” Goldsborough said. “But I think to be able to sing together well, you have to get to know the people in the choir. And I think choir retreat helped a lot with that.”

After a two-hour rehearsal, both choirs walked to the DeGroot family cabin for a barbeque lunch. The DeGroots have allowed choir groups to visit their cabin over the past five years. After eating, students went out on the lake to participate in different water activities. 

Some activities included surfing, tubing or kayaking; many students attempted water sports for the first time. Goldsborough shares how he feels choir members connected with one another over aquatic challenges. 

“I really liked getting to know a few of the people in choir better and I hadn’t really ever gone tubing before and that was really fun,” Goldsborough said. “I went tubing which was a really great time and I went on the paddle board.”

Those who were in Cantiamo last year and are now in chamber choir had to adjust to the change of not working on their own music, but that of Cantiamo’s during the retreat. The women’s Bellezza ensemble combined with the chamber choir this year and students strive to adjust to the mixed group. Ainley and the students are still considering a name for the chamber choir.

Hannah Villines, ‘21, attended choir retreat as a chamber choir member. Since fifth grade Villines has participated in choir.

“The only thing I would say that was a little bit different and hard was that we didn’t work on any of the chamber choir songs,” Villines said. “And we only worked on the choir songs, so we had to kind of adjust to that. However, other than that it was pretty much the same.” 

Beyond the bonding at choir retreat, Ainley has many more goals for both Cantiamo and chamber choir. 

“Having a retreat really bring a team mentality to the group,” Ainley said. “It was such a surprise at first to see how much the students love going to retreat, but I can totally see how valuable it is to sing and play outside the classroom environment. I always sense that the students come back from the retreat ready to learn more difficult music.” 

After eating dinner, the students walked out onto the dock at the cabin to reflect. Ainley encouraged students to keep up the hard work and ended the night by singing “Down to the River to Pray” before returning home. 

Cantiamo will be performing the National Anthem at the home football game, Sept. 27, and chamber choir will be singing at the homecoming game, Oct. 4. Both choirs will also perform during the fall music concert in the Peoples Church main auditorium, 7 p.m., Oct. 21. The Cantiamo and chamber choir will then participate in the FSU Festival, Oct. 23 or 24, the exact date has yet to be announced.

For more articles, read FC welcomes families to the 28th annual Grandparent’s Day and Spotlight Productions: Newsies musical open all campus auditions.

Celeste Castaneda can be reached via email.