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View a Convention Photo Review Read Dr. Blair R. Monie's sermon |
As the dust settles on Sounds and Spaces in Dallas …
The three and one-half day convention seemed like two weeks. Exhibits were open until midnight and buses loaded at 8:15 a.m. in the morning. There were 246 registrants with the majority of them living in Region VII, but others had traveled from California, Florida, Maryland, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, and New Hampshire to experience the “Sounds and Spaces” of Dallas’ new organs and buildings. Dennis Elwell brought greetings from the National Council wearing his hat as Councillor for Conventions. Madolyn Fallis was her usual effervescent self as Region VII Councillor.
The opening concert featured the Orpheus Chamber Singers using the space at Cathedral Guadalupe to exquisite heights and the closing concert was sung by the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas with the UNT Collegium Musicum delighting us with French and Peruvian music in between. The organ concerts were as varied as there were players. It was a smorgasbord of delights no matter what your personal preference was.
Only those chosen few who have hosted a previous convention know the amount of work and the overwhelming number of details that have to be considered in order to make things run like clock work. The local Dallas Chapter membership came out in force at the last to volunteer as bus captains, greeters, ushers, go-fers, and did it with a smile.
I received an e-mail from Bill Fox, a Region VII AGO member from Arkansas which says in part: “I’ve just finished my 5 hour drive home, thinking all the while about the great time I had. Wonderful players, wonderful instruments, beautiful spaces … The entire event was amazingly carefree for all of us who were not ‘working.’ I’m sure there were some problems somewhere, but they were never obvious. The closing banquet last night sent us all off on the perfect note. Thanks again for everything you, your committee and the Dallas Chapter members did for all the rest of us. It was GREAT!”
Thank you Bill, and thank ALL of you who attended and made this an event the Dallas Chapter will savor for years to come. I urge you all to mark your calendars NOW so that we can “Escape to Enchantment” at the 2009 Region VII Convention in Albuquerque and Santa Fe from June 28-July 1. Visit their web site at www.agoabq.org to see what they have planned for us.
David Stinson, Coordinator