Show Choir Community
Events
2009 Season 
Viterbo 101 2009
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January 10th, 2009
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Venue Info
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Viterbo University
Fine Arts Center
815 South 9th Street
La Crosse, WI 54601
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Phone: (608) 796-3737
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Event Details
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Number of Attending Choirs:
11 Mixed Groups
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Event Hosts:
Viterbo University "Platinum Edition"
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Event Judges:
Unknown
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Tickets
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Ticket prices unknown.
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Map
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Viterbo 101 2009 |
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No members signed up for this event.
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You had a solid show and you're also one of those groups who consistently makes finals. Oh, and Company loves you, so of course we were cheering for you 
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Overall, Viterbo was a disappointing competition where no one choir seemed to take the next step to really claim the championship title. Some choirs were certainly more polished than others, but on the whole I would only enjoy watching half of the finalists' shows another time. Following are my thoughts on the groups I saw.
Linn Mar:
This is a group that I have wanted to see live for some time. Watching past shows online, I have never enjoyed the show design and think the choreography is some of April James's strangest work. However Linn Mar always seems to sing beautifully and I respect the level of their musicianship. I thought that perhaps seeing Linn Mar in person may reveal some aspect to their shows that I've been missing, but I found the group just as aesthetically displeasing in person as online.
I understand their winning the competition, and do think they deserved to place within the top two, but with their exceedingly strange costuming and movement I can not like any of what they presented. Maybe there are those out there to whom a Linn Mar set makes sense, I'm just not one of those people.
Johnston:
This group presented a great diversity of material. Much like Cedar Rapids Xavier at Onalaska, most of it worked while none of it made sense strung together. Also like Cedar Rapids Xavier, the group has reached a high level of performance for this early point in the season and will probably go on to be very successful. Johnston gave the best ballad performance at Viterbo and overall gave Linn Mar a good challenge for the vocal caption, but they were also one of the least clean groups in finals and I wasn't surprised to see them place second to Linn Mar.
Hastings:
Performing the most entertaining show at Viterbo finals, Hastings was a very easy choir to sit back and enjoy. I'd also say they were the one group with the best combination of vocal and movement elements, and considering how very clean they were the choreography caption was well deserved. The issue I took with Hastings set was that it was almost too polished. By that, I mean that it seemed the group could have been more ambitious. The show was fun and I was entertained from start to finish, but it only hit on one level and I did not feel that it had much room to grow through the season.
Waconia:
Watching Waconia live for the first time, it seemed to me that they strive to be a fun choir. They want to be the group that makes you stand up and cheer after their set, that puts a smile on your face for the rest of the evening. There is definitely nothing wrong with that, and certainly if they'd accomplished that goal I might be a big fan, but I felt they lacked musicality.
Though their show was more entertaining and made a bigger impact than those of choirs they placed above, I felt the lack of a healthy, stable core of sound hurt this group and ultimately placed them firmly in sixth. Of course the judges disagreed, and with such confident presentation and a good band I can understand why, but I would have liked to hear something more choral from this group.
Milton:
I felt Milton suffered from the same problems that Waconia had. The show was clean and the performers were appropriately upbeat, but I noticed intonation issues throughout the set that distracted from the good things happening on stage. I did hear from others that Milton's daytime performance was better than their finals show, so I hope in the future they may keep up the energy and precision throughout an entire day's competition.
Cedar Rapids Prairie:
Seemingly the most elusive of the Cedar Rapids groups, I was curious to see Prairie live for the first time. I recalled that they had a very successful start to their season last year and wondered if they'd prove to be an early season favorite again. Watching their finals performance I felt they sang reasonably well - definitely better than their placement would infer - but the show aspect of their set was largely disappointing. The various numbers felt pieced together, and the introduction to "The Morning After" was very very strange.