Aboard the “Stavangerfjord”, an old man, returning to Norway after an absence of 50 years, walked over to Mrs. Carlson and said, “ When the choir sang "Ja, vi elsker", it brought tears to my eyes….they are 150 percent good.”
We should have been! Aboard ship, 150 percent of the Summer School students sang. We became the main attraction for most of the ship. We sang so lustily down in the tourist lounge that the Captain invited us to sing a few decks above. He was impressed…so we replaced the usual recordings and sang "Ja, vi elsker" and "The Star Spangled Banner" when the ship docked at Bergen and Oslo.
But the results of the choir went beyond mere sound; chorus rehearsal was a place to let off steam and exercise the vocal chords, emotions, and imagination. We also delved deeply enough into music to discover some of its inherent beauty.
