As of our last post, we were in Emek Hefer. After a free day with our host families (many of us visited the beach and/or Cesarea---thank you VERY MUCH to our wonderful and generous hosts!), we had a concert there on Thursday night.
Again, the audience was fantastic and the hall was filled. The women of Singers got to sing a combined piece with the Efroni Choir, which was such a fun experience for us! Come visit us any time, girls! We'd love to sing with you again!
On Friday, we traveled to Kibbutz Bar'am, which is in the north of the country, and we took our time getting there, so we got to sightsee a little bit on our way. We stopped at the Mount of Beatitudes:
The Sea of Galilee:
The Church of the Apostles, which is a Greek Orthodox church, so we sang from the All-Night Vigil while we were there:
And several other places. Eventually, we ended up at Kibbutz Bar'am, where we had a concert.
The Bar'am audience was incredible. Literally filled to bursting! Every seat was filled, and every doorway, and every stairwell...people stood, willingly, for an hour and a half, and probably would have stood for an hour and a half more! I have never seen anything like it! It's incredible, and the entire choir is so thankful for the graciousness we have received as we've been here.
After our concert in Bar'am, we headed to Nazareth for the night, but just to sleep---the next morning, we were up bright and early to head back to Abu Gosh for our third festival performance. This performance was not originally scheduled and was not on the festival program. It was completely on-demand because our concerts had sold out so quickly. This one also sold out! People just can't get enough! I hate to keep using the word amazing, but it really is truly amazing. The Israeli people love music so much! It is such an honor to share it with them. We truly enjoyed our time at the festival! Thank you for inviting us!
When we finished at Abu Gosh and finally said goodbye to all the people asking us to come back next year, we drove back to Nazareth for our second concert of the day. This one was at the El Mutran church, and the acoustic there was divine.
A local church choir sang for us while we were there, which was a really great experience and fun for us to hear! It sure seemed like everyone enjoyed the concert. I know we all really enjoyed singing there!
That brings us to today, Sunday. Dr. Allred gave a workshop at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv for Israeli choral conductors and students, and we were his demonstration choir.
We sang bits of different pieces for them while Dr. Allred demonstrated things like different balances and tone colors. He also answered any questions the attendees had.
Those who attended really enjoyed learning from Dr. Allred, and I know many of the members of Singers who are studying music were excited to be visiting another music school in another part of the world!
After the workshop ended, we had some free time to explore Jaffa.
Tonight, we're taking it easy in our hotel, and tomorrow we head off to the Govrin Caves, also called the Bell Caves for another concert. We're looking forward to it!
A huge thanks to everyone who has helped us so far. We couldn't do it without you!
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