Tour: Slovenia

I was going to post a video of us singing "Behold, This Is the Way" (by Robert Cundick) in the cathedral in Esztergom, but the internet connection in our way-high-up-in-the-mountains hostel here in Korte, Slovenia is a bit sketchy. After an hour of waiting for it to upload, I've decided sleep is more important. Hopefully I'll be able to post it later. Sorry!

Anyway, the last couple of days we've spent very close to the Slovenian border. On Saturday, we were in Gorizia, which is a city that spans both Slovenia and Italy. We spent the day on the Slovenian side, then gave a concert on the Italian side in the Kulturni Center.



The concert was great! When we sang our Slovenian folk songs, the audience went absolutely wild. One choir member commented that it was like we had just finished a rock concert. They leaped to their feet and cheered. All of us were surprised and extremely gratified by the reaction. I have never experienced anything quite like it!

Also, we loved Gorizia because they fed us really well. Ice water! Real honest to goodness ice water! Nearly unheard of! Air conditioning and ice water: things you should not ever take for granted.



After Gorizia, we traveled to Koper, which is a city on the coast of Slovenia by the Adriatic Sea. (Right across the bay is Venice, if that helps you find it on a map.) We sang in the beautiful Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.



Again, the audience was just wonderful. Every time we sing, I am moved by their passion and interest in what we are doing. When you tour, you run the risk of getting tired of singing the same pieces time after time, even when you have a lot of repertoire to choose from. We all work very hard not to go on autopilot when we sing, but I think the audiences really do a lot to make each performance unique and fresh. I think I can speak for the whole choir when I say we really love our audiences!

Next up is Ljubljana, and then we say goodbye to Slovenia and head to Austria and Germany. Bavaria, here we come!

Tour: The Last Days of Hungary

We've spent the last couple of days in Budapest and its surrounding areas. Budapest is a massive city! And very beautiful. This, for example, is the parliament building. Amazing!



On Sunday morning, we sang mass in a church in downtown Budapest and made the priest cry (twice!). I can't get over how wonderful it is to share our music with all these people! After mass, we toured the city a little bit. Aside from all the mosquitos, everyone is really enjoying themselves.



We've been performing pretty much every day in all sorts of different venues, including a few impromptu numbers here and there, like when we sang with our gypsy band at dinner the other night. We're definitely being kept on our toes and I don't think we've ever sounded better as a group. We're all coming together in a way that is very special and unique to tour.

Today, Monday, we went to a little town called Esztergom to perform in a church there. On the way there, we stopped in the Esztergom cathedral, which is the third largest cathedral in Europe, falling behind only St. Paul's in London (2), and St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (1). We were ecstatic when our tour guide said we could sing there. Seven second reverb is pretty incredible.



Tomorrow we leave Hungary for Croatia and start some intensive rehearsal to really polish and get us ready for the Marktoberdorf competition. We've come a long way and we've got a lot further to go, and I'm excited for everything that waits ahead for us! Much more fun is coming!