Tour: Back to Jerusalem and home!

As I write this, we are sitting/sleeping/eating/emailing in the Philadelphia airport, having finished the first leg of our trip home and awaiting the second. The last couple of days of our tour were a nice relaxing ending to a wonderful trip.

On Friday morning, we left Jericho, where we had spent the night, and headed back to Jerusalem. We spent some time at the Garden Tomb:


And at Gethsemane, where we sang together for the last time as the 2009-2010 University of Utah Singers.


I think I can safely speak for everyone in the choir when I say that we could not have possibly asked for a better ending.

After that, we went to Hezekiah's Tunnel. The tunnel was created long, long ago, around 700 BC, as a way to divert water to Jerusalem during a siege. Two teams of diggers started at opposite ends to make the tunnel, and met in the middle, which is quite a feat! Today, you can take a tour of the tunnel. You wade through cold, fresh water that, depending on your height, can rise to your mid-thigh, and walk through narrow tunnels with low ceilings, that, also depending on your height, can sometimes cause you to have to stoop quite low. It's pitch black, so you need some kind of light (our group used a variety of lighting instruments, including iphone apps, cameras, head lamps, and actual flashlights), and if you are claustrophobic at all, it is certainly not for you.

We loved it!


On Saturday, we had a free day (I know many people went back to the Old City of Jerusalem) until our final choir dinner, and then we headed to Ben Gurion airport for our 11:55 PM flight.

It was the trip of a lifetime and one I'm sure none of us will ever forget! Thanks again to everyone who made it possible or had a hand in it in any way. We are very much indebted to you! Thank you!

Tour: Ancient places and Ein Gedi

Yesterday was quite a full, hot, hot, hot day. We started off fairly early on a bus ride to the West Bank, where we drove through the Judean wilderness (and it is quite a wilderness) and stopped in Jericho. Here, we found the Spring of Elisha.


After drinking upstream of some goats and some native children playing in the water, we hopped back on the bus and made our way to Qumran.


This is where the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. I can't imagine finding them after wandering through a desert like that one. It's ridiculously hot. Here is a photo illustration of what I mean:


Next up, we traveled to Masada, where around 950 Jewish zealots were besieged by Romans for three years. The Romans wanted to take the Jewish people as slaves, but the Jewish people would have none of it. In a tragic turn of events, as the Romans breached their fortress, all of the residents of Masada killed themselves rather than become slaves.


When we finished at Masada, we headed to the Dead Sea. Many choir members had a great time being unable to sink!


Finally, we arrived at the Ein Gedi kibbutz, where the wonderful people who live and work there fed us a fantastic meal and showed us to the concert hall for our sound check.


Our last concert was lighthearted and fun, despite all of us feeling a little sad that the whole thing has come to an end. It's been a fantastic ride!

We'll do a little more touring of the country today and tomorrow, and then we're home on Sunday. The entire choir would like to express are most sincere gratitude to everyone who has helped us and supported us through the trip, including President Young, our families, all of our audiences, and most especially Olivia Dakkak and Maya Shavit. We couldn't have done it without you!

Tour: More Jerusalem

Today was wonderful for all of us! We spent about seven hours wandering around the Old City of Jerusalem. The first stop was the Dome of the Rock.


We also saw the Church of the Holy Sepulchre:


The Wailing Wall:


And so many other things! It was very hot and we were very tired, but it was also really great!


Eventually, we ended up at the BYU Jerusalem Center. It is a very beautiful facility and the views of the city are stunning.



The Jerusalem Center was very kind in hosting us. They gave us a tour, let us hear the organ, and fed us. The students there were also nice. (Healing a rivalry one concert at a time!) Our concert in the hall there was completely full and, as we have enjoyed this entire tour, spectacularly well received. All of us had a fantastic time and would like to express our sincere thanks to the people of the BYU Jerusalem Center for their hospitality.

As the tour winds to an end, we'll have our last concert tomorrow in Ein Geddi. If you've missed us so far but you'll be in the area, we hope to see you there!

Tour: Bell Caves and Jerusalem

We have had a busy couple of days!

On Monday, we got to visit some of the caves in Israel. There are some areas that are completely dotted with caves that are quite old. People used them as cisterns, marketplaces, raised pigeons for food...they just kept digging and digging into them so they got deeper and deeper. We got to explore one of them.



Afterwards, we had a concert in the Bell Caves (Govrin Caves). These are totally man-made caves that were used as limestone quarries. They are huge and a really, really fun place to sing!


I know I speak for everyone in the choir when I say this was a definite highlight of our tour so far. Simply incredible. Huge thanks to the choir that hosted us and our host families for the night! You are wonderful!

Today, we arrived in Jerusalem. What an amazing city! It is beautiful and the amount of history all around us is amazing us all.


We spent the morning/early afternoon sightseeing: the Church of the Nativity (in Bethlehem), Mount Zion, King David's Tomb. Not even scratching the surface! We also took some time to visit the Israeli museum, where we saw fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Yad Vashem, an incredibly moving holocaust memorial. It was a full day in many ways.

At about 7:30, we went to a theater in Jerusalem where the Israeli music festival was beginning. We sang for the crowd outside and then got to go in and attend a King's Singers concert! What wonderful luck for us! It was an unexpected but very welcome addition to our itinerary.

All in all, a very full, satisfying day. Tomorrow we will see more of Jerusalem, then tour the BYU Jerusalem Center, where we'll give a concert tomorrow night. Should be great! If you're in the area, we hope to see you there!

Tour: many, many places!

Sorry there hasn't been an update for a few days! There has been no internet availability. So this will be a good catch up post.

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!

Tour: Abu Gosh (take 2) and Emek Hefer

We had our second performance at the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival today, with some different repertoire from yesterday. Again, another standing-room-only house, with very wonderful audience members! I'd post some pictures of the concert if I had them, but since I don't, here's a candid of us before our warm-up today.


After the concert, we again were met with such gracious responses. People told us thank you for doing what we do. It is so wonderful to get that kind of reaction! We've also apparently formed quite a little following here. People are anxious to get our tour programs and find out where our next concerts are, because they want to come! We've had many people say things like, "See you on Saturday!" We have groupies!

After the concert, we said goodbye to this place:


And headed to Emek Hefer where we met up with the Efroni Choir, lead by Maya Shavit. They fed us and we socialized:


And then they sang for us. They were great!


After the meet-and-greet we were divvied out to our different host families throughout the region. Tomorrow we'll all have separate activities depending on what our host families decide they'd like to do, and then we'll meet up again at 6:30 for a concert in Emek-Hefer. Then we're off to Bar'am! See you there!

Tour: Abu Gosh Festival

Today was our first day singing at the Abu Gosh festival. After a nice relaxing morning at our hotel…


…we headed over to the Kiryat Yearim Church (where we would perform later) to warm up. It is in a beautiful little area and the acoustics were great!



At 3:00, it was time for our concert. The house was packed. I mean PACKED. I mean it was probably some kind of fire hazard. Wow! We sang some of the classical repertoire that had been requested by the festival organizers---Bach, Allegri, Brahms---and Carol Ann Allred sang a set of Schubert lieder. All of it was received with incredible enthusiasm! After we finished the classics, we did a short set of American songs. Since they had requested nothing but classical music, we were a little nervous about how these pieces would be received. We didn’t need to be! They loved all of them! And the unison Euro-clap apparently extends to Israel! Who knew?

The concert went extremely well. Afterwards, many of us talked with the audience members. They were so gracious and kind. It is extremely gratifying to sing for such appreciative people. They told us that our audiences would only get bigger as our tour progressed because word would spread. Considering we started with a more-than-sold-out crowd, I can only imagine what’s in store!

Tomorrow we have another festival performance (with different classical repertoire) and then we head off to Nazareth for a day. Israel, here we come!

Tour: Flight and Abu Gosh

Well, we made it to Israel! It took us a while (we left on Sunday the 16th and arrived on Monday the 17th), but we’re all here---and so’s all our stuff, minus one box of programs that is hopefully on its way. And we’re all relatively unscathed, none the worse for wear for our 16 hours in the air!

We started off dark and early at 5:00 AM in Salt Lake City. Despite the early hour, we were happy to be there.


From there, we flew to Phoenix, where we quickly changed planes and headed off to Philadelphia. We had about a four hour layover so we wandered the airport in search of food. (US Air definitely wins on amount of leg room in coach, but totally fails in the area of sustenance.) And what else do you want to eat in Philadelphia besides a cheesesteak? Luckily, after walking by the life-size Lego replica of the Liberty Bell, many of us found the one and only cheesesteak dispensary in the airport. Happiness.


Eventually, after a few laps around the airport, some napping, some games, and some ice cream, we boarded our final flight to Tel Aviv. Ten hours, many movies, and (hopefully) lots of sleep later, we touched down in Israel! And there was much rejoicing! No, really---some people (not choir members---we were all still mostly asleep, I think) actually applauded when we landed. Long flights’ll do that to you.

We’ve checked into our hotel here in Abu Gosh, where we’ll spend the next couple of days performing at the Abu Gosh Vocal Music Festival. Originally, we were only supposed to give two concerts here, but they were selling out so quickly that the organizers asked us if we could add a third. How could we say no? So we’ll be back on Saturday for a third festival performance.

It’s exciting to be here in Israel and being invited to perform at this festival is a huge honor for us. Many Singers were talking to people on the plane who are very excited for us to be here. They are confident of a very warm reception for us. The Israeli people apparently love music very much! It should be a great experience for us too!

Bon Voyage!

Here we go again! We're leaving for our two week concert tour of Israel on May 16, but you have one more chance to hear us before we go! Don't miss our concert this Monday, May 10! You'll hear a mix of all the programs we'll be singing in Israel, including works by classic composers such as Bach, Brahms, Mahler, and more, plus spirituals and contemporary works. Be there!


After we're gone (and even after we return!), make sure you still keep up with us through this blog, our YouTube page, and on Facebook.

See you tomorrow night!

Mini-tour: ACDA, Phoenix, and home again

Well, we made it back! Which means now I can post pictures, so let me start again from the beginning.

First, Cedar City. We enjoyed a wonderful meal:



We sang a fantastic concert (this is the end of "A Drop in the Ocean"):



And celebrated a bit afterwards:



The next day, Thursday, we arrived in Las Vegas, and very much enjoyed ourselves there:



On Friday, we made the trek to Tucson. We rehearsed for a little while in our hotel:



Then enjoyed a concert by Chanticleer, followed immediately by our sound check for our performance the next morning. Saturday's performance went wonderfully, and after a short lunch break we hopped on the bus again and arrived in Phoenix, where we met with Don Morse and performed at Central United Methodist Church. We loved singing there, and the concert was fantastic!



We were again hosted by many wonderful families in the Phoenix area, and this morning we boarded the bus and started the long drive home. We arrived safely and full of great mini-tour memories!

We'd like to thank everyone who hosted us, fed us, took us into their homes, loaned us space to rehearse and perform in, advertised for us, listened to us, transported us, and everything in between. We couldn't have done it without you, and we're so glad we could share what we do with you! Thank you!

Mini-tour: Cedar City, Las Vegas, and more! Oh my!

We've had an eventful couple of days! We just arrived in Tuscon not a half hour ago, but riding a bus for a really long time is not the only thing we've been doing.

On Wednesday, we left the University at about noon and traveled to Cedar City, where we were hosted by Jackie Jackson's women's choir. They provided a fantastic meal for us, and then we performed in the Heritage Theater.

The concert went really well and was a great first tour concert for us! Wonderful prep for ACDA.

We stayed with fantastic host families on Wednesday night (thank you!!), then loaded the bus bright and early on Thursday morning to head to Las Vegas. After a fantastic lunch spearheaded by Marsha Borovicka, we met with the Las Vegas High School Concert Choir and Madrigals, under the direction of Janet Tyler. We had a great time clinicing with them and then performing in their theater.

After another wonderful concert, we had another great night with host families, and then took off this morning to head to Tucson. It was a long bus ride, but we made it safely! And not to make anyone at home feel bad, but we aren't missing the snow!

Tonight we're planning on rehearsing our ACDA program and then we get to go hear a concert by Chanticleer! We're very excited. Tomorrow, we perform for ACDA at 10:45---if you're at the convention, stop on by---and then we head to Phoenix.

We'd like to thank everyone for their hospitality so far. I would love to post pictures, but the internet here in the hotel is reminding me very much of the internet all over Europe; i.e., it doesn't work very well. :) I promise to post some pictures from the trip when we get home!

Mini-tour: Bon Voyage!

Tomorrow morning the University Singers leave for a mini-tour of Southern Utah, Nevada, and Arizona on our way to perform for the Western Division Conference of the American Choral Directors Association. We're very excited to have this honor and are really looking forward to the experience!

If time allows, we'll try to keep the blog updated with some photos and stories of what we're doing. In the meantime, here's a quick list of where we'll be, so if you're in the area you can come by and hear us!

Wednesday, March 3: Cedar City
Heritage Center Theatre
105 North 100 East
7:30 PM

Thursday, March 4: Las Vegas
Las Vegas High School
6500 East Sahara Avenue
7:00 PM

Saturday, March 6: Tucson
St. Augustine Cathedral---CONVENTION PERFORMANCE!
192 South Stone Avenue
9:45 AM

Saturday, March 6: Phoenix
Central United Methodist Church
1875 North Central Avenue
7:00 PM

Hope to see you there!

New video, new CD, new concert

Don't miss our newest featured video on our facebook page! This performance of Robert Cundick's "Behold, This Is the Way" is from our most recent tour and is only available on facebook!

A recording of this performance, along with many other wonderful pieces, will be available on our newest CD release, Alleluia.


This CD of mostly pre-released songs suitable for Sunday use will be available soon!

Also, be sure to get your tickets for the 2009 School of Music Scholarship Concert! This concert, on November 20 and 21, will feature the combined choirs and Philharmonic orchestra on the Poulenc "Gloria," Rutter "Gloria," and the Borodin "Polovtsian Dances." Tickets are $5 for students and $10 for general admission. The concert starts at 7:30. Don't miss it!

Tour: Results!

You may have already heard. But I'm going to say it again.

WE WON!!!

Yes! That's right! The University of Utah Singers took first prize at the 11th International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf! We couldn't possibly be more excited about it!

Here's a rundown of everything we won:

1st Prize in the Mixed Choir Category
3rd Prize in the Youth Choir Category
Special Prize for the best interpretation of a work premiered at the competition (Nancy Wertsch's "Hail Holy Light")

The anticipation yesterday was about killing us. We sat in the hall and held hands and clapped and cried and had so much nervous energy that I think we almost exploded. The whole hall was electric with it, with hundreds of singers awaiting the results of a whole lot of hard work.

When they called our name, we all leaped to our feet, jumped up and down, screamed, cried, hugged, clapped. It was an incredible feeling, and something we will never forget!

I know I speak for the whole choir when I say thank you to Dr. Allred, who made the whole thing possible. We would not be the choir we are without him. Thank you for teaching us the technical skills and drawing out the emotion. You make it possible for us to sing with our hearts. With you, we don't just sing, we make music. Thank you!

And personally, I want to thank the entire choir for being so wonderful during the year and especially this tour. It was fantastic!

And we won! WE WON!!

Tour: Marktoberdorf

Today, Sunday, is the second day of competition at the 11th International Chamber Choir Competition in Marktoberdorf, Germany. We finished competing at around 1:00 this afternoon---and we finished with a bang!

We arrived on Friday and enjoyed a concert and some opening ceremonies. We got to meet all the other choirs. In total, there are 13 choirs competing: five in the youth choir category and eight in the mixed adult choir category. The Singers are entered in both categories, so some of us had to compete four times! There are choirs from all over. We’re the only group from the United States, but there are choirs from Argentina, Ireland, Slovenia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, Germany, and possibly some place I’m forgetting.

It’s been very fun to hear all of these groups perform! They represent some of the best in the world and it’s an honor to be numbered among them.

Saturday was the first round. This round had to be between 20 and 25 minutes, and had to follow certain rules. For example, there was a compulsory piece that every choir had to perform, and every piece had to be sung acappella. It was interesting to hear all the different interpretations of the same music. The Singers’ mixed choir was the third to perform on Saturday morning. We all felt really good about how we performed. We sang a great mix of pieces, including Romantic era music, spirituals, and “Hail Holy Light,” our commissioned piece, and the audience seemed to really love it all. We sang with a lot of spirit, energy, and emotion, and were able to connect with each other and the listeners. Hopefully we connected with the jury, too!

Our youth choir performed first in the afternoon section, and they did a great job too. We have all learned so much wonderful music this year, and it is a remarkable thing to be able to get on that competition stage and just send it right out to everyone in the hall!

Today was round two, which is the free program. This program can only be 10 minutes long, and there are no rules about accompaniment and no compulsory pieces. The youth choir performed in the morning as the last in their category, and did a fantastic job! The mixed choir also got to go last and ended the entire competition. What an amazing opportunity!

We won’t get the results until Tuesday, but we all feel really good about what we did. And the truth is that no matter what the results are, we know we did our best, and we gave some incredible performances. We have come together in such a wonderful way, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we have accomplished. I think we all feel the same.

Of course, we DO want to win . . . we’ll see what happens!

Tour: Austria and Munich

Today the University Singers are in Munich, recording in the Himmelfahrtskirche. But more on that in a moment. First, let me finish reporting on Slovenia the right way: with some pictures.

After Gorizia came Koper, a beautiful town on the Adriatic Sea. Everyone enjoyed walking along the coast and doing a little swimming during the day. That evening, we sang in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.



Special thanks to the University of Primorska Academic Choir who hosted us for this concert!

The next day, we headed toward Ljubljana but first stopped in the Postojna caves. I wish I had a picture to show you from these caves; they are incredibly vast and amazing. The guide told us they were at least three million years old! But they said no photos, unfortunately. At the end, there is a very large cave that they call a concert hall and we got to sing a couple of songs there. Other tour groups were so interested in us they asked us when and where our next concert was!

For those that were staying in the area, they were in luck, because our next concert was in St. Jacob's Church in Ljubljana. We enjoyed getting to meet with and hear Urska Fabijan's Mysterium choir. It was also fun to sing with them!



The concert with Mysterium ended our time in Ljubljana, and we were sad to go. As I mentioned before, we really enjoyed ourselves there! Thanks again to everyone for the hospitality.

After Slovenia, we headed to Austria where we stayed in Salzburg for a couple of days. Of course, we made sure to see all the Sound of Music sights.



We also got to sing in the Salzburg Cathedral.



After enjoying some time in Salzburg on our own, we headed to nearby Bergheim to sing for Mass in the Pfarrkirche, and then perform a joint concert with the Volklslied Choir in the Pfarrkirche. It was fun to trade songs back and forth with the choir, and then to sing with them at the end.



Far too soon, we boarded the bus and left Austria, and arrived here in Munich on Thursday morning. Our purpose here is to record in the Himmelfahrtskirche. Those of you familiar with our repertoire and/or recording history may know that our CD A Jubilant Song was recorded in this same church several years ago. It's fun to be back!



We'll record a little bit more tomorrow morning and then we're off to Marktoberdorf! The festival starts on Friday with a big opening concert gala, and the competition starts on Saturday. We'll compete on both Saturday and Sunday. If there's internet access, I'll be sure to keep you updated!