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: National Theatres and Knight's Halls

As promised, here is a better update about Croatia. Varazdin is a beautiful little town and we were very excited to perform there. They seemed to be excited to have us, as there were posters of us all over the town!



We did spend a lot of time in rehearsal for the few days we stayed, but we were also privileged to meet with some government representatives while we were there. They told us some of the history of the town and made us feel quite welcome. They told us that Varazdin has a rich history of choral singing, and so everyone was very excited for our concert that night. The Croatian people are very friendly and warm! We all managed to squish into the reception room to meet with the representatives, and we even sang for them while we were there.



On Thursday, we performed in the concert hall of the Croatian National Theatre. The building was built in the late 19th century. It was really hot. I mean, really hot. But the audience was so receptive that the energy was just fantastic. It was a great concert despite the heat.



Today, we bid farewell to Croatia and came to Slovenia. We are staying for one night in the city of Brezice, where we performed tonight in the Knight's Hall of Brezice Castle. This hall is truly amazing. It took our breath away when we walked in. This picture, unfortunately, does not do it justice as the light in the evening was bad. But it is really beautiful with an amazing acoustic.



The concert tonight was really incredible. We got to sing Slovenian folk songs to Slovenians in their native tongue! I'm not sure how good our pronunciation was, but it was really fun to be able to sing to them in their own language, and they seemed to really enjoy it. I think we all felt really good about our performance tonight. Things just seem to be getting better and better!

Tomorrow we head to Italy to perform in Gorizia, and then we'll be back in Slovenia on Sunday. I'll do my best to update as much as possible!

Tour: Croatia

No pictures today, sorry, but the computer setup is a little different here. In the meantime, we have arrived safely in Varazdin, Croatia, and have been enjoying a clinic with conductor Volker Hempfling. We are prepping for a concert tomorrow night in the Croatian National Theater here in this city, and things are going well. If any of you are in the area you should stop by the theater for a listen!

Check for more detailed updates soon!

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!

Tour: Hungary

Here we are in beautiful Pomaz, which is just outside of Budapest, Hungary. We're staying at the Choral Castle.



At the Choral Castle, there are performance halls, one of which we used last night. We drew a crowd to our concert and encored about a million times. We actually left the building and got called back in to encore again. It was a really wonderful experience, even if we were all exhausted after arriving at the Castle 2 hours behind schedule, lugging all our luggage up many, many flights of stairs, and changing clothes as fast as humanly possible. The audiences here are so incredibly appreciative! It is a joy to sing for them.

The Castle also has many rehearsal halls, one of which we utilized this morning. For part of our rehearsal, we got to work with Gyorgy Orban. We have learned two of his pieces this year and he workshopped with us a little bit. It was really fun and he is a very nice person!



We went to a nearby town called Szentendre for lunch and a small shopping excursion. The beautiful blue Danube runs right through this town. And of course they sell gelato. What could be more important? Not much.



We also went into Budapest itself for just a short time today. The view of the city from the citadel is breathtaking. We could all hardly believe what we were seeing. What an opportunity!



Finally, tonight we performed in the town of Telki to a standing-room-only crowd. People were jammed in every spare spot and even flooded out the door. We sang our hearts out to a wonderful crowd and had a great time. Telki is having their annual Spring Festival, and we got to go enjoy some local music and food afterwards. We work very hard, but we also play hard!



Hungary is great! The food is wonderful, the audiences are fantastic, the weather is beautiful, and the people are friendly. It's treating us well, and I think we're giving back in kind.

Tour: Goodbye, Prague!

I think all the Singers will agree that Prague is a beautiful city. Everyone was very excited to have one more day than we'd originally planned here. On our first day, even though we were all so tired, we were still very happy about being here!



We took a walking tour through the city and got acquainted with some of the cultural history of the area. Part of the tour included the large cathedral in the center of town. It is so beautiful inside! We all wanted to sing there, but unfortunately it wasn't on our list of concert stops. Next time!



The walking tour included the famous Charles Bridge, which many of us returned to the next day on our own free time. The bridge is crowded with merchants and tourists and locals just going from one side of the Moldau River to the other. Yes, that's the Moldau, or the Vltava, as it is called here. The composer Smetana lived in Prague and wrote a whole piece about the country. The Moldau is the central movement of the work.



Our first concert of the tour was in a local church. The audience was very appreciative and we had a great time. It was a wonderful way to start the concert portion of our tour!



Today, Thursday, we drove to a nearby town called Nymburk to sing in a church there. The acoustics were amazing. We shared the concert with a local Czech choir and really enjoyed each other. There's nothing quite like singing liturgical music in a cathedral that's built for it.



We had a small reception with some representatives from the Ministry of Culture in Nymburk. Dr. Allred got the key to the city! Okay, not really, but he did get some very thoughtful and beautiful gifts. We felt very welcome in the area and were happy to be there.



Tonight is our last night in Prague, and tomorrow we move on to Hungary. We've enjoyed it here, and we look forward to what's ahead!

Tour: The Beginning

The University Singers are in Prague!



On Monday, May 11, we all arrived at the airport and traveled to Atlanta and then to Prague. Everyone was very excited to go!

When we arrived in the city on Tuesday, we took a walking tour and had a whirlwind history lesson. I hate to admit it but I think I only heard about 10% of what our tour guide said. Jet lag is brutal!

Today we all went our separate ways and saw the sights---the Opera House, the Charles Bridge, the Jewish Quarter, Old Town...there's so much to take in! Tonight we'll sing our first concert on our tour. The first of many!

More pictures to come! The internet in our hotel is a little shady and it's making it difficult to post. There will be more, though, so keep checking back!