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!

Favorite Piece

The University of Utah Singers are being featured this month on Musica International's "Favorite Piece" feature. Musica International is a worldwide online database that acts as a sort of library for choral repertoire. Every month, they choose a piece to feature and include links to recordings and video performances of the work, if available.

This month's piece is "Peace Like a River," arranged by Ronald Staheli, which was one of our very favorite songs from the 2008-2009 season. Check out this link to learn about the piece and to hear a recording and see a video of our performance from last year's Marktoberdorf competition.

Do you have a favorite piece that the Singers have done, or that you have heard elsewhere or performed yourself? Let us know! Leave a comment.

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!