On a Choir Tour: Then and Now

This is probably my favorite picture from the Chorale Midwest trip to the British Isles.  It's of us singing at Liverpool Cathedral.  Thanks to Diane Constantine for taking it and sharing it on Facebook.

Of course I don't have any pictures on my camera of the choir singing--I was also singing at the time!  So I have to rely on the photos other people took.

To me, this is an image of the most important part of the trip:  singing with an outstanding choir in amazing places.

This fall when I joined the choir, I heard about the upcoming Choir Tour to the British Isles and immediately wanted to go!  I floated the idea by Bruce--who would have to hold down the fort alone while I was gone--and he encouraged me to go.  Ellen and Bill thought that Mom and Dad would want me to go.  So thanks, Mom and Dad, for funding this trip!

I've been on Choir Tours before, but it's been a while.

In college, I went on a music tour every spring break: the first two years with the Wooster Scot Band, and the second two years with the Wooster Chorus.  The tours were sponsored by the admissions and alumni offices, so the trips didn't cost the students anything except the money we spent for lunches.

Each day, our bus would pull into the parking lot of a big Presbyterian Church.  We'd have a short rehearsal (just to get our placement figured out and listen to the acoustics).  Here the Wooster Chorus rehearsing in a church somewhere--that's me on the far left side in front, next to Sal Midolo.

Then, families of the church would feed us a potluck dinner.  We'd play/sing, and afterwards, go home with families to stay at their homes.  The next day we'd get on a bus and head to the next destination.

Sitting on the bus was actually fun--you got to know people better as we rode from town to town.  Normally, we were not allowed to sing, but here's a picture from the Woo Cho bus--the label said "Steve Towne singing the traditional morning song."  I can't remember the song, but maybe it was the one that starts "Wa-a-a-yup in the sky--The little birds fly . . . "

The tours were always in interesting parts of the country:  Pennsylvania and New York City, Washington D.C. and Baltimore.  Chicago and Madison. We always had time to do sightseeing and museums. The band even did a trip to Florida one year (that did cost us $50).

Oh, and here's me wearing our uniform.  I played piccolo.

So after having those great tour experiences during college, I thought the idea of doing a Choir Tour as an adult, and in the British Isles sounded great!

Some things were very similar:  the bus,

the interesting venues, some time for sightseeing, roommates, a demanding director.

Other things were different:  we had to pay for this trip, no homestays, no potlucks.

We were busy during our British Isles Tour--9 concerts in 8 days!

We did two kinds of concerts: formal and informal.  My favorite concerts were the ones like the picture at the top:  "informal" (short) concerts in cathedrals.  We'd just set up and sing while the tourists wandered around--or stopped to listen to us.  We sang in:
Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin

Liverpool Cathedral (picture above)
Lancaster Cathedral

Ripon Cathedral

York Minster

and Selby Abbey

We also had "formal" concerts when we presented a complete concert of about 90 minutes.  Those concerts ended up being at very small churches, most of which had pretty sketchy acoustics, and a small but appreciative audience.  Sometimes they had punch (and tea) and cookies for us.

As much as I enjoyed singing our entire repertoire, and as much as the audiences seemed to enjoy our formal concerts, I felt that they were overkill.  There we were in our pearls/tuxes doing a very sophisticated concert . . .  in a tiny venue with bad acoustics and a small audience.

I found out later that it had been very difficult for our British Isles coordinator, Peter, to find formal concert venues for us.  He's set up choir tours before, but this time, there was very little interest from local churches to host us.  Someone said he sent out letters (email?) to over 40 churches in Dublin, for example, and only got 1 reply.  There wasn't a network of churches and alums as there was with my college tours.

Probably there needs to be a new way of doing the concert venue setups.  I'm wondering if there is an association of community choirs, for example, that might be able to put choir directors in touch with one another to help sponsor concerts like ours.

Our church, Lovely Lane UMC, recently sponsored a concert of musicians from Russia.  They contacted our choir director, who agreed to host them.  He set up meals and lodging for them (homestays), and coordinated their concert, as well as doing publicity.  The concert was packed!

I bet that could work for a group like us when we next go on tour.