The Benefits of Touring

by Sonja Wohlgemuth

The Guild Chorus and Cantabile Chamber Choir are busy preparing for their respective summer tours. “The Grand Tour” has been the theme permeating all our communications since the beginning of the season, and now as the departure dates draw near, excitement is growing.

Why tour? While it does require a great deal of planning and organization and incurs heavy expenses, touring is educational for our singers and helps them grow as artists and individuals. They gain an appreciation not only for the beauty of the countries they visit but also for the lives and cultures of the people they meet.

In my own personal music career, I have been able to travel on several choir tours abroad as a student or as a professional. My last trip, which was to Orléans, France in 1994, to work with the Chorale Francis Poulenc, resulted in that choir’s exchange visit the following year to my hometown of Wichita, Kansas and created friendships to last a lifetime with others who share my love of choral music.

Music, knowing no boundaries and possessing the power to heal, can be a remarkable unifying force between people. Remember the “rolling Requiem” performance on the anniversary of 9/11 with more than 15,000 musicians in 25 countries taking part in about 200 overlapping performances of the Mozart Requiem? When our world so needs to solidify the bonds of friendship across borders, I am deeply moved by the Guild’s commitment to embark on two exciting international tours.

Our Cantabile Chamber Choir is no stranger to touring. They went to Great Britain in 1998 to sing in a number of cathedrals and enjoy a choir exchange with Farnham Youth Chorus and then in July, 2000, to Italy to participate in the Tuscany International Children’s Choir Festival. This summer, the Chamber Choir travels to Hungary and Austria to share their music through several formal concerts in Budapest and Vienna, plus some informal concerts, and participation at masses in St. Vitas Cathedral and St. Mathias Church. Our kids will have a wonderful opportunity to share our American culture and learn about the cultures of other kids, particularly during their home stays with Hungarian families in Budapest. Highlights of the itinerary are guided sightseeing tours in the major cities, including a boat trip on the River Danube, and visits to a music school, to musical and folkloric performances, and to Esterházy Palace south of Vienna, where Haydn gave concerts and his piano can be seen. Our singers will also enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a day-long workshop with the Vienna Boys’ Choir.

For the first time in its 24-year history, the Guild Chorus will tour abroad. The destination is Italy! Our two-week adventure visits three Umbrian towns, three more in Tuscany, and finally Venice. Current plans include three formal evening concerts in Gubbio, Siena, and Venice, shorter day-time concerts in the cathedrals of Assisi, Orvieto, Siena, and Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, and an exciting chance to sing at a mass in the Basilica San Marco of Venice. In each town our choristers and the family and friends traveling with them will enjoy guided sightseeing tours plus time to explore cultural treasures on their own.

On tour, our singers have a great opportunity, if not a responsibility, as performers and as supporters and lovers of the arts to share our art and perhaps improve the climate of our changing world. I wish our traveling singers well on their journeys. Bon voyage, glückliche Reise, buon viaggio!

Volume 11, Issue 3

Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410