Europe the sequel
Yeah. I went. It was awesome. I've been home for agessssssssssssssss, but haven't gone one livejournal 'cause I'm....on crack?
Anyways, our second day in Vienna we were all recovered from jet leg and what not, so we were able to appreciate the beauty of everything and get truly excited about where we were. That said, I still think I was kind of in denial.......like, I'm not actually in Vienna, am I? Holy feck, I really am!!!!! Anyways, we went on a lovely sight seeing tour and had our minds blown. And we saw a palace at some point that was insanely hot but super pretty. At some point we were in a sound museum too that was pretty trippy.......I don't remember when, though.
The next day after that we went to the opening ceremony that had a lot of speeches and was kind of boring. The choir that sang at it, though, was SO GOOD, I really liked them. Also, the parallel tour (that is to say, our parents and such who shadow us to cheer us on) arrived and were there. My parents, Grandma, and older sister Jennifer were among them, so that was exciting. Cat and I hadn't seen Jenn since Christmas, so we were very enthused to see her. They were all super tired, though, since they'd just gotten to Austria and were therefore feeling the jet leg.
Our first performance was in some small town outside Vienna called Pfarrkirche. Do not ask me how to pronounce that because I haven't a clue. Anyways, we performed during a church service, and then gave a recital following that. It was very well recieved and quite a bit of fun. That same day, we got a bunch of workshops and lectures that were pretty good. I really enjoyed one we got from a nice man from Denmark. He was a lot of fun and very cheerful. We learned a cute little Danish folk song from him. Then we went to Zentrafriedhof, a very beautiful graveyard where many famous composers were buried. Like, really. Pretty much everyone but Mozart was there. (okay, that's a lie, but still, I visited Beethoven and Schubert's graves, so holy sheet!) Mozart got a memorial, though. All the graves were so pretty! Lindsay thinks she may have accidentally found and touched a bone and may or may not be cursed now. It's still up in the air.
Oh yeah, the food they fed us at the Festival Village was super delicious. And the festival was called the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival.
The next day we dubbed Competition Day because......we competed that day. It was our first competitive festival in awhile (we have been to non-competitive ones exclusively since our last Powell River trip) and we were all really nervous. Like really. We were kind of worried we might suck during our 20 minutes we had to sing. Okay, not suck, per say, but maybe Europe wouldn't like our style or our technique and what if we sharped in Bitte Betti like we always do and what if the candles went nuts and ruined Yo Te Nombre Libertad and what if Uberleibensgross was just weird to the jury instead of cool? I gave a pep talk in our dressing room before we went on, helped by Heather and a few other senior choristers, and everyone participated enthusiastically. We talked about each song and what it meant to us. First, we sang Hebe Deine (sp?) which is pretty song where we should be content and happy and charming. Then came Bitte Betti, which we had to try not to sharp in, and is about a mother scolding her impolite child. These were our test pieces. Then we sang Witches Chorus from Verdi's Macbeth opera, which is just a lot of fun. After that came Yo Te Nombre Libertad (I cry out your name for liberty), an arrangement of a Chilean protest song written specifically for us by Regina composer Peter Tiefenbach. It's an extremely moving song we sing with candles, except the Musikverein's Golden Hall, where we were to perform, does not allow fire, so we had to use very fussy electrical candles instead. After that, we finished off with Uber, which is a shout out to the saviness of women and is super fun. It's by Canadian composer Stephen Hatfeild, who we have had the huge privelege of working with twice before. We premeired a piece of his, Flying Colours, last year and were going to take it to Europe, only its over twenty minutes long even without any repeats so we didn't have time for it. Sad, 'cause its a cool piece. Uber, however, is still probably my favourite of his ever, so I was really happy to be performing that. We do a ton of movement in that one, dancing all over the stage, and end it by falling down. It's pretty sweet. But we were nervous about this one because we had to sing extra amazing in it so that we could prove that the dancing was not there to a) distract form bad technique or b) cause vocal problems. Once we got out on stage, we had a blast performing and the Golden Hall is incredibly beautiful and amazing to perform in. An audible "whoa" went through the crowd in the short silence that followed Uber (which also has some really sweet percussion parts in it) and we left the stage to enthusiastic applause. As we entered the Golden Hall again to sit down and watch the other groups, we were extremely humbled as the audience started clapping for us again.
Pretty pumped, we went shopping after that. It was pouring rain. Absolutely pouring. But we were on an adreneline high, so we ignored that and shopped, goddamnit! Erica, Alix, Allison, Cat and I all shopped together, ending our trip in a coffee shop with chocolate criossants and hot chocolate with whipped cream. Soaking wet, we got back on the bus two ours later. Aunt Pheobe got on with a bouquet of flowers and got on the bus mike to speak with us. She complimented our performance, then told us how she disliked the word competition for choral festivals, because everyone interperets music differently and so on so on. She was very earnest about it, and it is impossible to deny that she's absolutely right. "That said," Aunt Phoebe continued, "We won the treble choir category we were in." We all screamed, and a couple of people burst into tears. She let us yell and celebrate and hug one another for a little while before speaking into the mike once more. "Wait," she said, "there's more." We were all suddenly silent. She told us then that we had also been given the Summa Cum Laude City of Vienna Award given to the choir with the best overal outstanding performance. We screamed louder. Almost everyone cried (including myself). From the bouquet she had bought, Aunt Phoebe gave each of us a flower. She then told us that, as exciting as this was, we were to keep the celebrating to the bus and the privacy of our rooms. We were not to flaunt it. We of course agreed. We sang Jot to the World, our traditional sing-along on the bus tour song, while waving our flowers, and belting out the lyrics "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!!!!"
Because of our success, we performed Uber at the final winners concert gala in the Golden Hall. The hall was much more full this time, with every other group in the festival watching. We were again nervous, since we felt now we had to prove that we were worthy of the honour we'd recieved. The performance went by really fast (so much so that Aunt Phobe kept asking "Did we perform? I can't remember" afterwards), but the moment we finished Uber the audience errupted into screams and applause. We then went to the gala dinner, but didn't stay for too long sing we were all very tired. We'd had two performances that day, with and earlier concert in a library.
I can't remember what day it was, but there was a boy wandering around our rooms early one morning. See, we had to lock the doors manually 'cause we weren't in a hotel, but we forgot to do this a lot and often left them open not when we were gone, but when we were inside. So this boy came into a bunch of our rooms for unknown reasons and was sighted by a few people. We think, from the shirt he was wearing and who else was staying in out building, that he was from on of the Australian groups. It was kind of scary but mostly hilarious.
After that, we spent a day in Salzburg to take the Sound of Music tour. That was neat, as we got to see a bunch of sets from the movie and couldn't stop singing all day. We stayed in a really nice little hotel for the night, though we were kind of hyper and loopy that evening and started thinking the place might be haunted for no good reason. Bronemily have been convinced, though, that a ghost is stalking them. I forget his name....he had a name....
Off to Prague! We took a train to Prague just for the heck of it (we had a bus, so it wasn't neccesary) and it was SO COOL. It was like a more rundown version of the Hogwarts Express, with sliding comparmtent doors and even a snack trolley! Most of us are Harry Potter fans, so when we saw we would be sitting in compartments we FLIPPED OUT. I had the following conversation, more or less:
"OMG. We're going to Hogwarts!!!"
"We're not in England, we're going to Prague."
"We're practically Harry Potter! I will die if there's a snack trolley, I'll just go NUTS."
"We're going to Prague."
"We're going to Hogwarts!"
"Hogwarts is not in Prague!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"
Anyways, that was fun. We'd been told we'd be attacked by pick pockets so we shouldn't bring anything valuable, so I didn't bring my iPod or anything. I just brought by writing notebook, since I figured you'd have to be a pretty lame pick pocket to steal that. I finsihed chapter 9 of Lullaby on that train, and then Alix, who was in the compartment with Erica, Catherine, a chaperone, and I, read it. It was fun to watch her reations - I miss watching Jessica's. Chapter 9 has a revelation at the end, so Alix was all OMG and then we talked about it. She told be she'd cut off my head if I killed Grandma Lynn. 0.o
On the train, Bronemily McEdwards proposed to me with a makeshift ring made of a hair elastic and a Czech crown. I accepted, since they'll allow me to continue dating Nolan. We've made all sorts of plans. We're going to make everyone wear white gloves and bright outfits and have a blacklight wedding. It's gonna be sweet. I broke the news to Nolan after we went to HP6 when I got back, and he binged on popcorn for awhile and then was over it. So it's all good.
Prague is absolutely gorgeous!!!! (Is that how you spell that? Whatevs) Rita, our publisher, tour manager, god person, grew up in Prague, and so her mother and father met us at the train station. Her dad gave us a sight seeing tour and it was wonderful!!! We stayed in a really nice and colourful hotel, but there were a few tabel tennis teams there as well who kept harrassing some of the girls. There were some Ukrainian boys who kept harrassing Mayah's room. One day, the parents decided to give the chaps the night off and looked after us, and Alix's mom, who is Ukrainian herself, startled the boys by yelling at them in their own language. They also would run up and down the halls spraying axe, so our manager, Gaileen, took it from them. I love our chaps.
I think I'll finish talking about Prague and the rest of my trip another time. I need to shower. You really wanted to know that, I'm sure. Anyways, this quote is from tour!
Heather: *combing her hair after taking a shower* "What the - where are my bangs?! AAGH! I can't find my bangs!!!!!!"
Eline: "Did you try looking in your suitcase?"
Anyways, our second day in Vienna we were all recovered from jet leg and what not, so we were able to appreciate the beauty of everything and get truly excited about where we were. That said, I still think I was kind of in denial.......like, I'm not actually in Vienna, am I? Holy feck, I really am!!!!! Anyways, we went on a lovely sight seeing tour and had our minds blown. And we saw a palace at some point that was insanely hot but super pretty. At some point we were in a sound museum too that was pretty trippy.......I don't remember when, though.
The next day after that we went to the opening ceremony that had a lot of speeches and was kind of boring. The choir that sang at it, though, was SO GOOD, I really liked them. Also, the parallel tour (that is to say, our parents and such who shadow us to cheer us on) arrived and were there. My parents, Grandma, and older sister Jennifer were among them, so that was exciting. Cat and I hadn't seen Jenn since Christmas, so we were very enthused to see her. They were all super tired, though, since they'd just gotten to Austria and were therefore feeling the jet leg.
Our first performance was in some small town outside Vienna called Pfarrkirche. Do not ask me how to pronounce that because I haven't a clue. Anyways, we performed during a church service, and then gave a recital following that. It was very well recieved and quite a bit of fun. That same day, we got a bunch of workshops and lectures that were pretty good. I really enjoyed one we got from a nice man from Denmark. He was a lot of fun and very cheerful. We learned a cute little Danish folk song from him. Then we went to Zentrafriedhof, a very beautiful graveyard where many famous composers were buried. Like, really. Pretty much everyone but Mozart was there. (okay, that's a lie, but still, I visited Beethoven and Schubert's graves, so holy sheet!) Mozart got a memorial, though. All the graves were so pretty! Lindsay thinks she may have accidentally found and touched a bone and may or may not be cursed now. It's still up in the air.
Oh yeah, the food they fed us at the Festival Village was super delicious. And the festival was called the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival.
The next day we dubbed Competition Day because......we competed that day. It was our first competitive festival in awhile (we have been to non-competitive ones exclusively since our last Powell River trip) and we were all really nervous. Like really. We were kind of worried we might suck during our 20 minutes we had to sing. Okay, not suck, per say, but maybe Europe wouldn't like our style or our technique and what if we sharped in Bitte Betti like we always do and what if the candles went nuts and ruined Yo Te Nombre Libertad and what if Uberleibensgross was just weird to the jury instead of cool? I gave a pep talk in our dressing room before we went on, helped by Heather and a few other senior choristers, and everyone participated enthusiastically. We talked about each song and what it meant to us. First, we sang Hebe Deine (sp?) which is pretty song where we should be content and happy and charming. Then came Bitte Betti, which we had to try not to sharp in, and is about a mother scolding her impolite child. These were our test pieces. Then we sang Witches Chorus from Verdi's Macbeth opera, which is just a lot of fun. After that came Yo Te Nombre Libertad (I cry out your name for liberty), an arrangement of a Chilean protest song written specifically for us by Regina composer Peter Tiefenbach. It's an extremely moving song we sing with candles, except the Musikverein's Golden Hall, where we were to perform, does not allow fire, so we had to use very fussy electrical candles instead. After that, we finished off with Uber, which is a shout out to the saviness of women and is super fun. It's by Canadian composer Stephen Hatfeild, who we have had the huge privelege of working with twice before. We premeired a piece of his, Flying Colours, last year and were going to take it to Europe, only its over twenty minutes long even without any repeats so we didn't have time for it. Sad, 'cause its a cool piece. Uber, however, is still probably my favourite of his ever, so I was really happy to be performing that. We do a ton of movement in that one, dancing all over the stage, and end it by falling down. It's pretty sweet. But we were nervous about this one because we had to sing extra amazing in it so that we could prove that the dancing was not there to a) distract form bad technique or b) cause vocal problems. Once we got out on stage, we had a blast performing and the Golden Hall is incredibly beautiful and amazing to perform in. An audible "whoa" went through the crowd in the short silence that followed Uber (which also has some really sweet percussion parts in it) and we left the stage to enthusiastic applause. As we entered the Golden Hall again to sit down and watch the other groups, we were extremely humbled as the audience started clapping for us again.
Pretty pumped, we went shopping after that. It was pouring rain. Absolutely pouring. But we were on an adreneline high, so we ignored that and shopped, goddamnit! Erica, Alix, Allison, Cat and I all shopped together, ending our trip in a coffee shop with chocolate criossants and hot chocolate with whipped cream. Soaking wet, we got back on the bus two ours later. Aunt Pheobe got on with a bouquet of flowers and got on the bus mike to speak with us. She complimented our performance, then told us how she disliked the word competition for choral festivals, because everyone interperets music differently and so on so on. She was very earnest about it, and it is impossible to deny that she's absolutely right. "That said," Aunt Phoebe continued, "We won the treble choir category we were in." We all screamed, and a couple of people burst into tears. She let us yell and celebrate and hug one another for a little while before speaking into the mike once more. "Wait," she said, "there's more." We were all suddenly silent. She told us then that we had also been given the Summa Cum Laude City of Vienna Award given to the choir with the best overal outstanding performance. We screamed louder. Almost everyone cried (including myself). From the bouquet she had bought, Aunt Phoebe gave each of us a flower. She then told us that, as exciting as this was, we were to keep the celebrating to the bus and the privacy of our rooms. We were not to flaunt it. We of course agreed. We sang Jot to the World, our traditional sing-along on the bus tour song, while waving our flowers, and belting out the lyrics "Jeremiah was a bullfrog!!!!"
Because of our success, we performed Uber at the final winners concert gala in the Golden Hall. The hall was much more full this time, with every other group in the festival watching. We were again nervous, since we felt now we had to prove that we were worthy of the honour we'd recieved. The performance went by really fast (so much so that Aunt Phobe kept asking "Did we perform? I can't remember" afterwards), but the moment we finished Uber the audience errupted into screams and applause. We then went to the gala dinner, but didn't stay for too long sing we were all very tired. We'd had two performances that day, with and earlier concert in a library.
I can't remember what day it was, but there was a boy wandering around our rooms early one morning. See, we had to lock the doors manually 'cause we weren't in a hotel, but we forgot to do this a lot and often left them open not when we were gone, but when we were inside. So this boy came into a bunch of our rooms for unknown reasons and was sighted by a few people. We think, from the shirt he was wearing and who else was staying in out building, that he was from on of the Australian groups. It was kind of scary but mostly hilarious.
After that, we spent a day in Salzburg to take the Sound of Music tour. That was neat, as we got to see a bunch of sets from the movie and couldn't stop singing all day. We stayed in a really nice little hotel for the night, though we were kind of hyper and loopy that evening and started thinking the place might be haunted for no good reason. Bronemily have been convinced, though, that a ghost is stalking them. I forget his name....he had a name....
Off to Prague! We took a train to Prague just for the heck of it (we had a bus, so it wasn't neccesary) and it was SO COOL. It was like a more rundown version of the Hogwarts Express, with sliding comparmtent doors and even a snack trolley! Most of us are Harry Potter fans, so when we saw we would be sitting in compartments we FLIPPED OUT. I had the following conversation, more or less:
"OMG. We're going to Hogwarts!!!"
"We're not in England, we're going to Prague."
"We're practically Harry Potter! I will die if there's a snack trolley, I'll just go NUTS."
"We're going to Prague."
"We're going to Hogwarts!"
"Hogwarts is not in Prague!"
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"
Anyways, that was fun. We'd been told we'd be attacked by pick pockets so we shouldn't bring anything valuable, so I didn't bring my iPod or anything. I just brought by writing notebook, since I figured you'd have to be a pretty lame pick pocket to steal that. I finsihed chapter 9 of Lullaby on that train, and then Alix, who was in the compartment with Erica, Catherine, a chaperone, and I, read it. It was fun to watch her reations - I miss watching Jessica's. Chapter 9 has a revelation at the end, so Alix was all OMG and then we talked about it. She told be she'd cut off my head if I killed Grandma Lynn. 0.o
On the train, Bronemily McEdwards proposed to me with a makeshift ring made of a hair elastic and a Czech crown. I accepted, since they'll allow me to continue dating Nolan. We've made all sorts of plans. We're going to make everyone wear white gloves and bright outfits and have a blacklight wedding. It's gonna be sweet. I broke the news to Nolan after we went to HP6 when I got back, and he binged on popcorn for awhile and then was over it. So it's all good.
Prague is absolutely gorgeous!!!! (Is that how you spell that? Whatevs) Rita, our publisher, tour manager, god person, grew up in Prague, and so her mother and father met us at the train station. Her dad gave us a sight seeing tour and it was wonderful!!! We stayed in a really nice and colourful hotel, but there were a few tabel tennis teams there as well who kept harrassing some of the girls. There were some Ukrainian boys who kept harrassing Mayah's room. One day, the parents decided to give the chaps the night off and looked after us, and Alix's mom, who is Ukrainian herself, startled the boys by yelling at them in their own language. They also would run up and down the halls spraying axe, so our manager, Gaileen, took it from them. I love our chaps.
I think I'll finish talking about Prague and the rest of my trip another time. I need to shower. You really wanted to know that, I'm sure. Anyways, this quote is from tour!
Heather: *combing her hair after taking a shower* "What the - where are my bangs?! AAGH! I can't find my bangs!!!!!!"
Eline: "Did you try looking in your suitcase?"