Keystone State Boychoir

Greetings from Prague –

We’ve had plenty of success in posting on facebook and instagram, but wifi insufficient for much else. The boys are off singing at the Hagibor retirement home today, and I am staying behind to find better wifi than what’s in our hostel lobby, where Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album is playing. Sorta strange to be listening to “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” today…

To catch up:

Sunday’s concert – The boys had the great privilege of performing in the theater of Schwetzingen Palace, the summer home of the princes of this region of Germany. Built in 1753, Mozart performed here when he was 7 years old! In honor of that, our accompanist, Immanuel Mykyta-Chomsky wowed the sold out house playing the final movement of Mozart’s 12th Piano Sonata

 

 

Between the rehearsal and the concert, the boys walked the formal gardens that are reminiscent of Versaille with reflecting pools, water spouting statuary, and all manner of topiary, etc.

We shared the concert with three other choirs, one the age of the trainers and apprentices, one the age of Towne and Concert Choir, and a PG Motet-aged girlchoir. We sang two sets, and of course finished with the typical South African set outside the venue. A typical tour treat is hearing new boys take on solos like Andrew P singing “Baba Yetu” and Calvin W.  singing “In the Still of the Night.

The concert was sold out, and the audience not disappointed! The boys’ host families turned out in full force with the affection that had grown quickly over the first four nights of the tour. As usual, the boys have been terrific ambassadors of our choir and our country. The audience was delighted and impressed with the diversity of repertoire, the quality of the singing, and the excitement of watching the choir, especially so to an audience more accustomed to boys standing still with their hands behind their back. A perfect end to the first leg of the tour, made even more so with the addition of KSB alumni Alexander and Konstantin Minch joining the grads for a few pieces. Alexander and Konstantin, sons of our ace tour planner Angela Wende, sang and toured with KSB for many years before moving back to Germany.

 

Nuremberg

On Monday we said goodbye to Heidelberg, boarded the buses for Nuremberg, a halfway point between Heidelberg and Prague. Boys continued having their individual time talking with Inge about “I Am A Star” and her experiences in Terezin. For a couple of bus rides, I’ve been sitting in front of Inge, and so have had the chance to eavesdrop, and have been impressed to a boy with their thoughtful, insightful questions and with their engagement with Inge, which always ends with a hug.

First stop in Nuremberg was a formal reception in the mayor’s office. After the reception, a walk through the old town led to a detour into the Church of St. Sebald, a gothic vaulted ceiling, just the kind of space for a boychoir! Didn’t have to be asked twice when a church staff wondered if the boys would sing. Zikr and Ani Ma’amin may not have been what they expected, but the boys sounded so beautiful in the space that expectations were exceeded.

Our final stop was a tour of the Palace of Justice, including Courtroom 600, site of the Nuremberg Trials of 1946, the first time in history when war criminals were tried for crimes against humanity. This stop was especially meaningful for me, since my 95 year old dad, who served in World War II in the 1258th Army Engineers, was part of the American team who prepared the Palace of Justice for the trials in the summer of 1945. It was quite moving to stand where he stood at the end of the war, at an age not much older than the grads. I shared his story with the boys, reading a text that he sent me with his memories, adding the voice of an American GI to Inge’s stories.

Monday concluded with a delicious dinner where the boys could make their own choices from the menu, and then were turned out into the square to buy some ice cream afterwards. Back at our hostel, we turned the corner from homestays to what the rest of the trip will be, hostels and hotels!

On Tuesday, once again we loaded the buses, this time to Prague, but with a first stop at the Nuremberg Rally Grounds, to witness the site of Hitler’s rise to power. Once again, the boys were thoughtful in processing this experience. Alex G. pondered the dissonance between the quiet park grounds with the intensity of the hatred that once filled the place where we walked. At our final stop, the stands where Hitler spoke and where the allies tore down the Nazi swastika, we sang Ani Ma’amin and the Star Spangled Banner, marking our visit in song.

 

 

Prague – longest leg of the tour.

We’re settled into our home for the week, and have started to explore this most beautiful of European cities. In addition to planned performances, the boys have been singing everywhere! If you’re following us on instagram and facebook you’ve seen the video evidence, everywhere from Prague’s iconic Charles Bridge to the packed restaurant where we had dinner on the first night.

The mornings have included rehearsals and performances at Hagibor, a project of the Jewish Community in Prague, both a retirement home and a day care. We’ve been joined by students of the Lauder School, which originally served the community as a Jewish orphanage in the pre-WWII era, and was site of the first performance of Brundibár.

Yesterday afternoon, the boys sang the national anthem at an early July 4th party at the US Ambassador’s residence, then filled themselves with endless food from Burger King, KFC, Starbucks, etc, and rubbed elbows with diplomats and generals. #tourheaven say the veteran singers and chaps!

It’s a rainy afternoon, so the plan to do some sightseeing may be replaced with a movie before we make our way to the Spanish Synagogue for this evening’s concert. The boys are having a great time – everyone is happy and healthy, well fed, and sounding great.

Thanks to all the chaps for their photos. We will keep adding more pictures to this post as wifi allows.

 

-Martha

 

 

 

With minimal wifi,  we will have to wait until we get home to see the rest of Laurie’s pictures.

Back in Helsinki after our third and final overnight ferry, with our final concert on Sunday night, and the end of tour.

St. Petersburg left a huge impression on all of us such that everyone is struggling to come up with words to express what we just experienced. From the Winter Palace to the Cathedral on Spilled Blood to the Hermitage,  it’s just so much larger than life.

We saw the city from the top of St Isaac Cathedral, from the water, and from walking between our various destinations. The scale of the city certainly reflects the dreams of the Russian Imperial family, especially Peter the Great and Catherine the Great, as we learned from various tour guides.

The Hermitage is a pretty good representation of the scale of St Petersburg, and the grandeur we experienced. To start with, it’s by far the largest museum in the world, with over 3 million objects in the collection. Add to that, one of the buildings is the Winter Palace, which has 1,057 rooms. One of the Ceremonial Halls that we saw was so big that boys decided the they could have played soccer in there when the weather was bad, and would have room to spare. And then there’s the chapel. So much gold…

Throughout, we’ve enjoyed our connections with Russians. Remember the response of the audience to the post-concert South African sing, where they sang back to us? That happened on Friday, too, in a most unexpected way. We had gathered on one of the bridges to head for some shopping at an open air market near the Cathedral on Spilled Blood. The bridge is a natural destination for wedding photos, with the cathedral in the background. As the photographer captured the bride and groom’s special day, Mr Fisher called the boys to standing order, and started Shumeyela, and the bride and groom started dancing, clearly loving the serenade for their photo session. Then the grads surrounded another couple and sang “In the Still of the Night”. As the boys started walking away, the groom, the bride and a couple of their friends broke into song themselves, a beautiful song in that incredible Russian harmony. We returned the gesture, and the grads sang Salvation is Created, in Russian. Cheers back and forth, with good wishes for the bride and groom, and for our safe travels.

Final view of the port of St Petersburg, with a vestige of Soviet days – Wiley pointed out the sign that reads Leningrad in Russian

 

 

 

When last we blogged, Keystone State Boychoir was enjoying a final day in the idyllic quiet of Rättvik, Sweden.

Since then? Two overnight ferries, 600 miles across the Baltic Sea, a brief stop in Helsinki, and now? Russia!

There’s been lots of informal singing, lots of rehearsing. Boat Adventures! A brief pass through Helsinki, with more to come on Sunday.

And then we got to Russia.

St Petersburg is beautiful with a grandeur and scale unlike any other city. Our first day was taken up with getting everyone settled in four different hotels, and then in getting ready for the biggest concert on this tour at Kapella Hall. St. Petersburg deserves nothing but the best for KSB, including a great venue, even if we have to rent it ourselves.

What you can’t see in pictures, or even in videos, is how great the choir sounds on this tour, and how enthusiastically the boys have been received by the audience at every concert, each one more than the last. Last night was no exception! The Russians LOVED the choir, from the prelude — our two talented pianists, Ben and Immanuel each played a piece —  to the end, an additional 45 minutes of singing in the courtyard outside the concert.

Over the past couple of years, the South African set has moved from its longstanding place at the end of the concert to a post-concert party outside the venue. On this tour, Mr Fisher has been introducing the final(ish) song, Shosholoza by asking the audience to name a song with a similar place in their country’s culture as Shosholoza for South Africans. Last night, the Russians did more than name the song – the whole audience sang the song themselves. It’s a rare moment on tour when the audience sings back to the boys!

A final note to highlight one of our boys who has been a star on this tour, and who leaves us today, not only from the concert tour (heading to Italy for a performance) but also (for now) from KSB, as his family is moving to Texas. Immanuel Mykyta-Chomsky joined KSB as a trainer in 2009, is one of the 8 Sopranos, and for this tour, is our accompanist. In addition to being a standout singer, Immanuel is an accomplished pianist, and an amazing young musician. His sight reading of the 1st movement of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms during rehearsal last week will be the stuff of KSB legends. While we say goodbye to Immanuel today, we expect that we haven’t seen the last of him wearing a KSB jacket, at least as an accompanist!

Lots of sightSINGing today!

Once again, the wifi is very slow, but at least we have some!

We’ll be adding photos to this blog, hopefully tonight. For now, keep an eye on facebook and instagram for pictures!

 

 

 

 

Update – Pictures uploaded!

Quick post about yesterday, our last day in Rättvik!

After morning rehearsals, we headed into town for some shopping, then to the summer luge – fun!

 

 

It’s been a perfect weekend of Swedish tradition and basically Boychoir Camp!

On to our next adventure!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning, ancient bells rang, (oldest bell — from the 15th century), church boats arrived carrying villagers from around the lake, fiddlers played traditional music, as the locals gathered for their Sunday church service, many in the Swedish attire specific to Rättvik. We learned each town has its own style, with unique color scheme, patterns of stripes, and needlework. The lace is handmade, and women weave the front piece of the skirt. The men of Rättvik wear long black coats, and yellow pants gathered at the knees, with three red pom-poms, though no one remembers why. We experienced Swedish Sunday morning, much as it has been for a centuries.

KSB sang for a well attended service, perhaps in part since many people had seen the choir at the concert the night before, which by the way, was fantastic. The chemistry between choir and nearly full house was electric, with every song better than the one before until the place nearly exploded after Praise His Holy Name. They liked it so much that if there’s enough of an audience, we’ll sing in Rättvik church again Monday night.

 

Between Friday’s Midsommar celebrations and today’s service, we’ve had a real taste of traditional Sweden. Later today, we encountered another reality of Sweden in 2016. When Europe was inundated with those escaping ISIS last year, 160,000 people sought asylum in Sweden, second only to Germany. As a result, even small towns like Rättvik are housing a few hundred Afghani and Syrian refugees.

While considering the possible audience for another concert, we learned that no one from either of the refugee camps, both within walking distance of the venue, heard the boys sing Saturday night. Through the music director here, we connected with people who speak English at both camps, with a plan to bring the grads to sing a couple of pieces at the camps, with an invitation to Monday’s concert.

Dinner time would be an obvious time, but it’s Ramadan, and sunset isn’t until after 10:30pm, so we should come earlier. After a nice reception from a dozen or so men at the first camp, who enjoyed the boys’ singing, we were told at the 2nd camp that there didn’t seem to be much interest in Monday’s concert. A few women and their children sat at an outside terrace of this hotel—turned refugee camp, so we figured we’d just sing for them. Then the boys started Zikr, and some curious men came outside to see what was going on. As the boys moved on to sing In the Still of the Night, a man asked if they would sing Zikr again, saying that it was so beautiful, that it would mean so much to them, so how could we refuse. 2nd round of Zikr finished, we said good night, and hoped to see them at the concert, but the men were so pleased that out came cookies and dates for the boys, handshakes and hugs, and plenty of pictures. Not sure that many will show up at the concert, but once again the power of music…

 

On the way home, the traditional tour ice cream treat – MAGNUM BARS! – and a walk on langbyggvaggen, literally the long bridge to the Steamship dock, where we had to test just how shallow the water really is.

 

While the grads were at the refugee camp,  the trebles had a great game of capture the flag, had sectional rehearsals beginning  working on the First Movement of Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms for next season, followed by more food and their own round of ice cream!

 

Hard to believe but we’re half way through this tour!

As predicted, there are days where the wifi is not very robust, or we’re travelling, or there are May Poles to be raised, or all three.

Hope you’re enjoying all the posts on social media!

Thursday, June 23, 2016

After another morning rehearsal on our last full day in Stockholm, the boys toured Stockholm City Hall! We had excellent tour guides, and got to see the room where Nobel Prize winners have their luncheon! We even learned a trick, how the Nobel Prize winners walk down the staircase so elegantly! (hint: look at the star!)

After the Tour, some of the Grads went shopping at a real Swedish department store while everyone else enjoyed glass (ice cream!) on the waterfront, before returning for a final rehearsal and performance at Kungsholms Church with our hosts, Stockholms Gosskör.

The performance that night was packed! No room for the boys to sit! Immanuel, who is our accompanist for this tour, gets to sing sometimes, too, and rocked the Chichester solo. Of course everyone joined in for Shumayela!

Friday, June 24, 2016 – Off to Rättvik!

A little rain didn’t dampen our farewells to our friends in Stockholm, as we said so long for now, in hope of continued friendship between our choirs. On our way to our next destination, Rättvik. On the way, a stop to see the Dala Horse, the traditional wooden toy of this region, now an iconic representation of both Dalarna and of Sweden.

Riding in a double decker bus with luggage trailer, the four hour ride went by quickly, and the boys arrived in Rättvik, a town of about 10,000 people on the shores of Lake Siljan. It’s a perfect place to spend Midsommar, the biggest holiday of the Swedish year other than Christmas. We’re staying at Stiftsgarden, a retreat center and hotel on the lake. Their claim to fame (beyond being boychoir tour heaven) is that Desmond Tutu stayed here while working with the Church of Sweden and the Swedish government during the struggles to end Apartheid)

And it really is boychoir tour heaven, with great food, nice dorms, and plenty of room to run and have fun!

Glad Midsommar! (In Swedish — Happy Midsummer!)

“So grads, you know how in the US, wearing flowers in your hair is something girls generally do? Well in Sweden, guys wear flowers too. Follow me to pick flowers, and then we’ll make wreaths out of them.”

pause. hold my breath.

“Cool! Where are the flowers?”

Gotta love these guys, far from home, jumping happily into the local tradition, and in no time, flowers woven into wreaths, maypole raised, and KSB clumsily but happily learn several traditional Swedish Midsommar dances.

Midsommar continued with the holiday meal, followed by the Rättvik Midsommar Parade, complete with horse pulled wagons filled with locals in their traditional Swedish attire, marching violinists, and hundreds of people, clearly going somewhere together. It’s another Majstångresning (Maypole Raising – yes, it’s June. Not quite sure what the deal is with that), so we join the parade and watch the raising of a 40’ maypole, then another round of dancing, less clumsy this time since they’re the same dances that we learned earlier.

 

Midsommar concluded with a concert in the church where we sing on Saturday, plus some more dancing — this time “Cotton-eyed Joe” and “The Electric Slide” on the Stiftsgarden pier — plus late night grilled hotdogs, and an a cappella Baba Yetu for those gathered for an evening prayer service, around 11:00pm, still plenty of daylight.

 

Though it doesn’t get all the way dark, with about four hours of twilight until sunrise comes again, no one had any trouble falling asleep!

Saturday, June 25

It’s Saturday afternoon now, the grads are having their afternoon rehearsal and the trebles are on break. This morning, the traditional church boats arrived, once the only way that residents of the various villages around the lake got to church. We joined the service for one piece, in hope to spread the word for tonight’s concert. With 700 people in attendance, we’re looking forward to a good audience tonight!

 

It’s another perfect summer day in Stockholm, low 70ºs during the day, cool enough for another layer after dark, which happens for a minute around midnight! Hard to believe we are already on our last day in this beautiful city. The boys have gathered for the morning at the rehearsal home of Stockholm Gosskör, to be followed by a tour of City Hall to see where the Nobel Prize winners have their banquet every December. Tonight will be the final concert here, a sharing with Stockholm Gosskör.

Wednesday started with a musical treat for KSB and several members of our host choir: a morning workshop with Katarina Henryson and Morten Vinther of The Real Group, the Swedish equivalent of The Pentatonix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After rehearsal the boys visited the salvaged Swedish warship, Vasa, expected to be its era’s greatest warship, except it sank on its maiden voyage in 1628, and remained at the bottom of the Stockholm harbor until 1959. To preserve the ship, the museum is pretty dark, so here are some guys enjoying a picnic lunch in the park outside the museum! Click here if you are interested in more about the Vasa

 

Wednesday wrapped up with a concert at the Anglican church, with the typical KSB encore – Shumeyela and Shosholoza. The choir is sounding great!

I’m on my way to make final preparations for our next stop, Rättvik, where boys will enjoy, Midsommar, one of the biggest holidays in the Swedish year. Everyone is happy and well, with jet lag behind us and a weekend of outdoor fun ahead of us!

 

Greetings from Stockholm, Sweden!

Put yourself back on Saturday night in Verizon Hall, with the thrill of Fitz’s Concert Mass, the joyful end of Praise His Holy Name, the peak of this incredible 2015-16 season. Take all of that and use it to fill the sails of this concert tour, and you get an idea of how everything is going in Stockholm!

Despite everyone being kind of bleary eyed on Sunday, the excitement from the Gala Concert was in the air from the moment we were back together again, and got us through the long travel day. We arrived in Stockholm yesterday afternoon, and reunited with Stockholm Gosskör, who had visited us a year ago on their tour to the US. Boys report that they’ve got terrific homestays.

Our first full day in Stockholm started with a morning rehearsal then the first performance of the tour – a lunch time concert. We’ve done some sightSINGing, and are now heading to an afternoon rehearsal, after which, the boys will be back to their homestays, who have just started their summer vacation.

More tomorrow!

 

Luggage lined up and ready to go!

 

 

 

Some of the guys with their homestay families. It’s especially fun since this is a return visit and we know each other already!

 

     

 

 

The choir sends their greetings home on Christmas!

1st of 10 clips of boys (altos) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 11:18am PST

2nd of 10 clips of boys (sop2s) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 11:29am PST

3rd of 10 clips of boys (sop1/desc) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 3:39pm PST

4th of 10 clips of boys (sop1/ desc) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 3:41pm PST

5th of 10 clips of boys (sop1/ desc) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 3:44pm PST

6th of 10 clips of boys (t2,b2) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 3:48pm PST

7th of 10 clips of boys (t1) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 3:53pm PST

8th of 10 clips of boys (b2-1) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 4:01pm PST

9th of 10 clips of boys (b1) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 4:05pm PST

10th of 10 clips of boys (sop1/ desc) mostly by voice part with holiday greetings

A video posted by Keystone State Boychoir (@keystonestateboychoir) on Dec 25, 2015 at 4:07pm PST

Note: These were recorded and posted on the KSB Instagram site on Christmas Day, but we are reposting them to reach everyone and to ensure that the blog has a complete record of the tour.

The bus will be here in about 2 hours, so just a quick update.

I could not have wished for more for the boys this week. Many thanks to Peter Robb, Artistic Director and Founder of picfest – so glad to be part of the fulfillment of your dream of an all boy picfest! Our deepest appreciation to Maestro Malvar-Ruiz both for the depth of his dedication to the boys’ voice and for his thoughtful, light-hearted, inspiring instruction. Looking forward to seeing you back in the Mid-Atlantic! And three cheers for the terrific boychoirs we sang with, from the youngest boys from the Bay Area’s Ragazzi Boys Chorus and Calgary Boys’ Choir to the Boychoir of Ann Arbor, with their small but mighty TTBB section and the largest group, Florida’s Singing Sons Boychoir who could match KSB in post-concert energy, which is saying something.

We are all brothers now!

Everyone made great friends while singing with the other choirs, both the formal rehearsals and the non-stop singing everywhere else. I am sure that boys will see each other again, starting with Patrick, who found out that one of the Ann Arbor boys will be in his Freshman class at University of Michigan, studying vocal performance as well!

As for today, the boys could not stop singing.

Final rehearsal this morning, then off to Eugene’s Saturday Market, where KSB held an impromptu South African jam to promote tonight’s concert.

Of course, the concert, which was a perfect conclusion to all that the boys learned from the conductor, and from each other, and throughout the season at KSB. And congrats to Greg and Jimmy representing KSB as soloists!

After the concert, we shared a bus to dinner with most of Florida’s Singing Sons Boychoir’s tenors and basses, and sang back and forth, one of ours (Zikr), one of theirs (a Sea shanty) one of ours (Jai Ho) one of theirs (a Christmas piece) to which we answered with a falsetto Hodea from Ceremony of Carols and then one they all knew, Circle of Life from Lion King. After dinner, we shared a bus back to the dorm with Boychoir of Ann Arbor, with lots of shared rep – Hello Mary Lou, Prayer of the Children, and Brothers Sing On.

And one final song — an old KSB favorite, Hold Me Rock Me, back at the dorm, as the guys took their pins off, pinned them to their ties, and handed in their jackets for the season, with tears and hugs for our four seniors, Jimmy, Thomas, Patrick and Theo.

As always, thank you for entrusting your sons to us, and in case you don’t always see it at home, every single boy is everything you would want him to be when he is with us: helpful, respectful, friendly, disciplined, and fully engaged in what we are offering at KSB. I love traveling with all of them – and our three resilient and resourceful chaps as well! Can’t thank Pete Davis, Bob LePera and Bill Hoyt enough for their good natured patience in keeping this little army on the move this week!

They are all a great group of guys – or as you might say at the University of Oregon, a great group of ducks!

See you at the airport!