Keystone State Boychoir

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!