Westminster Trip Days 11 & 12 (final posting)

June 24, 2008 – 00:44 Local Time

Wow…what a day this had been in Berlin! (Just FYI, I type “Berling” almost without fail in my efforts to type Berlin, so there may be a few errant composer references here and there – I’ll proofread soon, haha!) We started the day, as always, bright and early for a 9am bus tour of the city. After going to bed at 2am (couldn’t sleep), this wasn’t a pleasant thought at the beginning. However, our guide was the single-most wonderful guide we have had this entire journey, and she made it all worthwhile. Her bubbliness alone was motivation enough to be there, let alone her personality, her knowledge, and her outright enthusiasm for this wonderful city.



This tower (above) is all that is left of a beautiful church which was bombed in WWII. It was, literally, two blocks from our hotel. Next to it is a fascinating memorial sanctuary - the circular wall is comprised entirely of mortared-together squares of blue glass, all different shades, making up a breath-taking sea of color.

Next we were off to the Olympic Stadium, the site of the rather ironic 1936 Olympic Games. I think it must have been difficult to put on an event which thrives on world unity while preparing to invade other countries.



Next, we were on our way around the city for a somewhat long bus ride. Along the way we passed the the Senate House, the Brandenburg Gate (which was somewhat obscured by the World Cup Semifinals construction going on), and finally the longest existing stretch of the Berlin Wall. I guess I didn't know what to expect about the Wall. It was about ten feet tall, and completely covered in paintings. A good deal of that was graffiti, sure, but the "base coat," as it were, was made-up of commissioned painting. They were of a stark political nature and quite disturbing for the most part.







After the tour, we spent a couple of hours in the Checkpoint Charlie district. I have to confess that I have a huge lack of knowledge when it comes to Communist times. This was a really neat experience for me, because everything was new. It was unfortunate that we didn't have the time to go to the museum. However, we had some tasty Greek food and enjoyed some fun shops of relics and art relating to the 1945-1989 period.



The afternoon was all to ourselves, which was fantastic! Nathan and I went to KaDeWe, a HUGE (7-story) department store in the middle of the Kurfürstendamm (high-end shopping district). We (foolishly) made our way to "Men's fashion" and became immediately and totally depressed. Never in my life have I seen a place with an Armani department, and a Versace department!!! It was incredible! Of course, the least-expensive thing on the floor was a t-shirt for 80€ ($120), and let's not even TALK about the jeans!!! We made our way to the electronics department, and things became a lot friendlier. I found a copy of Maria Callas' Medea. The only sad part is that it's a Region 2 DVD, so I have to play it on my computer until I can afford a Blu-Ray player, haha.



We spent the rest of the night just hanging out in the hotel. We decided to stay up all night, since the bus was leaving for the airport at 3:45am...blech! It was just WAY too ridiculous. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 6:00. The worst part was fighting with non-English-speaking (well, mostly) to convince them that Nathan, Polly and I actually did have tickets that would carry us back to our homes. We finally got on a plane, passed through Brussels and Chicago (with not a hitch in customs), and landed safely back in Nashville. What a fantastic trip! Thanks to everyone for reading! I love you all! ~AJR

Westminster Trip Days 9 & 10

June 22, 2008 – 14:02 Local Time

Bach was amazing!!! That church is simply the most beautiful place in which I have ever had the pleasure to sing. It’s an 800 year old building that’s the size of a small town, haha! Seriously, this building is probably two football fields in length and half a field in width. (I haven’t looked up the dimensions – I’m writing this on a bus). So, let’s start at the beginning of yesterday, shall we?





We woke up at 7:30 for showering and breakfast, and then got on the buses by 9am. Much to my wallet’s chagrin, the next time period was merely to go to a mall for a little over two hours. Wow…this was, yet again, a huge place to shop. Nathan was able to replace his black shoes that had fallen victim to that first little café in Prague, and we also found some really fantastic clothing in some other places. After this time, we all came back to the hotel and had lunch.
At 1:30pm the Bach singers shuttled over to the Dom (main cathedral of Magdeburg) for our afternoon rehearsals with the Domchor (Dom choir) and the orchestra. The choir rehearsed (with John Semingson conducting) for about an hour, and then took a break for thirty minutes. At 3:30, we met with the orchestra for a straight run-through of the Bach. This was the only opportunity for the soloists to sing in the space – a somewhat intimidating experience for someone like me who has never sung over here. However, the most intimidating part of the whole deal was singing German for German people! I mean, I can sing Bach and Telemann all day back in the States, and a vast majority of the people who hear it won’t know whether it was pronounced accurately or not. Over here though, it’s gotta be right! They know what you’re saying, and if you say something wrong, they’ll flat-out tell you – an experience which shocked a great many of the Westminster singers. My voice was not cooperating with me for the rehearsal! All my low notes had decided to take their leave of me, and I was starting to get VERY worried about singing over the orchestra, especially since my line was frequently doubled by the oboe. So, I decided right then to not sing much of anything until the performance, in the hopes that something would kick in and start to work. After the Bach rehearsal, the Domchor rehearsed the Haydn mass that they were to perform, and we checked a few places in the pieces that we would be singing.









Finally, the hour was here for the performance! (This is something I have anticipated for almost nine months at this point, so try to bear with my enthusiasm, haha!) Just before the concert, I had a HUGE wave of nervousness, but most of this was due to the less-than-acceptable behavior of my voice during the rehearsal. Once I calmed down and realized that things would probably be ok with a couple of hours’ rest, the nerves subsided greatly. The concert began at 6pm with the Domchor and their Haydn. This was followed by Westminster’s 25-minute portion (a few selections from each of our sections of music). The last part of the concert was indeed the Bach Cantata No. 80 Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (A mighty fortress is our God, in case I’ve forgotten to mention that). The opening (and extremely long) chorale went fairly well, but we rediscovered how very difficult it is to stay in tempo on contrapuntal music while singing in a hall that has a nine-second reverberation! The second movement was the duet between me and the bass. His voice was quite nice on everything else he sang that night, but this duet requires him to move rather quickly, and he (sadly) fell a little short. However, praise Jesus, my voice came back! I think that it went about as well as I could have hoped, and I will remember my European debut quite fondly. The rest of the movements came off quite well, including Nicole’s aria, and the applause was quite raucous, so I think all of us were very pleased. One minor disappointment was that neither Nicole’s name nor my own was listed on the program. It’s not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to have something tangible (other than photos) to prove that we were there to sing.





After the Bach, it was time to celebrate! We were invited into the quite spacious courtyard of the Dom for wine, beer and juice a-plenty. And plenty we had! At my last count there were two beers and a glass of wine, and having decided against eating lunch, this was more fun that it had a right to be! *grin* We mingled some with the German singers (a good number of which were, in fact, British) and had a great time. However, pretty soon it became necessary to take in some food, so eight of us headed off to a pub of sorts. There we had some excellent Schnitzel and more beer (two more for me), haha! At that point, it was time to pass out, so we all hopped in two separate cabs and made our way back to the hotel. We got there at 11:24pm, and I think I was asleep by 11:30 – fortunately having remembered to remove my contacts and set an alarm! This is, of course, the reason I didn’t write last night.





This morning, we had to be out the door, packed and loaded up, by 8:30am. After a rather high-BAC night, this was a bit of a challenge, but we all made it. The reason for the early hour was that we were to be the choir-in-residence for the Dom this morning. It was a lovely, rather simple, Lutheran service – all in German, of course. We sang three pieces (Introit, Offertory and Communion) while also fighting our way through the Evangeliches Gesangbuch (Evangelical Songbook). Sight-reading tunes we didn’t know, reading unfamiliar German, and doing this when the text is printed in prose form below the music (not in-between each line) was quite a feat, and I don’t feel that it was one which we accomplished with any degree of success. Oh well, things were fine in the long run. The Domorgelspieler (Dom organist) was Barry Jordan, a Brit who has relocated to this beautiful church in northeastern Germany. He was a beast on their brand-new organ, and was not in any way afraid of pushing down a lot of keys at once, and allowing the clash to manifest itself in that cavernous sanctuary. Apparently, he knows Murray back home – small world, eh?





After church, we returned to the same mall from yesterday for lunch. Four of us ate at a café on the upper floor, and in barely enough time to make it back to the bus. (Having to run around and find an ATM was not very time-effective.) Nothing else in the mall was open besides food, so it was really peaceful, which was nice. At 1:30pm we boarded the buses again and departed for Berlin. We’re still on the road, and will likely arrive there in about an hour. I’ll hopefully write more tonight (about our bus tour) and post this, provided that internet isn’t an issue at this hotel.



The rest of our time here is in Berlin, so it should be a lot of fun. No more concerts, so rest isn’t as much an issue – I’m fairly certain that means the 20-somethings will be making the most of this city! I’m excited, but a little worried that it will take me a week to recover once we get home, haha. More later, I hope! ~AJR

[21:40]
*Ok, so there wasn’t much more to add. Just walking around and dinner – tour is tomorrow! Goodnight!!

Westminster Trip Day 8

June 20, 2008 – 18:09 Local Time

Ok, so this will probably be a short blog. Today was a pretty low-key day with a lot of driving, so there isn’t too much to write about. As promised, the wake-up call came at 7:15am, so we begrudgingly rolled out of bed and got ready. Since we were changing cities, we had to pack – a task which becomes more difficult each time, haha. I’m fairly certain that this next time I will have to put the clean clothes in the small portion and the dirty clothes in the large portion of my suitcase. It’s just a math problem, really. We boarded the buses at 8:45 and got rolling around 9am for Wittenburg.



The drive was a long one, and went through the country, so it was naptime. Eventually, we came upon the medieval town of Wittenburg. Upon exiting the bus, we were greeted by Dietrich, our all-too-fun tour guide for the next two and a half hours. He is apparently the oldest tour guide in the town, at 73, and he is more full of life than most of the choir! He took us through the Lutherhaus (Martin Luther’s house) which is now the Reformation Museum. In the museum are many relics and artifacts from Luther’s home and work, only one of which is a replica (his wife’s wedding ring). The rest are originals, and a truly incredible sight. Seeing an original of the hymnbook he created for the protestant church was a real blessing. Unfortunately, the original placard of the 95 theses is in another location.







Next, we walked down the street to the Marktplatz (market place) of the town. This is the location of the annual trade fair of Saxony, as well as the rather large statue/monument to Martin Luther. There’s an interesting story behind this monument. Apparently, the city of Wittenburg wished to honor this great man’s work, but they were too poor to finance the statue themselves. However, another city nearby (sadly, I’ve forgotten which) had the money and decided they would build it. However, to do something like this at that time, you had to get the Emperor’s permission. Well, the Emperor decided he wanted it put in Wittenburg, so he took the money from the other city, and built the monument there, haha! Apparently, even to this day if you go to the other city and are from Wittenburg, you make sure not to tell people!





The last part of the tour was to the Stadtkirche und Schloβ (City Church and Castle). This was not the church onto which Luther nailed the theses, but he worked here a great deal and is buried here. The door to the church is solid bronze and contains a full double-door inscription of the 95 theses. This church, like so many others we have been to, is under-going renovations. The DDR period in Germany wreaked havoc on the economy, so no money was available to maintain these buildings until 1989. They are just now able to do what they need to do to restore these ancient buildings, and in some cases, it may be too late. One of the most endearing moments of the trip thus far was listening to Dietrich recount some of the tribulations encountered by he and his family during the time of the DDR. It’s horrifying to me to know that the global population allowed that to go on for so long, but I’m happy to see that the eastern part of Germany is finally starting to make headway in the world.







The remainder of our time in Wittenburg was spent eating lunch. Joe, Nicole, Omen, Nathan, Becky and I had a wonderful meal at a little café on the Marktplatz. We all had the same thing – beer of our choosing, bratwurst, sauerkraut and kartoffelbei (mashed potatoes). MMMMMMMMMMM!!! It was by far the best meal we had eaten since flying here! Yummy! In the restroom was a hilarious, but rather graphic, picture of the proper method of using this restroom. I’m not going to post the picture here for censorship reasons, but just ask me, and I’ll be happy to share!



At 3:15pm we loaded up the buses and headed to Madgeburg. This will be our home for two nights. It’s also the location of my long-anticipated BACH-DAY!!! I’m VERY excited to finally be able to perform my favorite composer’s music in such a wonderful space, and with the people who have lived in this tradition for so long. When we got here, we drove past the tallest wooden structure in Europe. It’s the Hershey’s Kiss-like object seen in the distance below that makes you say, “What in the world is that?!” Kind of odd, but whatever. It has a pendulum inside it that somehow proves that the world is spinning. I’m not really sure how that works without having seen it, haha. Then it was on to the hotel for dinner and rest!



I’m somewhat exhausted, so it’s going to be an early night for me (I’m shooting for 9:30pm, but we’ll see). Gotta be rested for tomorrow! Well, I suppose that’s enough for tonight! Thanks for reading, and I’ll be certain to write volumes about the Bach tomorrow!!! ~AJR

Westminster Trip Days 6 & 7

June 19, 2008 – 21:48 Local Time

Sorry for not posting yesterday! We have been in Leipzig since Tuesday evening, and the internet here is very expensive, so I wanted to limit my time as much as possible. Tuesday morning, however, started with a long bus ride to Naumburg, and passing about 3 million windmills along the way.



Upon arrival in the quaint little village, we made our way down the main commerce street and into St. Wenzels-Kirche (Saint Wenzel’s Church). We were scheduled to perform an “impromptu” (and yet, very planned) concert there at noon. Considering the bad traffic we experienced getting out of Dresden, our warm-up time was cut quite short. However, the concert went fairly well, though it was the weakest of our performances thus far. (Considering that, by the time I’m writing this, the Bach is the only concert remaining, I hope that Naumburg stays the weakest!) At two different points along the concert, the organist for the church played the Bach-tested organ in the sanctuary. She was truly a talented artist, but did not seem like the kind of person with whom you could have a friendly conversation – very stereotypical German, haha.





After the concert, we broke off onto our own for something like two hours for lunch, shopping and the like. Nathan, Thomas,Daniel and I wandered around looking for an ATM (smaller villages in Germany do NOT take plastic, by the way – anywhere) We finally found one which accepted my check card, but not Nathan’s. Since he and I have been loaning back and forth on the trip, this proved no issue. We spent a rather long amount of time finding somewhere to eat, finally deciding on a pizza parlor running a special on 30cm pizzas for 4,-€ (That’s basically a 13” pizza for $7.00, roughly) which we thought was a pretty good deal. It turns out that the proprietors basically spoke no English, so it was Andy to the rescue (aided by his German-learning side-kick Nathan). No worries – we were fed! Let me tell you, 30cm of pizza is way more than anyone needs in the middle of a hot afternoon. Except Daniel – he was able to down his, and eat the slice of Thomas’ that was left. Wow…



Following all of this was boarding the buses, travelling to Leipzig, and hustling into the Peterskirche (St. Peter’s Church) for a pre-concert warm-up/rehearsal. This church was in a really bad state of repair. It was, along with a great deal of Leipzig, destroyed in WWII, and it has taken 60 years (most of which was under the DDR) to rebuild it. You can see in one of the pictures that the stained glass is just panes of grey glass where is it not yet finished. Plus, there are no pews, just folding chairs. The church is nowhere near its old stature and beauty, but there is something elegant, something perseverant, about it. With a few minor exceptions, the concert here went well. The biggest complication was the spatial organization. Instead of having our normal four rows, we had to adapt to five, the fifth of which being a row of basses (and one tenor) up on a bench. Also, due to the rest of us being on a flat floor, we had to rearrange a lot of people, so the hearing aspect was completely different than usual. All those factors aside, we still sang pretty well.









The evening was ours to do with what we pleased. Nathan and I decided to check out the big mall across the road from our hotel. It is a fascinating place with the mall proper being on the bottom two floors and the main train station of Leipzig on the upper level, with several fast food/snack places up there as well. While there, I found a watch that I absolutely fell in-love with. It has a binary system readout!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I let it go for a while, but finally decided (with financial assistance from my mom and grandfather – MANY THANKS!!!) that I couldn’t live without it, so I went back and purchased it. It’s everything I had hoped for, and more! (Ok, so it’s the nerdiest thing I own, but I really like it!) We also bought a bottle of Bach wine while we were there, because we liked the fact that the best composer ever was on a bottle!





We finally tired out and went back to the hotel lobby. We sat with some of the youth for a while, and then moved over to talk with Shreyas. I mentioned the wine, and he decided that we should all go upstairs and drink it. The bottle was gone rather quickly, and Nathan and I decided that we should probably eat something, so we walked back over to the train station for the ever-popular McDonalds. Before we left, we thought that Omen knew we wanted to go to the dance club with him and the others, but apparently not. When we returned, they were already gone. Oh well, Nathan, Shreyas and I had a great time just hanging out, talking and drinking in the hotel. We probably drank more than we should have, but didn’t worry about it too much knowing that there were two days without concerts to follow. About 3am, we all decided that we were once again hungry, so the three of us made our way back to the to the train station for some more McDs, haha! We all finally decided to call it quits around 4am, and went to bed.



7:30am never seemed so hideous! Hungover and exhausted, we dragged ourselves out of bed, showered, and made it downstairs in time to grab a soda (yet again, at the train station), and get on the bus for the morning’s tour. Our tour guide was a lovely woman who didn’t bore in the least! She and the driver took us all around Leipzig, showing us the good and the bad. The Communist times were very hard on all of Saxony, specifically on Leipzig, a town founded on the principles of free trade. Even nineteen years later, they still haven’t been able to recover the glory of pre-war days. During the tour, we were given maps, but the streets here are a veritable labyrinth, so I couldn’t keep track of where we were.









The main three points of the tour were the monument memorializing the Battle of Nations (the largest monument in Europe), the Nicolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church) and the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church). The monument appeared to me as if it were from a Mayan city. I was impressed by it, but haven’t figured out how one is to avoid thinking of sacrificing virgins at the top of it. A shocking and horrifying quote stands on a pillar there, and I find it worthy of including,

,Die Stimme des Blutes deines Bruders schreit zu mir von der Erde.’
“The voice of the blood of your brothers calls to me from the earth.”

Striking, eh?





The tour of the Nicolaikirche was exciting, but I was already gnawing at the bit to get to the Thomaskirche so badly that I wasn’t able to pay much attention. However, I did get a few good pictures! We also heard a brief portion of the rehearsal for this evening’s Leipzig Bach Festival concert, which was a lot of fun. The final stop on the tour, however, was essentially Mecca for me. This was the Thomaskirche – Bach’s home church. I’ve wanted to come here for so long, and finally stepping up to this beautiful building, seeing the statue of Bach outside, and going in and seeing the organ that he played was an unforgettable experience. However, there was an even bigger surprise – one for which I was in no way prepared. I didn’t know that his body had been exhumed at some point and brought to the church. His remains now lie in the middle of the choir stalls!! (Of course, this was probably done years ago, and I have just been clueless, but it was still a nice surprise!) I didn’t think we would get to see his grave while here, but I was wrong!











After touring “Mecca” we were on our own until dinner time – 6.5 hours later. This is what we’ve all been longing for – an extended period of time during the day to explore Germany on our own! Five of us (Nicole, Becky, Omen, Nathan and I) walked around the city for about five of those hours. We would stop here to have a Bratwurst, or there for gelato, but mostly we just walked and shopped. It was fantastic, and having this experience with such a great group of people will definitely afford it a spot as one of my favorite moments of the trip. Just before coming back to the hotel, Nathan decided that he did, in fact, want the watch he had seen while I was purchasing the day before, so we went back and he bought it. It’s not a binary, haha, but it’s a truly lovely Skagen watch. Next was a 6pm dinner, followed by a bit more shopping. Afterward, we just came back to the hotel room and crashed. We didn’t sleep much last night, and walked a huge amount today, so we’re both exhausted. As a matter of fact, Nathan is snoring right now! I think I’m going to call it quits for tonight myself, purchase 30 minutes of internet, post this, check email, and go to bed!









Tomorrow, we travel to Wittenberg (Martin Luther’s home), and then on to Magdeburg. All sight-seeing and driving the whole day, and hopefully some workable internet in the new hotel! Thanks for reading! ~AJR