SGEC Trip Day 4

July 26, 2008 – 20:58 Local Time

*The pictures are all from York Minster, but I wanted to space them out through the blog, since that is all I photographed today, haha!*

Today has been such a low-key day! We got up early this morning and had breakfast before packing up and getting on the bus for that long bus trip to York. We stopped at a travel center for a brief lunch, and then continued on to arrive safely in York, checked-in to our hotel with no complications, and met back outside at about 3:15pm. From there, we took a walking tour of York, ending at York Minster. Along the way, Tim (our guide) showed us many different places to eat and shop, giving us ideas of how to use our ample free time in this beautiful city.









At York Minster we met up with a local guide named Louise who took us on a lengthy, and rather detailed, tour of the minster. She was quite fantastic, even allowing us to sing the Duruflé (remember St. George’s Chapel?) in the Chapter House of the Minster. Being in this space (the second-largest gothic medieval cathedral in Europe) really gave us some great insight into our historical roots, both as Anglicans and as musicians. With traditions leading from Constantine to Edward Bairstow and continuing through today, this place was a magnificent example of what we share.









After the tour we were allowed to have the evening to ourselves. A large number of us went to a wonderful restaurant called Russell’s. They specialize in roasted meats which they carve in-front of you. Knowing that we have to sing a very early service at a parish church in Selby tomorrow, and then head on to Bolton Abbey, I decided to turn-in early for the night. Sorry for the brevity of this one, but there isn’t a lot to say – just a good number of pretty cathedral pictures. Thanks for reading! ~AJR

SGEC Trip Day 3

July 25, 2008 – 11:26 Local Time

Well, today has been a fantastic (though not overtly “touristy”) day in London. We started the day with a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel. While sitting there, I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do in my free time today – Tower of London, Globe Theatre, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Eye? I had basically decided to go to Westminster Abbey in the morning, then buy a Tube pass and head over to the Tower of London for a 1pm tour with our guide. This would end just in time to get to St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Choral Evensong we were participating in. However, Stephanie mentioned that she was going to the British Museum, and that the Westminster Abbey folk had already left. Oops! Well, that made up my mind – the Museum it was! Altogether, for where I am in life, this was the best decision I could have made. We had such a good time looking through the artifacts from ancient Egypt, China, India, Rome, Greece, Mesopotamia, etc. Some of the highlights were the Rosetta Stone, the actual mummies (including those of calves) and the archaic instruments. It was amazing what England (among others) decided to just steal at certain points along the way, haha!









After losing track of time and spending over four hours there, we didn’t have enough time to do anything else (like the Tower), and Stephanie mentioned that she would like some lunch. I wasn’t hungry at the time, so we parted company. I had every intent of getting a Tube pass and at least taking pictures from the outside of some major attractions. However, I apparently walked past the Tube station and wound up in Covent Garden – what a pleasant surprise! This was a lovely area with shops everywhere, street performers on nearly every corner, and just an overall energy that really helped to boost my spirits while *technically* lost. Eventually, I found a station, bought a pass and simply made my way on to St. Paul’s.







I was an hour and a half early, but that gave me and Trisha (who I met up with at the Underground station) an opportunity to explore the church some on our own. As guests singing a service there, we were allowed to walk around more freely and access more areas than the general public. However, we still were not allowed to take pictures inside the church. However, I would highly suggest going to their site and looking around – truly beautiful. Trisha and I made the hike up the 259 steps to the Whispering Gallery and the 119 steps to the Stone Gallery. *Whew!* Due to time, we couldn’t make the additional climb of 152 steps to the very tip-top. Darn! (My legs were burning so badly that I was thanking Jesus we were out of time!) At 5pm we sang a beautiful Evensong there, which seemed to be very well-received. The vergers were all genuinely helpful and friendly, and the Dome itself leaves want wanted to sing for hours, but too tired to be capable. This will definitely go down as one of the most memorable choral experiences of my career.









After Evensong, we (Rachel, Megan, Stephanie, and I) came back to the hotel to freshen up, and then headed out to Covent Garden for dinner. What should have been a quick bite to eat followed by some shopping turned into a more-than-two hour meal at a quite fine Mediterranean restaurant. Following the meal (and the bill *cringe*), we decided to go to King’s Cross Train Station to see if the rumors were true about them having hung a Platform 9¾ sign for a photo opportunity. It was true! We got some amusing pictures there, grabbed a soda for the bus ride tomorrow, and walked back to our hotel – tired, full, slightly less wealthy, and all the better for it.







Tomorrow we’re up rather early, and hopping on the bus for the monstrous (six hour) trek to York. We’ll check in to our hotel there, tour York Minster, and then have the evening free to explore, so I’m rather looking forward to it. As always, thanks for reading, and I’ll keep posting as long as I have an internet connection wherever I go, haha! ~AJR

SGEC Trip Days 1 & 2

July 25, 2008 – 00:13 Local Time

Well, we’re here! At the beginning we weren’t sure we were going to make it, but all turned out for the best. As could be expected when travelling with 75 people, our flight from Nashville to Atlanta was delayed, which would have caused us to miss our connecting flight from Atlanta to London. However, in a brilliant moment of serendipity, the pilot for the second (ATL-LHR) was actually flying to Atlanta with us – they couldn’t leave for England without him, so we were safe! Many, many hours later, we landed at Heathrow and met our tour guide, Tim. He’s a fantastic fellow who knows an awful lot about his country, and who you can see below wielding a yellow flag with his name on it.







Our first (and only real) stop for the day was Windsor Castle – the summer home of the royal family. If I understood correctly, the flag flying on the top of it was an indication that the Queen was actually there at the time of our visit. After a very quick bite to eat in the train station, we made our way to St. George’s Cathedral and sang an impromptu performance of Duruflé’s Ubi caritas et amor. It was a wonderful way to begin our trip. Next, we moved on to the State Apartments, which are a picture-free zone. Basically, the rule at Windsor Castle is as such: If you don’t have sky above you, pictures aren’t allowed. It’s an interesting rule, and while sounding vague, it actually covers everything well. The Apartments were, of course, beautiful but we were so hurried through them that we didn’t really get to enjoy them. Our late flight caused all kinds of problems like that.









After the castle, we boarded the buses and made our way to the hotel in London. This was supposed to take an hour, but took almost two because of a large wreck on the motorway. We *finally* arrived, safe and sound, to check in to our rooms. The rooms here are quite similar to the rooms from the Prague/Germany trip, so how about scrolling down to one of those entries for an explanation, if you’d like one? Haha. After a quick shower (thank Jesus!), we all met in the hotel restaurant for our inaugural dinner. It was a hearty 3-course meal with several options, all of which seemed to be pretty decent. I decided on mushroom soup, lamb and veggies, and lemon meringue pie – delicious! Pair this with two glasses of (complimentary) champagne and one glass of red wine, and I’m about to crash. However, there were about 10 of us that decided to go down the street to have another drink or two before actually turning in. I had only one more drink, but made it a double – the best of both worlds, haha!







And that brings us to now. Goodnight everyone! I love you all, and I’ll see you soon! Thanks for reading! ~AJR

'Summer'-ized Voiced

Ok, so it's mid-July, the summer before I begin my graduate degree in early music voice. With five and a half weeks until semester orientation, I should feel fully prepared, if still a bit trepidatious, right? However, nothing could be farther from the truth. I'm suffering from the worst of self-inflicted singer ailments. Yes, I have it - the dreaded Summer Voice!!! *minor chord on the organ and a hollow scream from a 20s sex symbol*

Seriously though, what is it about my fellow singers and me that lead us to slack-off during the summer? Is it a lack of gigs? Is it a predominantly coaching-free string of months? Is it the outrageous heat and too many mojitos?

Yes. And no.

It's all of these. It's also none of these. We all have our own demons when it comes to procrastination and laziness. That's ok though, because we'll get back to the grind when it becomes necessary. Personally, I've spent the summer relishing TV on DVD and preparing to move to another state to live by my lonesome for the first time ever. Pile two trips to Europe on top of this, and I'm not only vocally out of shape, but have a larger waistline than ever, haha!

No worries though - both the voice and the waist will be back in shape soon enough. I'm looking forward like crazy to pursuing this degree, and I'm not going to let a little thing like a lazy summer stand in my way. Best of wishes to everyone on the rest of the summer and the upcoming school year! I love you all! ~AJR

My Episcopal Dilemma

Ok, so we all know that the Anglican Communion has some issues, right? Well, most of the time I can ignore it, brushing it off as religio-political crap that isn't important in the grand scheme of spirituality. However, this time they may have gone too far. How can a church founded on the principals of unity and oneness (though not of the outright "episcopalization" of the Christian faith) be so ready to split into factions?

The Lambeth Conference (a once-a-decade meeting of world-wide Anglican bishops) starts today. This is always a significant event, no doubt. This time, however, there is more at stake than just by-laws and lectionarial content. This time Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is going to try and "sell" the idea that the Anglican Communion is far too diverse at this stage of the game to exclude people from the clergy based solely on the factor of their sexual orientation, not to mention other, less-contested issues. On the good side of all of this is the fact that about 200 conservative Anglican bishops have decided not to show up as a sign of protest. No attendance, no vote. *whew* On the flip side of that though, the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, has barred Bishop V. Gene Robinson from attending. This may not seem like a huge issue at first, until one realizes that Rt. Rev. Robinson is the only openly-gay consecrated bishop in the Episcopal church. It's as if the Archbishop has already made up his mind! This is absurd!

This brings me back to the aforementioned splits in the church. We now have two potential splits - those who break-off if we DO allow gay bishops, and those who break-off if we DON'T. What the heck, people?! Can't we just be the "one body" that Saint Paul talked about in Ephesians? This past Sunday, Rev. Xolani Dlwathi from St. Thomas' Parish in Kagiso, South Africa came to St. George's as a guest priest. After a couple of minutes of difficulty struggling through the rather thick accent, I was able to hone-in on the meaning of his sermon - unity is the work of Christ, while division [in the church] is the work of Satan. What an interesting message at this critical time in the life of our world-wide body...

I guess the whole point of this pseudo-rant is to say that I'm having a hard time right now with my denomination of choice. As many may know, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church on May 11 of this year. I made the decision to join this particular church and creed because of its tendency to be accepting of all people. However, now there is a possibility that my church will officially disallow certain individuals from the preisthood, simply because they are gay. What?! Will we take women out of the pulpit next? Or blacks? It would make as much sense. I don't know. Maybe I'm overreacting here, but I just needed to vent. I'm open to all comments that people choose to place here, especially if they pertain to how someone who is new to this particular church might go about staying "ok" with his decision to join it. I'm not saying I want to leave the church - far from it. I'm just saying that I wish the Anglican Communion would wake up and realize that a person's sexuality (or anything about which they have had no choice) is of no consequence to their ability to minister God's word to his people. Ok, it's almost 2:30 in the morning, so I'm going to stop for now, haha. Maybe I'll post about something musical next time... ;-)

~AJR

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!!