Chorale to Perform in Italy (including St. Peter's Basilica) Over Spring Break

[TexasTowelie]

Twenty-nine members of the Southwestern University Chorale will have a once-in-a-lifetime experience over spring break this year: the opportunity to sing in the Vatican.

The concert is part of a weeklong tour of Venice and Rome. In addition to performing at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the Chorale will perform at St. Mark’s Basilica and Chiesa degli Scalzi (Church of the Scalzi) in Venice and Chiesa Sant Andrea della Valle in Rome.

Kenny Sheppard, professor of music and director of the SU Chorale, said it was quite a coup for the group to be granted permission to perform at St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Mark’s Basilica.

“Everyone wants to sing there,” Sheppard said. “We had to audition to get to do this.”

The Chorale will sing during a mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on March 14. Since the performance coincides with Lent, the Chorale will sing pieces that are based on the Liturgical Calendar. Sheppard said the Vatican helped select the pieces to be performed. All the pieces will be performed in Latin.

http://southwestern.edu/live/news/7385-chorale-to-perform-in-italy-over-spring-break

[font color=green]Alumni bragging rights!

I had the wonderful fortune of being directed by Dr. Sheppard once when the Symphonic Band and the Chorale held a joint performance. In the 1990's the Chorale performed in Austin and I was able to join the group afterwards for fun and food. Although we only spoke briefly, he remembered me when we ran into each other at a homecoming reunion many years later.

The students are fortunate to have Dr. Sheppard as a director and to also have this wonderful opportunity to sing in the Vatican. Southwestern University is a Methodist affiliated liberal arts university.[/font]

[woodsprite]

1. Congrats! I sing in choirs, so I know the work it takes

We have a friend whose Catholic church choir is going
over in April. Sounds like they have a similar schedule.
He told me they weren't allowed to double-up on any of
the music whether its performed at a different church or
not.

It truly is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them! And
having a great director makes the experience all the better.

[TexasTowelie]

2. Thank you.

When I was a senior at Southwestern I was informed that I had relatives (second cousins) that also attended Southwestern in the late 1970's. The older cousin was a female that was in the Chorale and her younger brother was a member of one of the fraternities.

My cousins were traveling from Houston to Georgetown after the Thanksgiving break when they were involved in an auto accident in which they ran into the back of a hay trailer that didn't have any rear taillights. Sadly, both cousins died in the auto accident. Being such a close-knit university (probably about 800-900 students at the time), the Chorale sang at their funerals held in Houston the following week. A couple years ago when I was on campus and waiting to visit a friend employed by Southwestern, I had access to the old yearbooks from that era and was able to obtain a photocopy of the memoriams.

BTW, I also had an aunt from the Houston area that sang in a Lutheran choir that went on tour in Russia after the fall of communism.

My musical experience was on trumpet and I went on a few tours throughout Texas and New Mexico and they were a lot of fun. The most entertaining part was that one of our bass tuba players was also the state champion accordion player. He really hammed it up playing lead part of the Saber Dance by Khachaturian!

[woodsprite]

3. Sorry to hear about your cousins. I'm glad you were able to get a copy of their memoriams.

A quote from my very conservative, but music-loving friend really hits home: "As I watch myself in the mirror, I see a man who is aging quickly and losing friends from my high school years to death. I have come to the conclusion that my relationships with friends and acquaintances from my younger days have more value than any rules that may have kept us separated."

My husband and I were in a 21-member Madrigal Consort in high school (costumes, the whole nine yards). That music director and his wife meant the world to all of us in the group - and some of us are working on our 40th high school reunion! We (the singers/Dir/his wife/assorted other students/singers parents) made an authentic 7-course dinner (Elizabethan Rout) for 300 people each night, for two weekends - Friday, Sat, and Sunday - at Christmas and again in the spring, for a Royal Progress. We even cooked a boar's head!

The Mads have reunited to sing at both of their funerals and the funerals of a few of the groups members. We decided a few weeks ago that the ones that were still local and still into music should plan to start singing again for happier occasions. We're now working with the current choir director at the high school to put together a Madrigal Alumni recording. We hope to raise money for upgrades to the sound system in the school auditorium. The entire town remembers the Madrigals and the awesome dinners the Ritt's crafted, so I think it would be a fitting and successful fund raiser.

If I had to pick a single most memorable time I've had in music, it would be when I was one of two selected from our school for All Eastern Chorus. It was a choir of over 400 voices and you just can't imagine the pianissimos and fortes of a 400-voice choir. It was AMAZING!!! When the basses hit some of their low notes, the music in your hand vibrated. During one of our combined rehearsals in NY the director came out and told us that President Reagan had been shot but was going to live. He suggested we sing something in honor of him - something that we all knew. We sang Handel's Hallelujah chorus. Then and now I still question whether that was an appropriate choice for the occasion

Here's a video a friend took of us singing at another friend's memorial service:

Sorry to 'chat' your ear off, but I'm going through singing withdraw tonight. I've had a heck of a cold for the past few days and had to miss rehearsal tonight. I'm at home helping my son with his "Should Gas Prices be Lowered" paper and his self-created greek myth (middle school).

[TexasTowelie]

4. Wow, they are scheduled to sing tomorrow

and are already in Rome!