News & Events 2004-2005
Singers Debut in Italy
When the Blair Academy Singers boarded a plane in Newark in June, so began their first trip abroad in the recent history of the school. Over 14 days, the Singers performed six full concerts and participated in two mass services in and around Rome, Florence, Pisa, Vicenza and Como, which is just north of Milan. In each locale, the group received ovations and cries of “bis!” which is Italian for “encore!”
The highlights of the trip were the venues where the Singers performed. From an 11th-century monastery, to the Medici family’s private chapel in Florence, to the Sala Nobile (music room) of a 16th-century villa in Vicenza, the students were treated to excellent acoustics and discerning audiences. Indeed, the students were exposed to a musical tradition which is quite ancient yet still very much alive and vibrant today.
Preparations for the trip included a tremendous number of rehearsal hours and almost as much time spent fund-raising. The Singers, over the course of the year, managed to raise close to $10,000 by selling their CDs and tee shirts, holding auctions, and through a variety of other methods. Parents of the Singers, as well as Blair itself, however, covered the bulk of the enormous cost of the trip.
The Blair Academy Singers brought to Italy a program made up of mostly American music, from common hymns to early-American shapenote tunes. Also on the program was a selection of folk songs from the British Isles, and, not to be forgotten, a selection of early Italian choral music. Additionally, the Singers premiered a commissioned work by Los Angeles composer Jeffrey Bernstein, “Tonight I Can Write...” from the text by Pablo Neruda “Puedo Escribir.”
Much of this program was heard stateside throughout the last school year. In addition to a number of concerts on campus, including a spring concert in the rotunda of Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the Arts and a farewell concert in DuBois Theatre during alumni weekend, the Singers were invited to perform in Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center (home of the Philadelphia Orchestra) as guests of the oldest men’s singing club in America, the Orpheus Club.
What lies ahead for the Singers? Though they won’t be undertaking a tour of this magnitude for some time to come, they do have their sights set quite high on repertoire this year and will be taking their program to New York City early next year.
Venues included:
ROME
CHIESA SAN BIAGIO
CHIESA S.M. DELLA SCALA
FLORENCE
CHIESA SANTA MARIA DEI RICCI
BASILICA S. LORENZO
Morning Mass
SANTA MARIA IN MONTE
Joint concert with local ‘San Jacopo’ choir
VICENZA
VILLA CALDONGNO
COMO
CHIESA SAN GIORGIO (LECCO)
IL DUOMO
Please click on images to view larger.
For more information about the Blair Academy Singers, please go to the Performing Arts section of the Web site.
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