New England Voices helped the international residents at Senioren Residenz Josefstadt get into the Christmas spirit on Thursday morning in Vienna. It was a terrific start to an amazing day!
Following this lovely visit, the group enjoyed a traditional Austrian meal in the Rathauskeller, the restaurant in the beautiful basement of City Hall. The group was greeted by a representative of the city-state government and choral director Carroll Stevens signed the city record under a picture of the group. Quite an honor! The group had some time to explore the world famous Christmas market outside of City Hall before their next performance in Festival Hall.
The venue of Festival Hall is beyond words, but I promise we will have video soon! In addition to our little group, a very large crowd enjoyed performances by a student group from Budapest, a local Viennese choir and a men's choir from Romania. It was truly the experience of a lifetime and Voices of New England did not disappoint. The audience seemed to especially like the piece featuring the four-handed piano work of Joe Stevens and Phillip Pampreen, two of the incredibly talented college students performing with and accompanying us. Tomorrow Phillip will have the chance to play organ with the group at Peterskirche at Stephenplatz.
After this thrilling performance the group had a free night for some fun! Tomorrow many will take a Viennese dancing lesson before performing at St. Peter's Church.
Here are some additional thoughts from our fearless leader:
We love the people who have come together as part of this choir tour. We have so much fun together. Singing together is a bonus!
The spaces we have sung in so far are so beautiful both visually and acoustically. I'm in awe that we get to make music in such fine places.
Christmas punch has become a new favorite beverage ... Something to keep you warm on chilly days! Today we ate roasted chestnuts for the first time ever ... after singing about them for years. And they really do pop open! Got to see a concert tonight of Mozart and Strauss pieces in a room that Mozart and his sister performed in as kids. Very special ... and the music was amazing. And to think this was only one of a myriad of concerts happening in the city every single night. We love it here!
Carroll (and Susie)
Gute Nacht!
P.S. This author apologizes for formatting inconsistencies. Posting from a tablet is a little harder than I expected and I appreciate your patience. 😊
Amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing!
ReplyDelete