I returned last week from the MoTab's European tour-- the first tour outside of the country in 18 years! (except a quick stint in Canada in 2003). What an experience. I felt like the whole experience was a missionary trip to uplift the hearts and minds of those who have been experiencing terrorist attacks throughout the year. Although I enjoyed touring the historic cities, nothing paralleled the feeling of singing for the people and hearing their enjoyment of our music. The music of the choir affected me greatly as a teenager, and I like to think that there were some in the audience who are like me, who came to feel the peace of the music amid these tumultuous times.
This tour seemed to go more smoothly than the last one, despite it being a week longer and in seven countries where the native language
isn't English. We were more prepared as a choir with our repertoire, and I was personally more prepared.
I was particularly excited to return to Austria!!! :D All you gotta do is visit my blog archives from January to April of 2009 to see my blog explosion that was my study abroad time in Vienna. And read about when I went to the ball if you're in for my personal Cinderella story (which does not end with any sort of romance, but it was a little uncanny all the parallels between our stories!!).
My German language seemed to come flooding back to me as soon as we got to Berlin (our first stop), and I felt like using it whenever I could, though I would usually default to English.
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| Standing by the Berlin Wall with Angela |
I got to be roommates with Angela Werner who has been my carpool buddy for the last several years in choir. She has some hilarious blackmail on me if she ever needs to use it--- apparently I am really really dorky when I am on sleeping pills! We had a fun time together. And word to the wise: choose your tour roomie WISELY! You gotta pick someone with a similar energy level and interest in going out to do things because you're spending a LOT of time together. Not as much as if you were companions, but it sorta feels like it sometimes! :)
We sang seven formal concerts. For the first two concerts, I was seated next to Sonja Sperling Poulter, an alto in the choir who is from Frankfurt, and was able to feel her excitement and energy to perform for her family and friends. She is a very talented musician and has a very strong testimony of the gospel so I enjoy her very much. I was grateful to sing next to her, as I usually do not stand next to the altos. She translated Lloyd Newell's comments for the audiences in the German-speaking areas.
Lloyd Newell also asks if anyone in the choir has roots in a particular city or country. I was able to stand up at nearly every concert to show that my heritage came from all of those places we sang! (Except Belgium. I haven't seen any family lines traced back to there, but I've got plenty of Southern German, Swiss, French, and Bavarian in me... as well as a little bit of Dutch!)
At the Berliner Philharmonie: wonderful energy. This was the concert where one man said "WHOAA" in the silence directly following our rendition of "Battle of Jericho" - It was a great start to our tour!
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| Inside Berlin Philharmonic! I've seen this stage televised many times!! |
At Meistersingerhalle in Nuremberg (Spelled Nu¨rnberg auf Deutsch -- those darn umlauts won't go where they belong!. The hall stands next to a beautiful park which has some intense WWII history. Pretty sobering!
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| Outside Meistersingerhalle with other ladies from the choir! |
At the Musikverein in Vienna: Obviously my personal favorite. But we couldn't see the conductor from where I stood in the balcony, so we had to improvise a little bit with following hand signals from the lady in front of me!
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| Me and Alison pose for a photo-op! I had a perma-grin on my face the whole day! |
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| With Esther in the Musikverein. She was our translator! |
At Hallenstadion in Zurich: We spent very little time here, so all I really saw was the inside of the hall, but I was very pleased to see two sisters I served with! I love seeing Sarah in her dirndl -- may of the folks in Austria dress up like that to go to concerts, etc.
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| In Hallenstadion in Zurich with Sarah (Austrian) and Shara (Swidish/ Colombian) |
At Jahrhunderthalle in Frankfurt: wonderful concert with many stalwart church members.
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| The outside of Jahrhunderthalle! |
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| Enjoying Palmengarten in Frankfurt with Valerie Sanders Hallmann and her husband-- she was 6 mo. pregnant. |
At Palais de Bozar in Brussels: Again, spent very little time in the city, and I was glad to talk to Gwen for most of it! We had good memories from Temple Square.
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| At the Bozar in Brussels with Gwen Leroy (Belgian) |
At De Doelen in Rotterdam (an hour from Amsterdam): This audience was also very lively and I enjoyed the chance to sing for these people! We learned "God Be With You" in Dutch just for this concert and as I was exiting and old lady told me that our American accents were very "dear" :)
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| I love the writing in Dutch! |
I was able to personally go to a fireside at a local LDS chapel in Munich and perform a few pieces with some choir members (Be Still my Soul), which was really fun. Munich was a hub of sorts while we traveled out to performances in Nurnberg and Vienna.
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| Outside after singing. |
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| In the Munich town square with Karen, Jennifer and Angela. What fun! |
Enjoyed seeing sisters I served with from Temple Square (plus Esther who served at TMSQ but didn't overlap with me)! Not pictured: Sister Rydelek (Torke) and her husband, who came to the Frankfurt concert.
We were able to see many sites within the cities and castles outside those cities! We spent a lot of time on busses! I really enjoyed visiting Neuschwanstein Castle and Heidelberg Castle ruins.
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| Lake near Neuschwanstein Castle |
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| I could've sworn the birds were talking to me in this enchanted forest!! ;) |
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| An absolutely gorgeous countryside view from the castle. |
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| And from below!! |
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| Heidelberg ruins. I could've spent a week in Heidelberg and not gotten bored. We'll go back. |
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| Heidelberg in context. |
Lastly in Paris, the choir recorded ourselves singing "Come Come Ye Saints" outside the almost-finished Paris LDS Temple, which is located near Versailles, and took a picture of the entire choir at the Eiffel tower.
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| Funny selfie of myself after taking the choir picture. |
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| At the temple grounds, which were under construction at the time. |
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| Temple under construction! |
Sadly, we had no concert in Paris. However, we did sight-see a BUNCH after singing at the temple. I was exhausted and pretty sick at that point (the last part of the tour). We saw the fireworks going off of the Eiffel Tower for Bastille Day, which was incredible!
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| Notre Dame, of COURSE! |
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| Sacred Heart in Paris |
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