The Moorpark College Choir (40 students + two faculty) had amazing performances in Prague and Bratislava. We have our final performance tonight in Budapest at the most stunning venue—Matthias Cathedral. We’ve been seeing posters advertising our concert all over Budapest, and we expect a huge crowd tonight!
One of my favorite things about the concerts is talking to the audience—via live translation—about the concept of the community college system. It doesn’t exist in Europe, so explaining the system provides them with great context. Many came up after to say how impressed they were.
Some recent highlights:
We visited the final resting place of Beethoven while in Vienna—we just performed Beethoven’s Mass in C so talk about building on prior knowledge and connecting knowledge to the real world! To make matters even better, we stopped in Eisenstadt and I treated the students to a tour of the Esterházy Palace—the epicenter of Haydn’s career (we performed his Creation oratorio last year), and the location of the premiere of Beethoven’s Mass in C! To my surprise, the guide let us sing in the very concert hall that Beethoven’s mass was premiered 212 years ago. I wish I got a photo of that moment; the look of wonder and awe in the faces of my students brought tears to my eyes.
Travel really does bring our world a little closer together. We’ve all heard that music is the universal language, and we have truly lived that truth during this tour. Thanks again for your support and for helping make this performance tour possible.
Brandon Elliot, Associate Professor of Music, Director of Choral & Vocal Activities