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A Different Kind of The UND Concert Choir spent Spring Break in the Netherlands.
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Spring Break UND Concert Choir tours the Netherlands
t was a Spring Break to sing about. In March, the University of North Dakota Concert Choir made a grand tour of the Netherlands, thanks in part to support from the UND Foundation and several UND offices: President, Provost, Department of Music and University Relations, which helped support the Concert Choir’s blog, written chiefly by UND Director of Choirs Joshua Bronfman. Here are excerpts from that blog:
15 mar
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Haarlem and Dokkum, the Netherlands [W]e took a guided tour of [Haarlem, which] ended with a visit to the St. Bavo Church in Haarlem’s market square. It was a beautiful church and we were all quite moved. … Inspired, we decided to sing Eric Whitacre’s “Lux Aurumque.” … I think we were all moved by the sound and the surroundings. [On the bus] to Dokkum, [w]e stopped … to view the dike that separates the Netherlands from the North Sea and protects it from flooding. We went directly to Fontein Kirk (Fountain Church) to meet our host families for our two-night home stays. Tomorrow we will tour Leeuwarden, have our first master class with Geert-jan, and later give an evening concert at the Fontein Kirk.
Ἅ lu m n i R e v ie w | summer 2011
16 mar
Delft and Maastricht [W]hen it came time for the performance, the choir … sang expressively, intelligently, musically, at every turn. The connection between myself, the choir and the audience was deep and meaningful. The audience was enthralled, hanging on the edge of their seats. [Then something happened that] could’ve been in a movie. To save time, and because I was worried about the vocal health of the choir, [I] had cut Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Der Gesit Hilft.” It’s a vocally demanding piece, and we were quite tired. So, we ended the concert, and received an immediate, long, boisterous, standing ovation from the entire house (it takes a lot to get people from the Netherlands out of their seats). They clearly were thrilled with the performance. I acknowledged the choir, and then the house quieted down and we were thanking our hosts and receiving gifts from the church, still standing on stage. At this point a