Field tripchoir Ustinov to Beamish
A Reflection from the Ustinov Choir By
Pedro Alberto Martinez Castro
The experience of being part of Ustinov Choir for the 2019/2020 academic year has been great! My journey in the choir began during the first year of my PhD. Unfortunately, for my second year in Durham there was no Ustinov Choir because there was no director. This past year, Monica Hernandez stepped up to be director and I am thankful she did so because we were really looking forward to sing and perform at events again. This year was a new experience for me since we had many opportunities to sing--not only at the Christmas festival and Christmas formal, but also at Durham Cathedral in an intercollegiate evensong. Singing in the cathedral is something that I will never forget.
16
Overall, the choir has not only allowed me to sing once a week and meet new friends but has also provided an opportunity to gain more confidence speaking in front of an audience and to chill after a hard day’s work doing research. I would definitely recommend this experience to any student. Postgraduate students from other colleges sing in the Ustinov Choir as well.
This shows the importance of having a postgraduate community that provides this opportunity with a flexible schedule so more postgraduates can enjoy the experience all across Durham University. During lockdown we managed to continue the choir remotely and made videos of two songs originally prepared for the Ustinov International Dress Party and Ustinov Live which were cancelled. We have successfully sang “Seasons of Love”, from the Broadway musical
selected “Cancion Mixteca”. For the end of the year, the choir worked to remotely produce two more videos of the choir singing emblematic songs in different languages. These are available in the Ustinov Choir 2019 Facebook page. These songs will stand as a reminder of our days at Durham University and Ustinov College. I can say that even though we can only perform remotely, the choir has helped me to relieve the stress caused by lockdown. I hope
Diversitate Valemus - diversity is our strength - is Ustinov’s College motto and it defines the Ustinov College Choir as well. Rent by Jonathan Larson, and “Cancion Mixteca”, a Mexican folk song by José López Alavez. Diversitate Valemus - diversity is our strength - is Ustinov’s College motto and it defines the Ustinov College Choir as well. We wanted to show this by singing the folk music of another country in a different language, which is why we
everyone is safe and we can be back to having in-person performances soon. In the meantime, I am looking forward to our performances for the Ustinov Day and am optimistic about what the 2020/2021 year will bring to the Ustinov Choir!
durham.ac.uk
