Get In Touch

We'd love to hear from you!

BB&N Office of Communications communications@bbns.org

Upper School Chorale Takes Memorable Trip to Italy

The US Chorale performs an impromptu concert in the town square of Perugia, Italy, with the Perugia Cathedral as a backdrop.

Joseph Horning writes:

Once a year, esteemed Upper School Russian Teacher Armen Dedekian dons his United Nations tie, plunks his array of mini-flags on the podium and introduces the foreign languages assembly with the phrase “foreign languages, your passport to the world!” There's no question he's right, as the diverse array and popularity of BB&N foreign language trips attests; but I always want to add to Armen's mantra that if you can play the fiddle, strum the guitar, or sing a few well-rehearsed bars of your favorite song, you'll make quick friends in a foreign country- even if you cannot speak a word of the native language. Such was the case this past June, when Brigitte Tournier, Doug Neuman and I- affectionately dubbed by our Italian tour guide as La Professoressa, Il Dottore, and Il Maestro- led 44 members of the Upper School Chorale on a 12-day concert tour of Italy.

We heard a bit of French used at our transfer point in Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport and a smattering of Spanish once in Italy, as BB&N students learned that Italians could occasionally understand more Spanish than English. There was even an eloquent string of Latin employed by Senior Chris Richards in his conversation with an elderly Italian priest following our participation in a Sunday Mass in Arezzo. The students' most effective language, not surprisingly, was music.

The Chorale sang seven concerts of mostly American and Italian sacred music in venues ranging from a cloistered outdoor courtyard, where we shared the stage with the Tuscia Wind Ensemble, to the cavernous Cathedral in Perugia, where final chords rang for a full four seconds after the cut-off. Our most unusual performance was in an intimate church in Camaiore, a small Tuscan town in the foothills of the Apennines, where we experienced a minor earthquake in the middle of the concert! (Graduated senior Hilary Faxon assured one of the nervous younger members of the ensemble who wanted to flee after the brief rumble, that the stone church had existed for eight centuries and was likely the safest place in town.) One of the most spectacular acoustical spaces in which we performed was the 13 th century former cathedral of Assisi. Following a day of viewing the stunning Giotto frescoes of the life of St. Francis, we returned to our hotel, donned our concert attire, ate a light meal, and returned to the center of medieval Assisi, for our performance at the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore.

The Romanesque church is very simple. There is no transept and the interior is bare except for fragments of a few frescoes. But the acoustic is glorious. Within the first few moments of the vocal warm-up, knowing smiles appeared on the students' faces as they began to realize how resonant and warm the acoustic was. Although we sang nearly the same program seven times, each concert was unique - a confluence of the space, the students' energy, and the listeners. Our audience that evening appeared to be a very small one, until, at the last moment, the pews swelled with a large group of British Franciscans who were making their pilgrimage to Assisi and had heard about the “American choir from Cambridge.” They gave the BB&N singers rapt attention and enthusiastic applause, especially when the choir sang Jerusalem, written by the English composer Sir Hubert Parry. For a few moments, the concert evolved into a sing-a-long, elderly Brits and young Americans celebrating the poetry of William Blake in a small church in Umbria. Following the concert, there were many invitations to little-known towns in England, Scotland and Wales.

Our days were a mixture of organized sightseeing, visits to the museums of Rome, Siena, and Florence, free time to independently explore those cities as well as several Tuscan and Umbrian hill towns, and a few exhilarating outdoor excursions. Our own Giro di Lucca involved the entire ensemble bicycling around the medieval walls of the town. We followed this with an afternoon trip to the beach at Viareggio, a popular Mediterranean resort. In the evenings we performed.

Mr. Neuman recorded all of the concerts and Mme. Tournier, with her array of European languages, handled the “front-of-house” public relations. There are few more enthusiastic supporters of the students' music. “The students were not only amazing representatives of how talented, intelligent and open to the world BB&N students are, but truly impressive ambassadors of American youth today,” reflected Tournier. “For me, high points, besides the seven magnificent concerts, were the impromptu moments when the Chorale gathered in front of Santa Croce Cathedral in Florence, on the town square of Perugia or in the St. Francis Chapel in Assisi --to name but a few--and surprised those around them with a few songs from their repertoire.” These spontaneous moments also occurred following our first and last concerts, which we shared with Italian choirs and instrumental ensembles. Nearing 10:00pm on each occasion, we were served the first of four courses of typical Italian food, simple but delicious, while the BB&N students became acquainted with their Italian hosts. “I loved singing every day and meeting the Italian people,” recalled senior Erica Sandrock. “With those who didn't speak much English, we had this whole friendly charades interaction going.” Later in the evening the celebrations evolved into brief performances by the Knightingales and Voices of the Knight, which were reciprocated by a small group singing some Italian folk songs and, on one evening, a trio of Italian brass players improvising on “When the Saints Go Marching In.” The familiar back-beat and walking bass lines got nearly all of the forty-four American students to their feet in a line-dancing celebration with their Italian hosts. One can't plan these moments in organizing a musical tour, but it's magical when they happen.