Day 7 - Rain, Castle, Monastery
We woke up this morning to rain…LOTS of it! Our meeting time this morning was at 12:00, noon! Many of the singers really enjoyed sleeping in and spending some time with their homestays.
We loaded the bus with ponchos and wind breakers and some umbrellas and headed off on our adventures. Due to the rain, there were some changes made, and did not end up taking a walking tour of Ptuj, but went to the Ptuj Castle for a tour. We split up into two groups each with an english speaking guide and were off. This medieval castle was built in the 11th century when the castle and town were owned by the archdioceses of Salzburg. There were many different
galleries to explore, one of the favorites being the collection of traditional carnival masks, arms, and the collection of musical instruments The collection of carnival masks featured traditional carnival masks that were used to chase the winter away and herald the spring. In the collection of arms, the kids got to experience holding a rather large sword that weighed about 16lbs and stood taller than some of our kids, and then the richest collection of musical instruments containing about 300 musical instruments used for folk and "artistic" music. One of which was an extremely rare Roman flute called tibia. It was great for everyone to see the evolution of all these instruments, including the many different types of pianos. Owen and Michael shared some piano tunes that they knew, giving one of the groups a mini concert in the concert hall of the castle, and then the kids also sang to test out the acoustics.
It was STILL raining, and we had a bit of a trek to our next location which was the monastery where the kids had their joint concert with Carmina Slovenica. Once we got there at about 3:00, Carmina Slovenica prepared a delicious sandwich bar buffet which was received well by 37 very hungry singers and 7 chaperones. We filled our bellies and then had the option of walking around the town a little, which a majority of the kids decided to do, until they got drenched, and decided to cut that adventure short.
They warmed up a bit to test out the fantastic acoustics in this monastery, which were simply amazing. As Sue said, "That's why we go to Europe to sing in these wonderful churches." This monastery had been recently renovated and had a bit of a modern twist to the old. The concert hall was black marble with theatre seats. It was almost as if the ceiling had lifted and they just plunked this new interior in the heart of the church.
The choir sang probably their best performance yet. The energy was electrifying and the both choirs together had so much fun singing together. Bob and Carmina were having a great time on stage, sharing the pride of both choirs combined, dancing and smiling with pride!
Tomorrow we say our goodbyes and we are off to Italy!!
Click through the slideshow below to view some highlights from today:
