From Rome to Florence

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Today, we awoke in Rome!We had a great variety of choices for breakfast. We could choose from bread, croissants, doughnuts, muffins, and pita, as well as eggs, cereal and fruit.We had to be in a hurry though, because we had a rehearsal straight after. We had a run-through of our songs for our concert, then a break (where I played the organ), and then had a very special guest. We sang for the Master of Music at King's College, Cambridge. He was very nice, and gave us some great feedback, which helped us a lot. After our rehearsal, we had ...Read more…

Festival final days

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12th May 2018Today we had Mass and Terce in the morning, where we sang the Introit and Ave Maria by Victoria. It was the votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the celebrant was the Bishop of Brugge. After Mass, before lunch, the Hungarian girls played soccer (or football!) with us and they won… We then had lunch, which was tomato soup, as we had had the day before, and ice cream.We then went to sing for the 'audition' or 'listening session'. At the audition, we sang six pieces of Gregorian chant: Ecce quam ...Read more…

In Flanders Fields

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On Friday, the choir had a day off from any Masses or concerts, so we decided it would be important to visit some First World War museums and sites. Our first stop was a small field with many graves of soldiers killed in battle, including many unknown heroes. Seeing the graves of these men, who were brothers, sons and fathers, struck a chord for us, preparing us for the solemnity of the day. After paying our respects to these soldiers, we made our way through a pathway towards our next destination.After a short walk filled with a ...Read more…

Browsing Brussels…

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Our day began with a sleep-in of one hour after a late night in Antwerp. Breakfast was then had. After this, the scholars recorded some of their repertoire in the local church, which dates back to the year AD 800. The church itself was solemn and beautiful, and contained relics of the original structure. The acoustics were impressive, making the recording experience very enjoyable.After a large lunch, we set out for Brussels. The two-hour bus ride was well worth it, and our first views of Brussels were of the beautiful parklands, gardens, and ...Read more…