En route from Prague to Salzburg

Once again, we passed the laptops around the bus to gather the thoughts and experiences of the artists and friends with us on this special journey.

Note from the tour bus: Friday, August 15, 2008
As the bus winds its way through the southern Czech countryside, Prague recedes into the distance if only in physicality. The memories of walking through the old streets, viewing the stunning architecture, and singing the last concert remain emblazoned in our minds, well, certainly mine. Ondrau again cues up Ma Vlast as a fitting postlude to our experiences in this charming and ethereal city. One interaction that sticks out in my mind is that of one of the audience members of last night’s concert. A woman from Prague, who was on vacation in Cesky Krumlov and attended that concert, came to our next concert two days later at St Thomas in Prague. Who would have that we would form Schola groupies overseas, but as we’ve come to discover, just about anything is possible.
----Salvatore Diana

We spent our final dinner in Prague at a monastery. Toward the end of the dinner, one table broke out in song—“Weem a Wop a Weem a Wop”—quite possibly the best version of that song ever sung—in harmony and with powerful voices! The singing continued on the bus trip home with a rendition of “Singular Sensation” from A Chorus Line done in response to Deborah’s typical request to count off all the people on the bus. A few men sang an Irish tune in the back of the bus too.

One of the shadow tour members, Al Festa broke out his mandolin yesterday –first bringing it out as we stood on the sidewalk waiting for the bus. A few choir members gathered around him singing “Tom Dooley”. Definitely made the time go faster! Later that night in the hotel, he brought it out again and several choir members passed it around to try their hand at it. With all of the different musical backgrounds in the group, it was fun to see how quickly each person could adapt to the mandolin—a guitar player making the leap quite quickly, a violin player, a little more slowly! After Al and a few others went out to the garden courtyard at around 1:00 a.m. to continue the playing—and try a little improvising—we soon saw the lights go on in some rooms above us and not two minutes later received the warning from the hotel security guard that the music had to stop. “A serious problem” the man said—but very cordial—not rude, not angry—just firm! So, the playing stopped—but the conviviality continued into the night.

One great Czech discovery: Becherovka—a liquor with an amazing aroma—you don’t even need to drink it to enjoy it!

Now we head to Salzburg—Randall Svane will be there. We are excited to head into our performance of his Mass, our whole reason behind the creation of the tour in the first place.
----Cynthia Darling

Our final evening in Prague we had a concert at another beautiful church before heading to dinner at a nearby monastery. Since it was customary for us to interact with the audience after the show, I stood near the front steps thanking people for coming. One woman approached me, smiling broadly and saying that she enjoyed our performance in Cesky Krumlov so much that she looked us up in Prague! To explain further, Prague was her place of residence but she happened to be visiting Cesky Krumlov for the first time. “It was my first time in Cesky, too!” I squealed

I was flattered when, at the end of our conversation, she expressed an interest in being pen pals and proceeded to give me her personal e-mail address in order to keep in touch.

I guess you could say she was the first friend I made in Europe.

---Lazarita

As a member of the “Shadow Tour” I have the opportunity to experience Schola not only as a personal supporter of one of the singing members (my wife is an alto in the group) but also as a member of the audience.

I have seen all of the shows in the US since 2006 but nothing had prepared me for the level of enjoyment that I am experiencing during American Ambassadors.

At the sound check in Vienna’s world famous Karlskirche, the sun played crimson red and sapphire blue on the singers faces as it shined through the modern mosaic of the church’s stained glass windows.

At the Cesky Krumlov concert I noticed that some observers in the audience sat peacefully transfixed while others glowed with estatic wonder quite possibly believing that God had opened an annex of heaven on earth.

An enraptured audience in Bad Schonau savored every note while joyously anticipating each volley of angelic song.

-Al Festa