In June, 40 singers from the Houston Symphony Chorus joined Chorus Director Betsy Cook Weber and Chorus Manager Anna Diemer for a concert tour across Poland and Germany. In this post, Anna shares memories of the trip.
Our unforgettable June tour—five concerts in five cities!—culminated with an invitation to sing at the Bach Festival in Leipzig, Germany. The Houston Symphony Chamber Singers—the elite, small ensemble branch of the all-volunteer Houston Symphony Chorus—were ready to tackle the challenge of preparing and singing for an international tour.
Preparing for Poland & Germany
Rigorous rehearsal weekends began in early March. We previewed one of the pieces we prepared for the trip—Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning—as a pre-concert prelude to the Symphony’s performances of Rachmaninoff’s The Bells in May. After taming the butterflies in our stomachs through three successful preludes and one last rehearsal week after Memorial Day, we were ready to go!
A Long Trip to Wrocław
Betsy and her husband Rick (our unofficial Chorus mascot and number one fan) had traveled to Poland early to rehearse with the orchestra, so I headed up the travel group at Bush Intercontinental Airport. After turbulence on the way over, a harrowing connection at Heathrow Airport, and five hours on a coach, we finally arrived safely in Wrocław at midnight—nearly 24 hours after we left Houston. The next day, in a jetlagged haze, we set out to explore the quaint town center of Wrocław and its collection of gnome statues hidden around the city. My fellow singers agree that the highlights of our stay were the view from the cathedral tower, eating pierogi (filled dumplings), and our really excellent hotel breakfast. (Hey, it takes a lot to fuel a singer!)
Hallelujah! Handel in Walbrzych & Katowice
Of course, the real reason for our tour was the music-making. We were honored to perform with the Filharmonia Sudecka, an orchestra based in Walbrzych, Poland. Both of the venues where we performed Handel’s Messiah—the Church of the Holy Guardian Angels in Walbrzych, and the Cathedral of Christ the King in Katowice—were massive, intricately decorated halls with four full seconds of reverb. The chorus delighted in our lush sound, and the audiences did, too. During our encores—the Hallelujah Chorus, which we repeated at the end of each concert—attendees sang along and made us feel like rock stars. What I remember most was the fantastic trumpet soloist on “The Trumpet Shall Sound.” He could be the next Mark Hughes!
An American Program in Brzeg Dolny & Brandenburg
Next, we traveled to Brzeg Dolny in southwestern Poland and the Brandenburg Dom, located outside Berlin. The programs for these two concerts featured a cappella American music including pieces by Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, and David Ashley White (a fellow Houstonian). As a nod to our host country, we ended each performance with the Nunc Dimittis by Polish composer Pawel Lukaszewski.
The Parish Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Brzeg Dolny was a humble hall, with perhaps 200 attendees in its pews, but it seemed that the entire town came to hear us because the concert was standing-room only! From the refreshments on the lawn to the song and prayer the congregation offered to us after our performance, the warm welcome made this performance the most memorable of the trip for many of us. We poured our hearts into the music that evening, and many of us were moved to tears as we greeted our audience outside the church afterwards. At the Brandenburg Dom in Germany, we were joined by a small crowd who had braved that evening’s thunderstorm. We received our own musical treat that night, as the organist played a voluntary on the Dom’s beautiful instrument during the pause in our concert.
On to BachFest in Leipzig
The crowning achievement of our tour was an invitation to sing at the Bach Festival at the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, Germany. Houston and Leipzig are sister cities, and Houston’s ambassador to Leipzig, the Rev. Dr. Robert Moore, offered to preside over our motet service and host a reception after the performance. We were awed just by rehearsing in the Thomaskirche, knowing that Bach himself had rehearsed his choirs there, too.
To open the service, we sang Copland’s In the Beginning, mere feet away from the resting place of Bach’s remains. We then joined the Michaelis Consort in the choir loft to perform BWV 116, Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ, the text of which describes remaining faithful until the Judgment Day. We sang in two diverse styles and two different languages, from the creation to the end times, all united by a single performance in a place that witnessed so much music history.
Our scores were illuminated by the Friedenfenster, or Peace Window, the stained-glass window that Houston gifted to Leipzig—reminding us all that music truly unites us and helps bring us peace.
A Grand Finale
We celebrated our last tour performance with German beer and bratwurst courtesy of the Houston-Leipzig Sister City Association. It was a fitting final meal before most of our singers left for home. The Chamber Singers were honored to represent our city and the Houston Symphony family as musical and cultural ambassadors. After resting up this summer, we are excited to get back to singing for a busy 2019–20 season!
—Anna Diemer
The Houston Symphony Chamber Singers repeats this tour’s repertoire during a free Homecoming Concert on Sunday, August 11, at 2:30 p.m. in the sanctuary of Trinity Lutheran Church at 800 Houston Avenue.
