Singing...the First Concert.

So, you ask, if you're at a choral festival, where's the singing? A logical question. 😎

So the festival has a resident director, Peter Taboris, who lives on the island, at least part time, along with his wife, a soprano soloist. Each July, he and MidAm International, organize choirs to come and participate. This year there are six groups: 
1-Bethel College-Voices of Triumph-an acapella group directed by Jeshua...14 students.
2-A Presbyterian Church choir from Indianapolis--with 48 singers...young adults to older adults.
3-A small group of a dozen singers from Monroe, Louisiana
4-A small group of singers high school and up from Winston Salem, NC
5-Fifty or so high school students' concert choir from Tucson, AZ They close their individual acapella program with their school song, "Let There Be Peace on Earth." Very nice and much appreciated by the audience (and me).
6-Choeur d' Enfants d'Ile-de-France...a French Children's Choir of about 40 school children.

All together(minus the children) this makes up the huge chorus for the classical work they did, Rosinni's Stabat Mater and, adding the children back in, for the Opera Gala, selections from favorite operas. Accompanying them is the Pan-European Philahmonia of Warsaw, a mostly young adult orchestra. In addition, the orchestra has done several concerts of their own-Beethoven & Tchaikovsky. The venues are small, but stuffed for every performance.

So the first thing the Bethel kids participated in was an outdoor performance at St. Mary the Virgin Greek Orthodox Church in the mountain village of Xroussa. We went in large buses along the narrow roads and around the curves, climbing up into the center of the island.

Once we got off the bus we climbed up onto the level church grounds.

A small, but beautiful church, with a nice children's play area to the one nicely shaded side.

Not very old...😎

The Bell Tower

The children's play area along the side of the church.

The view from the corner of the road...notice the big round mirror on the left. Lots of them at curves and corners here. Also notice the terraced land...maybe a row of grapes or olive trees within the terrace.

The inside taken from the door under the dated arch. There is a door on each side. The space was empty of its chairs as they were outside for the guests.

The Last Supper painting - you can see it up high in the previous photo, but can't tell what it is.

A little closer look at the front.

The groups each had a sound check...the concert didn't start until 9 p.m. which seemed really late to me then, but now I see that the late evenings here are full of activity--the cooler time of day!

Jeshua and VOT (Voices of Triumph)

The Presbyterians

It started to get dark...and people arrived. A nice crowd--all mixed ages who seemed to appreciate all the music.  Jeshua and I both have some sound recordings, but I'll have to do a final post when I get home--can't seem to get them to upload from here. The local priest gave the introduction and welcome, both in Greek and in English. 

The lights and stone wall/gates made a really nice backdrop. They ended with Stand By Me--the hymn...When the storms of life are raging, stand by me...beautiful!

After the concert, the church ladies had prepared a reception for all of us--no small undertaking! They had nice little round ham & cheese sandwiches plus a swirled slice of a nice bread with little bites of bacon inside. Very yummy! Also nice cold water and orange soda. Folks were very friendly, even though we couldn't speak together. They were genuinely appreciative of our being there.

The reception was up yet again on another level of the hill. This looks down over the concert area.

And then we loaded up and took the buses through the darkness back to Hermopolis. A really nice evening.