Our MCI Tour Manager was a very important part of our tour to southern Germany. He was thoughtful, patient, always clear, always responsive to the many, many questions, requests for conversations. We always felt we were hearing from a real person, not a fabricated tour guide.

All of our concerts were important to our trip. Few of us had seen such places, much less sung in them. We knew we were in a special experience when the first reverberation from our singing struck us in the midst of our first performance. Students used singing at Dachau Concentration Camp as a religious observance, a very appropriate observance for a difficult and tearful experience. The choir master at St. Michael (name escapes me) was most welcoming and helpful integrating us into the service and providing Eucharist for the 5 Roman Catholic students who requested it.

Our relationship with the staff at Music Celebrations was “first rate” – I was especially impressed with Mr. Wiscombe’s trip to Brandeis to help us with recruitment.

The highlight for the students was singing two brief pieces (Senfl and Isaac) in the Mozart Saal in the Mirabell Palace (Salzburg) - an ecstatic experience. The swirl of sound they created in the relatively small space seemed to lift their spirits and energize their bodies.

We were thoroughly pleased with our tour experience and would happy to serve as a reference.

James Olesen
Choir Director
Brandeis University

BERLIN, Germany (AP) — A modern reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach’s head — using computer modeling techniques — shows the composer as a strong-jawed man with a slight underbite, his large head topped with short, silver hair.

Rather than use Bach’s actual bones, which are buried at the St. John’s Church in Leipzig, Germany, Wilkinson worked from a copper replica of Bach’s skull made for a previous reconstruction in 1894 by physician Wilhelm His and sculptor Carl Ludwig Seffner.

Click HERE for full article

Tour guide Hans-Georg Baumgartner in his role as the Night Watchman in Rothenburg, Germany. Baumgartner gives tourists a taste of what life was like centuries ago in the medieval walled town, while carrying a hellebarde, a long, hooked spear that watchman used for protection while making their nightly rounds.

ROTHENBURG OB DER TAUBER, Germany - Cloaked in black and brandishing a deadly medieval weapon, Hans-Georg Baumgartner strides purposefully into Market Square at dusk. The crowd parts — not out of fear, but fascination. Cameras flash.

Meet the Night Watchman, a lowly figure in this town centuries ago, but in Baumgartner’s incarnation a tour guide with a rock-star aura and a wit so calculatingly clever he’s been called a medieval Jerry Seinfeld.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Baumgartner’s Watchman tour has helped make Rothenburg — Germany’s best-preserved walled town and the jewel of the medieval trade route known as the Romantic Road — one of the country’s most popular tourist sites.

Rick Steves, the ubiquitous Europe travel impresario savvy in what American tourists will pay to see, calls the watchman tour “flat-out the most entertaining hour of medieval wonder anywhere in Germany.”

Click here for full article

2009 marks the bicentennial of Felix Mendelssohn. The following article was found on CNN and pays tribute to the musical accomplishments of Felix during his lifetime. In 2009, we will be promoting the American Celebration of Music in Germany, highlighting Mendelssohn sites in Leipzig.

FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)

Areas of expertise: Piano, organ and orchestra (performance and composition)

Notable achievement: His “Wedding March,” which has survived over a century of rising divorce rates and overpriced wedding planners

Secret to his success: Nicest guy in classical music

Widely regarded as the 19th-century equivalent of Mozart, German composer Felix Mendelssohn was musically precocious at an early age. Mendelssohn began taking piano lessons at age six, made his first public performance at age nine, and wrote his first composition (that we know of) when he was 11. By the time he turned 17, he had completed his Overture to “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” one of the Romantic period’s best-known, most-loved works of classical music.

Then, in 1835, Mendelssohn’s father died, which (just like Wolfy) came as a crushing blow to the composer. But rather than sending him into an alcohol-induced stupor, the experience motivated Felix to finish his oratorio, “St. Paul,” which had been one of his father’s dying requests. From there, he went on to compose important and popular works, including the “Wedding March” (though he probably wouldn’t appreciate those cheesy “here comes the bride” lyrics). In 1843, at age 34, Mendelssohn founded the Conservatory of Music in Leipzig, where he taught composition with fellow musical great Robert Schumann.

The other nine here

In cooperation with the Louvre, Paris and British Museum, London, the Pergamon Museum, Berlin will present a major exhibition from June 26 through October 5, 2008 demonstrating the close link between the intellectual history of Europe and the Near East over a period of several millennia. In the first part of the exhibition, selected topics with numerous archeological objects from Babylonia will document the roots of European civilization that reach all the way back to the second millennium B.C. The second part of the exhibition is devoted to the reception of Babylonian culture in European intellectual history from the end of antiquity to the twenty-first century.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus joined with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra Chorus of a recent Music Celebrations singing tour in Prague, Leipzig, and Berlin. The whole tour was beautifully arranged. Our tour guides were the best! They made this trip that much more enjoyable and memorable. We look forward to working with Music Celebrations again in the near future. Thank you.

Steve Bench, President
Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

Montana State University Chorale

Article taken from the MSU site

The Montana State University Chorale will launch a performance tour of Central Europe with a performance at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 13, at Bozeman’s Holy Rosary Church.

The performance is free and open to the public. A free-will offering will be taken to help defray the travel expenses of the 40-member choir.

Directed by Lowell Hickman, MSU professor of music, the Chorale will tour and perform in Berlin, Leipzig, Prague, Vienna and Budapest from June 14-26. The Chorale will perform as part of the 2006 American Celebration of Music in both Germany and Austria, performing almost exclusively in churches in Central Europe. Other performance venues during the group’s tour include Prague’s historic St. Nicholas Church as well as Budapest’s Gothic Matthais Church.

The Chorale’s concert program includes eight sacred selections from composers ranging from Brahms to Whitacre. The second half of the program features six American spirituals and folk songs “that are very popular with European audiences,” Hickman said.

Hickman said the Chorale tours and performs in Europe about every third year, which he believes is important to the students’ cultural, historical and musical education.

“Some of the (tour) experiences are life changing for them,” Hickman said. “They understand more fully and completely about what they have studied when they sing at Karlskirche (Vienna’s historic Baroque cathedral), for instance.

“The music is brought to life and you can literally see a light go on in their eyes. They particularly understand more about music history, and how a piece of music was composed for a specific space.”
Hickman said the students pay their own travel expenses for the European tour, which is one of several travel and study experiences offered by the MSU Department of Music.

The MSU Chorale also performed at this spring’s Northwest Division Convention of the American Choral Director’s Association in Portland, Ore. The Chorale was one of 25 choral ensembles invited to perform at the convention and the only ensemble from Montana.

The following are notes and pictures from Robert Bullwinkel, the choir director at Sunnyside High School in Fresno, CA. The Sunnyside High School Chorus recently returned from a European concert tour with MCI.

As the jet lag slowly fades, the images and memories of the Sunnyside High School chamber choir’s Sister City Tour become clear. Suffice it to say that the tour was everything we hoped it would be and more. Since it is impossible to recount everything,let me give you a few snapshots of the many memorable moments.

Paris
–a sunset cruise down the Seine as the stars came out and the lights of the Eiffel tower came on, then stopping on the Pont Neuf to see the Tower glowing against the deep azure sky with the moon shining above and the whole scene reflected in the water.
–the Sunday morning farmer’s market on the Rue Moufftard, sipping cafe au lait and watching the Parisians do their shopping.
–singing through our tears on the altar at Notre Dame as we realized that we had really made it there.
–our “live” broadcast back home to Fresno’s Finest

Muenster
–our first rehearsal with the choir from the Gymnasium Paulinem school (founded in the year 797), seeing the walls between the students break down, and then, after lunch together in the German students’ homes, seeing all of the new “best friends for life”.
–bringing down the house that night at the Festaal of the Rathaus in an awesome performance with the Paulinem choir. In the words of the Mayor’s office, “We have many fine choirs in Muenster, but we have never seen anything like this! The Festaal has never rocked like this before!!”
–seeing our bright and shining faces all over the morning papers the next day:)
–our performance in St. Paul’s cathedral and hearing the shimmering chords echo throughout the space
–our final performance in Muenster at St. Petronilla church. Word about the choir’s previous performances had gotten around and the church was packed to the rafters. We have never heard such applause nor seen multiple standing ovations that lasted for so long. I think that if we had more songs to sing we would be there singing still!

Switzerland
–a beautiful, sunny drive through the Alps and the view of the lakes at Interlaken surrounded by the snowcapped peaks
–two words: Swiss Chocolate

Riva del Garda
–being selected to sing in the opening concert of the International Choir Festival and giving the crowd some real American gospel music and having the audience of 48 choirs from 26 different countries clap along with us.
–gelato, gelato, gelato
–taking paddle boats out onto Lake Garda and seeing the foothills of the Alps wrapped around the beautiful Italian harbor.
–realizing that we were singing in a competition for huge college choirs and then giving our best performance anyway and holding our own with the older, bigger choirs.
(For the record, this was the first time in the eighteen year history of the event that an American high school choir entered into the competition. We were placed in category G3 for choirs aged 16-25. All of the other choirs, except one, were from colleges around the world. Coincidentally, there was one other American school entered in the category–Piedmont High School from the Bay Area with the highest public school API score in California for their enrollment. Sunnyside beat them handily. The G3 category was won by a private college choir from Singapore who went on to win the entire festival.)

Verona
–singing in the Baptistery of the 12th century Cathedral at a special service written just for our choir called “The rebirth of hope”. The program was sponsored by the city of Verona and the church with a pre-service dinner provided by the ladies of the church.
–performing “Only in America” on the steps of the City Hall which stands next to a Roman Arena built in the first century BC. Drawing a big crowd of enthusiastic listeners including a group of French teenagers who became part of the show and our biggest fans of the tour!
–strolling the streets in the beautiful spring weather and feeling very Italian.

The usual tour stuff…..
–lost luggage! Our sound gear finally joined us in Muenster, three days after we arrived.
–the neverending card games
–playing pool at the youth hostel
–getting sick and passing it around
–more walking than we thought humanly possible
–lost glasses recovered from a truck stop as we passed back through a week later
–everyone applauding as our Italian driver parallel parks the 50′ bus in a spot seemingly too small for a VW
–getting homesick and needing to talk to mom:)
–late nights and early mornings
–flirting with other teens and finding that puppy love has no language barrier
–Mr. de Jong grossing everyone out by eating horsemeat and mulemeat in Verona.
–fun and games with food (Becky, Romanita, Sandy and Marya!)
–shopping, shopping, shopping
–steppng around a corner and seeing yet another postcard view of an ancient city
–surly Sicilian waiters
–being kissed on both cheeks!
–hours spent on the bus
–getting in trouble for being late
–hauling our bags a mile straight uphill to the youth hostel in Verona
–travelling for nearly 24 hours straight to get home
–sending the police out to search for one of our missing chaperones
–cheering when we got back to the USA and realized how much we love our home.

You can check out more pictures and student blogs here.

The Alabama Boychoir and Girls Chorus spent a week touring Germany and Austria. Undoubtedly, it will be a lifelong memory for them, largely due to the management of Music Celebrations. The concert venues were some of the finest in Europe and the publicity for the concert in Vienna brought an audience that more than filled Karlskirche. In addition to excellent performance experiences, Music Celebrations chose hotels that were very comfortable. In all, I was more than pleased with the work that Music Celebrations did for us and plan to contract with them again next year!

Karen Nicolosi
Alabama Boychoir

The London Handel House

“Handel is the greatest composer who ever lived. I would bare my head and kneel at his grave” — L.v. Beethoven (1824)

Today is George Frideric Handel’s 321st birthday. Although Handel is a German composer, he lived a large portion of his life in Great Britian. His most famous piece is Messiah, an oratorio set to texts from the King James Bible; other well-known works are Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. He deeply influenced many of the composers who came after him, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

When your musical group is traveling with Music Celebrations Inernational, there are two Handel houses than can be visited.

In London, the Handel House Museum is where Handel lived from 1723 until his death in 1759 and where he composed the Messiah.

In Halle, Germany, the birthplace of Handel can be visited as part of the Handel Music Museum.

So whether you are participating in the American Celebration of Music in Britian or Germany, Music Celebrations can help your group experience Handel both through visits to the houses/museums, and by arranging concerts at Handel sites. Please contact us for more information.

Few instances can be found in history of a man (Mendelssohn) so amply gifted with every good quality of mind and heart; so carefully brought up amongst good influences; endowed with every circumstance that would make him happy; and so thoroughly fulfilling his mission. Never perhaps could any man be found in whose life there were so few things to conceal and to regret. — Sir George Grove

Today is the 197th birth anniversary of Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, known generally as Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847).

Performing groups who travel with Music Celebrations International as part of the American Celebration of Music in Germany could visit the Mendelssohn House in Leipzig on Goldsmittstrasse 12, where he lived and worked for many years and died in 1847, has been faithfully restored. Museum includes the music room with Mendelssohn’s piano in a very homey atmosphere. Other points of interest related to Mendelssohn are the Gewandhaus (The Concert Hall) where Mendelssohn was the conductor of the Gewandhous Orchestra and took it to the world fame (and where the Gewandhaus Mendelssohn Festival is a high spot in Leipzig’s musical life, providing insights into Mendelssohn’s work and influence).

Mendelssohn was deeply influenced by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 1829, with the backing of Zelter and the assistance of Felix’s friend, the actor Eduard Devrient, Felix arranged and conducted a performance in Berlin of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. The orchestra and choir were provided by the Berlin Singakademie of which Zelter was the prinicpal conductor. The success of this performance (the first since Bach’s death in 1750) was an important element in the revival of J.S. Bach’s music in Germany and, eventually, throughout Europe. It earned Mendelssohn widespread acclaim at the age of twenty. It also led to one of the very few references which Felix ever made to his origins: ‘To think that it took an actor and a Jew-boy (Judensohn) to revive the greatest Christian music for the world’. Mendelssohn was also instrumental in the erection of the Bach monument in Leipzig.

Today, 235 years ago, was the date of Ludwig van Beethoven’s baptism (which many celebrate as the exact date of his birth is unknown).

In celebration of this great composer (who even has his own website), Music Celebrations International would like to mention some of the many Beethoven sites in Europe that can be visited as part of the American Celebration of Music.

Bonn: The house and museum - Beethoven-Haus: Beethoven’s birthplace, at Bonn, is in the road ‘Bonngasse’. A plaque tells us that “In this house Ludwig van Beethoven was born, December 17th 1770″. Nicely kept and restored, the house has been turned into a museum.

Bonn: the statue of Ludwig van Beethoven: Franz Liszt is responsible for this statue of Beethoven at Bonn. He contributed not only financially and personally but also organised concerts from which the funds were put towards the statue. For the unveiling, Franz Liszt composed and conducted his “Cantata for the inauguration of the Beethoven Monument”.

Bonn: Beethon: “Beethon”, is the title of this astonishing sculpture. Made in concrete by Klaus Kammerichs, unveiled in 1986.

Beethoven at Leipzig: the statue by Max Klinger: This statue is more than three metres tall. It’s kept at the Museum der Bildenden Künste at Leipzig.

Berlin - Tiergarten: There is a nice monument dedicated to German composers at the Tiergarten at Berlin. On the three sides are figures of Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart.

The busts by Anton Dietrich: Anton Dietrich (1799-1872) created two busts of Beethoven. The first was made in 1821. This bust is kept at the History Museum of Vienna. The second was comissioned by the Opera of Vienna (the “Wiener Staatsoper”) and was sculpted in 1867. The plastic model can be found in the great hall at the Musikvereinin Vienna.

Vienna: The statue of Ludwig van Beethoven: erected at the Beethovenplatz, near the Konzerthaus, at Vienna.

Beethoven’s graves: He was buried in Wahring Cemetery in 1827; in 1888 his remains were removed to Zentral-friedhof in Vienna - a great resting place for musicians - where he lies side-by-side with Schubert.

New tests confirm that Ludwig van Beethoven suffered from lead poisoning. The legendary composer, who experienced decades of illness that left him in misery for most of his life, died in 1827. Click here for the full report from NPR.

On Tuesday morning, William Walsh stood at a lectern at Argonne National Laboratory, near Darien, and verified what some had suspected about the great composer who was plagued for three decades by digestion problems, chronic abdominal pain, irritability and depression: He had died from lead poisoning.

So confounded and distressed by his plight, which also included extremely foul body odor and halitosis, Beethoven left written requests that a physician examine his body after his death to determine the cause of his demise in hope of saving others from the same fate.

“Now, 178 years later, we’re finally fulfilling the request of Ludwig van Beethoven,” Walsh said.

Click here to read the full article in the Chicago Tribune.

For a very interesting look into the composer’s life, you may wish to read Beethoven’s Hair by Russell Martin.

Let Music Celebrations International make Beethoven an important part of your concert tour while in Vienna (visiting Beethoven’s grave), in Bonn (visiting Beethoven’s birthsite), or throughout Europe.

KKL - the festival venue

Music Celebrations International is pleased to announce the Lucerne International Choral Festival, July 3-7, 2007. The festival will be a combined choir under the direction of Dr. Eph Ehly accompanied by full orchestra in the outstanding Kultur-und-Kongresszentrum Luzern (Lucerne’s Culture and Convention Center [KKL] – see picture). Switzerland will also be a great starting point for a longer European tour which could include extensions into other parts of Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Germany and France.

The festival will feature outstanding SATB choirs from across the United States who will in their participation pay tribute to Dr. Ehly in a year where he will be celebrating his 70th birthday. The concert repertoire is not yet solidified, but Eph’s current thoughts are opening with Te Deum in C by Haydn, closing with Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral by Wagner and between performing works such as Brahms’ Nanie, Mozart’s Vesperae Solennes de Confessore, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria or Hanson’s Song of Democracy.

For more detailed information on how your choir can participate, please call Music Celebrations at 1.800.395.2036 or contact us through our web-form.

October 31, 1517 Martin Luther posts 95 theses

(thanks to This Day in History for the story)
Martin Luther, a professor of biblical interpretation at the University of Wittenberg in Germany, nails his 95 revolutionary theses on the door of the Castle Church, marking the beginning of the Protestant Reformation in Germany.

In the theses, Luther condemned the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church, especially the papal practice of asking payment–called indulgences–for the forgiveness of sins. He followed up the revolutionary work with equally controversial and groundbreaking theological works, and his fiery words set off religious reformers all across Europe.

In 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther. Three months later, Luther was called to defend his beliefs before Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms, where he was famously defiant. For his refusal to recant his writings, the emperor declared him an outlaw and a heretic. Luther was protected by powerful German princes, however, and by his death from natural causes in 1546 the course of Western civilization had been significantly altered.

For interested performing groups, Music Celebrations International offers a In the Footsteps of Luther concert tour taking you through Eisenach, Wittenberg, Coburg, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Munich Germany. Please contact us for more information.

Oberammergau

Fodor’s October newsletter has a nice feature on the Bavarian Alps. They feature a couple of villages that Music Celebrations International has experience taking performing groups to: Oberammergau and Mittenwald.

Oberammergau is probably best known for the annual Passion Play, which was first performed in 1634. Oberammergau was also the site of the 2004 International Choral Festival with Dr. Eph Ehly as the artistic director. This small town sits in an Alpine valley beneath a sentinel-like peak. Its main streets are lined with frescoed houses (such as the 1784 Pilatushaus at Ludwig-Thoma-Strasse 10), and in summer the village bursts with color as geraniums pour from every window box. Many of these lovely houses are home to skilled woodcarvers, a craft that has flourished here since the early 12th century.

The village of Mittenwald is a resort town in a pass in the Karwendel Range. On the square stands a monument to Mathias Klotz, who introduced violin making to Mittenwald in 1684. The town is a major international center for this highly specialized craft. MCI has taken many orchestras to Mittenwald to visit the famous violin makers and museums there.

Hochstein teacher Cheryl Frank, at piano, works with 7-year-old Sarah Ball of Le Roy.

MCI is aware of the Hochstein School of Music and Dance because of our relationship with Ms. Nancy Strelau, the Youth Symphony Orchestra director there. She has taken the orchestra with MCI to Austria, France and in 2006 will be going to Germany.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle has just reported that Cheryl Frank, a displaced member of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra in New Orleans has just signed on to teach at Hochstein. The article gives interesting insight to the future of the LPO and what Cheryl’s experience has been like. Click here to read the full article.

Here’s a great article about the South Salem High School Orchestra and their recent trip to Europe. South’s students visited Landsberg in Germany and Salzburg and Vienna in Austria, among other places. They participated in a workshop with music professor Christian Dallinger from Vienna University and performed in a large church in Bad Ischl, Austria. Click here for the entire article published in the Statesman Journal.