Over the first week of spring break, the Hamilton College Choirs toured around the northeast, performing in venues from Boston to Connecticut. Two choir groups came on the trip: College Choir and College Hill.
The first stop was Boston. After a long and groggy bus ride Saturday Morning, we were able to spend Sunday both exploring the city and performing at Old South Church. Monday came as a rather chaotic day, and we were first bussed to Fairfield, CT to sing in a collaboration with the choirs at Sacred Heart University.
We were going to spend a night in Fairfield, but after one of our buses broke down — and then trying to keep up with the incoming winter storm on its way, the decision was made to go straight to our third stop. We sang a nice set and then went back on the bus to go to Philadelphia. After a few chaotic days of travel and getting used to touring, it was nice to spend three nights in the same house.
With this time in Philly, we had opportunities to really explore the city on both Tuesday and Wednesday, even with the concert we had on Tuesday. Afterwards, we left for our final destination of New York City. With tired voices, but smiles on our faces, we sang at our final venue that night and departed for Hamilton the next day.
In each of the venues at which we performed we had an opportunity to sing a diverse repertoire of songs. College Choir sang pieces from religious texts, “The Last Words of David,” to the fast-paced Bollywood song “Balelaka.” Some of the pieces were on the topic of coming out of the closet, and other pieces were more traditional. The College Choir balanced contemporary, classical, and romantic period pieces. College Hill’s set was not as chronologically diverse, but had an emphasis of Polynesian music. Two of the five pieces College Hill sang were written by composers of Polynesian descent. Although the pieces are diverse, they are linked by common themes that deal with experiencing turbulence. From Mozart’s “Te Deum,” being written at a time when he was trying to gain independence from his father, to Eric Whitacre’s “Sleep,” about the need for rest and quiet after facing pressures and pain, the pieces were intertwined by the tour’s theme: “Out of the Void, and Into the Darkness.”
The best parts of tour for myself, and I think for the entire choir, were singing and of our time off. The experience of singing was a source of joy. Even through interruptions (Our Boston concert featured a heckler) we were able to appreciate the sonic and emotional qualities of each performance space.
Although each concert featured the same set of songs, the experience of performing was always new and exciting. I personally got to explore both new places I had never been to and new parts of places with which I was familiar.
The camaraderie and way I got to spend time with my friends was different than any time we had spent on campus in the best way possible. The choir grew closer as a whole; something that is worth any amount of sporadic changes of plans and chaos of traveling across states in the bus.
