Libertyville choir students are DARING. Our travels around the world fulfil the GLOBAL goal of our DARING mission. These tour memories directly reflect the impact of being able to travel to other countries and experience other cultures through performance. Below are just a few memories of our recent tours. There are so many more. Enjoy.
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2019 - A lasting memory from our tour to Croatia and Slovenia was singing "Earth Song" at the island church in Bled, Slovenia. You take a small row boat out to the island on Lake Bled and then climb the 99 stone steps to the top. You can then tour the church and ring the bell. Our choir had the opportunity to sing one song in The Pilgrimage Church of the Assumption of Mary on Bled Island. It was magical.
2017 - A memory that I will hold dear from our 2017 tour to Italy was not even in a performance. It was at our farewell dinner in Rome. At dinner each evening, one of our tour participants, Bryce Parker, would stand and give a short inspirational speech to everyone. At our final dinner he did more than just give a speech. He stood to gather everyone's attention. Bryce began his speech by saying that we should end our tour the same way we end all of our concerts. He then broke into our concert encore, Tshotsholoza (South African freedom song). Everyone joined in and what happened next was complete joy. Our entire tour group was on the second floor of the restaurant and we shook the floor singing and dancing to this glorious song.
2015 - A highlight of our 2015 tour to France was the privilege of a joint performance in Blois at the Foundation of Doubt Music School. LHS Choir and Dance students were able to share a joint performance with students from the Blois school. It was extremely rewarding to see the the connections made at this performance and to share our music with them.
2013 - Our joint choir/dance tour to Spain gave us the opportunity to perform several pieces together with dancers and singers. Our final performance in Avila, Spain was very special as our students combined their talents on several pieces, "Bring Me Little Water Silvy", "Prayer for the Children" and "Bonse Aba."
2011 - Being allowed to perform at St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican was one all time highlight from our travels. We took 82 students to Italy in March of 2011 and we sang for an 11:00 AM mass at St. Peters. High School choirs aren't usually allowed to sing at this time and we were honored to participate.
2009 - Our first performance on our 2009 tour to Austria and the Czech Republic was actually not in either country. We were staying in St. Leonhard, Austria in the region of Bavaria, close to the border of Germany. We were scheduled to perform at an evening mass for the Catholic Church of St. Andreas in Bertchsgaden, Germany. After the mass was complete and we were exiting the church, it had started snowing some of the largest snow flakes I had ever seen. It was completely magical and a memory that I will never forget.
2007 - A highlight from our trip to England in June of 2007 was a performance in Gloucester at the Gloucester Cathedral. It was our first performance of the tour. The cathedral had a 6 second sound delay and we were blown away by the acoustics of this gorgeous space.
2005 - Our tour to Hawaii allowed us the opportunity to tour the Pearl Harbor Memorial exhibit and sing a short concert at the visitors center of the exhibit. This was an extremely important and meaningful part of our tour.
