Our First Concert

On Thursday, Aug. 11 The UU Festival Choir gave our first concert at the Unitarian church in Sepsi Szt. Gyorgy.   It was video taped, and we hope to post a link very soon.

 The concert was an incredible experience.  We sang with joy and with our full hearts.  It felt as if the audience, made up of congregation members was embracing us.  They clapped enthusiastically, going into a rhythmic clapping in between songs that they repeated loudly, over and over again.  They loved our gospel music and our Hungarian songs--one which uses the text of the Edict of Torda (a statement of religious freedom that originated right here in this region), Esti Dahl by Kodaly (which is a song about living in exile), and at the end they  all stood and joined us in the singing of the Szekely Anthem (a Transylvanian anthem that was banned under Communism).  I felt so moved I could hardly sing, and other choir members told me the same thing afterwards.

  There are no words that can describe the joy of singing for such a receptive audience--to share the emotion of the music that doesn't need words, to create something as a whole, as a group that speaks of God, of freedom, of joy and peace, of one-ness.  In addition to the songs already mentioned, we had some sacred harp songs, South African freedom hymns, contemporary pieces, and spirituals. The local minister was just beaming afterwards, when he talked about how the music had "made us all one."  All of us in the choir are from different parts of the US, and our bass section comes from Kolozsvar.  We all have come together at this particular time and place. The audience had never met us before--and yet for this hour we were all one in spirit.  Although there were a few missed notes here and there and spots we could work on--overall, it went beautifully.  As our director, Beth Norton said on the bus afterwards--there were moments when we were singing when she looked around and realized that at the moment there was nowhere on earth that she would rather be.   For a first performance, she said, it was "a triumph".

The ladies from the church provided a tasty meal for us after wards: noodles, chicken slow cooked in a yummy sauce, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, and of course, "palinka"--which is a Transylvanian moonshine made from plums.  We enjoyed trying out some Hungarian phrases, including "Finom volt!"  It was delicious!