The boys of the bass section

Our bass section (Levi, Gabor, Gabriel, Gyergo, Levi, Norbi and Hunor ) are all (or recently have been) singers in the choir of the Kolozsvar Unitarian high school, and it's a joy to have then with us. They sing really well and their low notes give us goosebumps. They make sure we are pronouncing our Hungarian properly, and correct us very kindly. They are fun, friendly thoughtful guys.

And everywhere we go--

They carry the keyboard, from the bus to the performance hall, which usually includes at least one flight of monstrous stairs!

You tube link, with thanks to Marko Laszlo

Marko Laszlo has posted these links to his vid of our concert, the first one is our

entrance, the next one has a large part of oue conceret, and the last one shows our

final song, the Szekely Himnusz, in which the audience joined.

Let your light shine - amerikai unitárius kórus

www.youtube.com

Márkó Laci - képek - Amerikai unitárius kórus - Sepisszentgyörgy, 2011.08.11.

markolaci.hu

Amerikai unitárius kórus - Sepiszentgyörgy, 2011.08.11. - 1. rész

www.youtube.com

Laszlo has posted the entire concert now, in various places! Enjoy!

wild horses can't keep us from singing

This morning we had a quick rehearsal in a park next to our hotel in Szekelyudvarhely--a park dedicated to Hungarian heroes, whose busts listened to our singing. It was a good place to practice because our next performance, later in the morning, would be outdoors at the annual Worldwide Unitarian Gathering.

Soon a small crowd gathered to listen to us. Then a tour bus came and quite a large crowd massed at the entrance to the park. Beth, our director, offered to cut the rehearsal short so that the group could tour the park, but they offered to wait. Our last number is the Szekely Anthem, that Aviva mentioned in her last post-- the one that everyone knows by heart in spite of the fact that it was against the law to sing it, even after the fall of the dictator. Of course many people joined in, and after we were done, the waiting tour group sang it back to us, and we sang again with them.

Maybe one of us has a picture of the park??

The Worldwide Unitarian Gathering featured a worship service, greetings from 2 Bishops that were more like sermons, and lots of entertaining groups such as ours. It kicked off with a brass band, followed by men in traditional Szekely attire, on horseback. It got very exciting when two stallions, standing next to each other, decided to show off. They started kicking each other and rumpussing rather wildly, right in front of where we wee sitting. One of them stepped on Aviva's foot, but fortunately, not hard enough to break anything. Another choir member's back pack got trampled too; the container of yogurt in a ziplock bag was completely smooshed, but the bag is still good.

Wild horses could not deter us; we sang very well, staying in key the whole time, and delighting the audience.

We had plenty of time after singing to shop around for handcrafts and souvenirs, and then on to Marosvasarhely and another concert tomorrow morning.

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!

Want to know what's really old? try this Walled Citadel and 1000 year old Unitarian church visit

Friday:

We toured the medieval city Segesvar/Sighisoara.  We used to think 200 years was a long time - this stuff is 500 to 1000 years old. Climbing the hills and staircases added a few years on us as well.

And by the way- talk about timeless... this was the birthplace of Vlad Tepes -( the original Dracula) - he still lives...

But then we visited two Unitarian churches  - one that was about 200 years old and has a Unitarian High School.  Then we get to another Unitarian church in a building constructed in about 1200 AD and has been Unitarian for 450 years... (when the lord of the manor converted to Unitarianism)
Talk about old!   Really amazing - this church is a Unesco heritage site...

So feeling young again - we are on to our second concert and more fun tomorrow
Joann

In which Ruth joins the group and describes the first couple of days

aving spent the past week progressing from Budapest through various Transylvanian towns to visit friends, I arrived in Sinaia by train to join the Festival Choir on Monday evening. Trains are subsidized by the government; I paid 13 RON (about $4.30) to ride for a little over an hour--and another 10 RON got me a 5 minute taxi ride to the hotel.

Sinaia is a picturesque resort in the Carpathians near what used to be the border between Romania and Transylvania. The buildings remind me of what one might see in Bavaria or the Alps --and it turns out there is a reason for that. In the lat 1800's when Walachia and Moldova united to from Romania, they couldn't agree on a leader. So, they sent off to Germany for a proper king.

Within the first 24 hours we had three rehearsals, and two more today. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will sing through everything and then it's off to Sepsi Szt-Gyorgy, where we have our first concert on Thursday..On Tuesday, in addition to two rehearsals, we had a tour of Peles Castle, the summer palace of the Romanian royal family. In the afternoon free time several of us went up in a gondola to the top of the high mountain, and enjoyed some cooler weather, and seeing a shepherd and his dog with their sheep.

Wednesday: We visited Bran castle, built in the 1400's to overlook the main trade route to the east, on the border between Transylvania and what later became Romania. This facilitated collection of taxes on the merchandise. More recently the castle was given to Queen Marie, whose longing to add Transylvania to Romania's holdings was a factor in getting Woodrow Wilson to support this act in the Treaty of Trianon after WWI.

Bran Castle was also used by Bram Stoker as the setting for Dracula's castle. There is no evidence that Vlad Dracul, aka Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, ever visited this place, and I don't know if Bram Stoker did either. But the town gets a bit of a boost from the "Dracula's Castle" tourist attraction. Happily, the castle is pretty much as Marie left it, not at all spooky, but quite charming. There are plenty of Dracula souvenirs in the market outside the castle.

Recently the Romania government returned the castle to the heirs of the earlier owners, who live in NY now and want to sell it--it's going for $160 million if you know anyone interested. I haven't figured out how to download photos into the blog, but I's sure someone will post pictures of Bran Castle and you can see for yourselves whether or not you want to buy it.

After the evening rehearsal some of us went next door to a free concert with works by Brahmns and Tchaikovsky. And then we had supper on our own--I went to t a traditional Romanian restaurant, instead of the pizza and Irish pub options; I thought of you when I heard you can get Guinness at the pub. Anyway for 40 lei including tip and a beer, I had grilled bear meat and mushrooms, potatoes and tomato salad. I just had to try the grilled bear, because I'll probably never get another chance. It was actually very good--tasted a bit like steak marinated in pine needles and juniper berries.

Tomorrow we're off to Brasso and Szt Gyorgy and our first concert! I am having so much fun and I have to say, after practicing just the alto parts all these weeks, the music sounds ever so much better with all four sections. My friend Marko Laci, who took some photos while I was visiting with him and Maria, and posted them on my facebook page, will be videotaping the concert and putting it on You Tube, so in a couple of days you might want to look for UUPCC Festival Choir and see if you can find it.

Greetings from Sinaia, Romania

For the past several days we have been staying in the beautiful mountain resort town of Sinaia. The area is reminiscent of Bavaria--with craggy mountain peaks and castles, and wooden houses with flower boxes.  
 Our choir has been practicing a lot and we sound FANTASTIC!  Tomorrow we will leave here and travel into Transylvania, where we will have our first concert in a village at a Unitarian church tomorrow evening.

We've also done some day trips to see a couple of castles.  The castle we saw yesterday was built by King Carol, who came here to rule from Germany.  Today we saw "Dracula's castle", the one that inspired the Dracula novel--and had a fun tour there.   We've had warm, sunny weather--but today turned cool and rainy.  The gloomy weather was actually perfect for visiting Dracula's castle. 

Aviva