Exchange Tours |
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 The
choir regularly makes overseas concert tours, as well as hosting
choirs from abroad. In 2004 we toured Portugal with concerts in Coimbra, Viseu, Estremoz and Castelo de Vide (see article below).
In May 2002, the choir travelled to Transylvania for a 9 day concert tour (see article below). In previous years, exchange tours have been made with choirs from Lithuania, Minsk and St. Petersburg in Russia, Goslar and Bad Harzburg in Germany, the Limburg and Antwerp areas of Belgium, Szentendre in Hungary and Groningen in North Holland. In 1998 the choir visited the Czech Republic to complete an exchange tour with the Svatopluk choir from Moravia. The choir also gives a number of charity concerts both locally and elsewhere in England. May / June 2004 - Tour of Portugal
Coimbra was the birthplace of six Portuguese kings. It was also the seat of Portugal's oldest university, which we visited on the first morning in the town. On the second evening we performed a concert in the Igreja de S. Jose. This was quite well attended and introduced us to the fact that the Portuguese do not start their concerts until 9.00pm, and that they wander in and out at random whilst the performance is taking place!
On Monday 31 May we left our hotel in Coimbra and transferred to the town of Viseu, visiting the largest site of Roman ruins to be found in Portugal at Conimbriga. En route we also had lunch, including suckling pig in the Restaurant Caves Alianca, where the wine flowed freely!!
The afternoon was spent rehearsing in the Se (cathedral) for the evening concert. The concert was absolutely packed to the back of the cathedral, with some people standing leaning on the walls at the sides and the back. We had had some very good advanced publicity on the local radio and it certainly paid off. Again, there was a lot of coming and going on the part of the audience, but they certainly seemed to enjoy the evening!
Castelo de Vide is a very attractive small spa town whose houses are hunched together at the foot of its castle. It owes its attraction to old whitewashed houses stepped high up the hillside along winding alleys brilliant with flowers. A relaxing evening followed with swimming in the small pool at the hotel followed by dinner and an informal concert given by RFS in the dining room.
On Friday 4 June some of the group visited a wine co-operative and a cork factory, while other less energetic souls remained in the hotel for a bit of a rest! That evening the final concert took place in the Ingresa de Saint Maria de Devesa church in Castelo de Vide.
In the evening we travelled by coach to an outdoor restaurant where we had our farewell party. Our groupies performed a new song for us and we thanked Max, our Portuguese/Yorkshire guide for all his wonderful help during the visit. On Sunday 6 June we flew back to Heathrow and normal life. As is usual after a RFS tour, we needed another holiday to help us recover from that one! November / December 2003 - Exchange with Chorale Caecilia, Antwerp
There are plans for a further exchange with Chorale Caecilia in November 2005.
2002 - Visit to TransylvaniaOn May 31st 2002, amidst jokes about Dracula and garlic, about 80 members of The Royal Free Singers, led by their conductor Ben Gunner, left Heathrow bound for Transylvania. The imagined vision of this area of Romania was very different from the truth.
In addition to the main concerts, we also exchanged traditional songs with a Romanian choir and participated in a mass. There were many social occasions during the 9 day trip, including climbing the Carpathian mountains in wooden carts pulled by tractors, experiencing first hand the skills of the local inhabitants of a village, making bread, spinning and weaving, wood carving and the shoeing of a horse. One of the high points of the visit was a visit to a music school where local children performed traditional songs for us It was a very tired group who returned to Heathrow on Sunday 9th June,
but the wonderful memories of the trip more than compensated for that.
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On 28 May 2004 just under 100 singers and friends left Heathrow
destined for Lisbon, Portugal. Since we travelled in two groups,
the first group were lucky enough to be able to spend some time
by the river whilst waiting for the second group to arrive. We then
travelled in convoy to our first destination, Coimbra, just days
before the England football team were due to play their first match
in the World Cup Final...
The next morning we departed to Porto for the day, where we visited the Crofts Port Wine Cellars and enjoyed a few samples of
their wares before leaving to have some free time in the town, and
enjoying lunch in various cafes along the waterfront.
Viseu is the regional capital of the Berias and has a wonderful old town. The following morning we had free time to visit the town, to
do some shopping and to swim in the pool at the hotel.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel for our final move to
the town of Castelo de Vide, in the foot hills of the Serra de Sao
Mamede. En route we visited the town of Belmonte and went
round its castle which dated back to 1266.
On Thursday 3 June we had our busiest day. First of all we visited the walled town of Evora, where we had free time for sight seeing
and lunch. We climbed up to the old town in about 30 degrees C,
and struggled to wander round its streets, dodging from shade to
shade whenever possible. In the afternoon, some of the group
visited the Ducal Palace at Vila Vicosa, whilst others were glad to
seek the comparative peace and coolness of the church where we
were to perform our next formal concert at Estromoz.
Here we were joined by the Tomaz Alcaide Choir for a joint concert in Sao Francisco church. This was followed by a reception in the
Town Hall Cloisters. The concert was very well attended, and
there was a great deal of gesticulating going on when we tried to
communicate with the Portuguese choir.
The next morning marked our last full day in Portugal. The morning was spent wandering round the town of Castelo de Vide,
looking for souvenirs and presents, and having lunch. In the
afternoon there was a short journey by coach to the medieval
hamlet of Marvao, high up on an escarpment facing Spain. Here
we performed a short afternoon concert to a few locals and visitors
who happened to be there at the time.
In November 2003, around 80 members of the choir travelled to Antwerp to perform a joint concert with the Chorale Caecilia. Royal Free Singers sang Vivaldi's Gloria and Handel's Dixit Dominus. The following month Chorale Caecilia spent a weekend in Windsor including a Christmas themed concert in the Parish Church.
After
an overnight train journey from Budapest, we woke to a country which could
have been from another century. Peasants worked their strips in large
fields and waved to the train as we passed by. In the distance beautiful
green hills were bathed in sunshine. There were no signs of the oppression
of more recent history.
We
were in Transylvania to perform three major concerts in the towns of Brasov,
Targu Mures and Cluj. The programme opened with Handel's Zadok the Priest
and this was followed by a piece by a Romanian composer. The main work
performed by the choir was John Rutter's Requiem.