First Liturgy a Success - On to Tuscany

The Tour Group arrived in Assisi yesterday (Wednesday) and enjoyed a marvelous group dinner at the hotel (featuring Pasta con Fungi and Braised Chingiali (wild boar)) and a brief night on the town before succumbing to sleep after a 36+ hour day of travel. After the first night at the Windsor Savoia hotel, about 5 minutes from the Basilica di San Francesco, we awoke early this morning (Thursday) and the Choir took about 30 minutes of practice at the hotel to get back into the singing mode. We then transferred to the Basilica, where we performed three songs in the Tomb of St. Francis and then sang for the 11 am Mass in the Capella di Santa Caterina in the Crypt of the Basilica, with a full house of over 200 in attendance. The repertoire included "If Ye Love Me" by Thomas Tallis, "Ubi Caritias" by Maurice Durufle, and "Give Me Jesus" by Wendell Whalum. Nick Beidler closed with a marvelous "Improvisations on Te Deum" on an historic organ from the 16th Century. All in all, the first day of performances went well. We will try to upload some video and pictures as soon as we get to a high speed Internet uplink.

After time to explore on our own, the group took a guided walking tour of the major sites in Assisi, including the Basilica di Santa Chiara (St. Claire), where the Choir sang "God Be In My Head" by John Rutter. Marco, our tour guide, gave us a detailed description of St. Francis' life as reflected in the historic fresco's in the Upper Church of the Basilica, as well as many other interesting facts about St. Claire and the other religious figures in Assisi's history.

Tomorrow we are off to Montelpuciano and San Gimiginano on a day of traveling, with no performances planned (but you never know what might happen spontaneously).

Thanks to all who have provided comments, and special thanks to the Choir members who hosted a reception for the Choir Tour Group last Sunday as a "Bon Voyage" sendoff. We look forward to being back together with you all soon.

Ciao,

Kevin

Ciao from Italy!

After more than a year of planning, the Visitation Choir Italy Tour 2009 tour group of 40 departs today for Italy. The largest group is traveling from Kansas City to Rome via American Airlines through Chicago O'Hare, arriving on Tuesday morning. Others are flying in on Tuesday on a number of other flights, to board a bus and head for Assisi upon arrival.

We know from pictures on Keith Gard's website (link to the right) that Jane and Keith have spent the last several days on the Almafi Coast and have visited Capri. Kevin and Erika have spent the last several days in Le Marche with their friend Dwight Stanford at his agriturismo near Ascoli Piceno, Italy, named Nascondiglio di Bacco. Check out his blog at www.ddstanford.blogspot.com or www.nascondigliodibacco.it. It has rained quite a bit, hopefully getting it out of its system before the group arrives, but we have visited a number of great wineries (look for wines from Le Marche as they start to take hold in the US) and enjoyed an olive oil tasting, visited a ceramics museum, and enjoyed a romp with Dwight's dog on the beach at San Benedetto.

Others from the group are touring Venice, and we will all head to Assisi tomorrow by car and train to meet up with the group on Wednesday. The first mass at which we sing is on Thursday morning at the Basilica St. Francesco in Assisi.

Please leave comments to these posts, especially friends and family of the tour group members or fellow parishioners, and we will get those to the travelers and post their responses as soon as possible.

More when we get to Assisi.

Happy Easter and Arrivederci!

We hope that everyone had glorious and Happy Easter! The Choir completed a marathon of over 20 hours of singing at practice and liturgies from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday and have one more full practice before leaving for Italy! We have confirmed a liturgy at the Duomo in Siena and another mass in Rome, so we now have 6 performances scheduled during the 8 days that we are in Italy.

Tour members start on early departures this Friday and the group leaves next Tuesday. We will do our best to keep up the blog posts during the trip.

Please note that we have uploaded 6 videos of performances from the Triduum services, some of which are linked on this blog. All of the videos can be found on YouTube - the link is provided on the right of this page or search YouTube for KRSweeney2281.

In addition, Keith Gard will be uploading pictures to his website, the link for which is also provided to the right.

Please keep the travel group in your thoughs and prayers and leave comments on the blog and we will try to get them to the tour group.

Kevin

Easter Triduum

We have now completed the Holy Thursday and Good Friday services in good voice, and with the Easter Vigil service tomorrow night and the Easter Sunday mass, we complete our liturgies before we depart for Italy. Test videos from these services will be posted to the website next week, to ensure that we can send back videos from our performances in Italy. Have a happy Easter!

Music, Seat Assignments, and April 5 Meeting

The Choir group is working hard finalizing the repertoire and polishing the music that we will perform on the the tour. We have had two extended practices in the last week, along with preparing all of the music for the upcoming Easter Triduum. We will get in a couple of practices the week between Easter and our departure on April 21 to put a "final polish" on our tour music. We hope that our fellow tour participants and our Italian guests will enjoy our efforts.

Our flight seat assignments have been made by the tour company. We will distribute a list FYI soon. Bring your American Airlines frequent flyer number to the airport if you want FF credit for these flights.

Our final predeparture meeting will be 1-3 pm on Sunday, April 5. We will discuss tour details and questions and packing tips and gather emergency contact and insurance information. Please let us know if you have any questions in the interim, at KRSweeney@aol.com.

Ciao!

Blog Kickoff

Good morning!

This is the first entry in the blog that will allow you to follow the adventures of the Visitation Parish Choir Tour Group from Kansas City, Missouri, as we set off for our tour of Italy April 21-30, 2009. We will post tour information, photos, and hopefully videos of performances as we prepare for our departure and travel throughout central Italy. Check back periodically for more information!