Lafayette College Choirs on Tour

Finland, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Vienna
We sang in four countries. We shopped in five.

January 2003

Traveling in cooperation with Friendship Ambassadors Foundation

Want to see us?? See and hear us sing the Lafayette Alma Mater and a medley of everything else in Town Hall in Tallinn, thanks to Estonian Russian-language television (for making us famous and sending us their video) and Josh Porter '06 (for computer wizardry). Also from the Estonian TV broadcast, an interview clip. In case it's hard to understand what the reporter is saying, there's a transcription here.

New (posted May 2005): here are the e-mails we sent to our Groupies List before, during and after the trip.

Subject: Lafayette Choir Tour (sent October 23, 2002)
Subject: Off we go! (sent January 8, 2003)
Subject: Hello from Helsinki (sent January 11, 2003)
Subject: Everything's wonderful except the Helsinki Internet options (sent January 12, 2003)
Subject: Click here and make a wish (sent January 13, 2003)
Subject: Hooray for the National Library of Estonia (sent January 16, 2003)
Subject: If it's Tuesdaz, this must be... (sent January 20, 2003)
Subject: Come to our WELCOME HOME concert on Thursday! (sent January 26, 2003)
Subject: Hope to see you tomorrow! (sent January 29, 2003)
Bonus: Script from the visa vignette presented at our Welcome Home Concert (January 30, 2003)

Our snapshots below are in chronological order, more or less. Some of these pictures appear huge and need to be scrolled around.

Big thanks to Josh Porter ’06, Matt Loh ’04, Liz Cassidy ’05, Steve Presciutti ’05, Chris Leidy ’06, and others, whose photos are all so intermingled with mine that I can't tell whose are which. Some of these photos are also by our brilliant and fabulous guides, Eha Org (with Aime Mark of BaltoScandia Tours, Estonia) and Anita Forster (with Szilvia Agoston of Friendship Ambassadors’ office in Budapest). Special thanks to families who put digital cameras in our Christmas and Chanukkah stockings for this tour!

Marathon Rehearsal Days, pre-tour

Spaghetti fra diavolo at Phi Kappa Psi, expertly cooked by the multi-talented Steve Presciutti and his crew of tenors and basses.

Our creative tenors and basses spelled FINLAND in brownies and fig newtons.

Satan and her assistants at our pre-tour talent show.

Music 103 final project gets a new life at our pre-tour talent show.

Talent-show encore, not part of Music 103.

Another pre-tour talent-show item, probably best unexplained.

One day before take-off, we practiced with a walking tour of the Lafayette campus.

Finland

Arriving in Finland, at the Sibelius monument.

Josh Porter checked out the inside of the Sibelius monument in Helsinki. We thought graffiti-in-snow was a neat concept too.

Dangerous Science Experiment at the Sibelius monument.

We've been in Finland for about an hour, but we're on this poster, so we must be real, right?

Don't even think about this portable outhouse at Helsinki's Olympic stadium when it's 20 degrees below zero (okay, that's Celsius).

Rehearsing Sydameni laulu with Grex Musicus and Marjukka Riihimaki.

Our international debut, at the Rock Church in Helsinki, singing Ride the Chariot with Grex Musicus.

Josh Brodsky contributing vocal percussion to a bevy of Grex Musicus singers at our post-concert dinner.

Reindeer Salad (with reindeer sausage).

Why we found red noses after eating reindeer salad, we don't want to know.

Walking on water and ski-poling past McDonald's, in Turku.

Danielle's non-McDonald's lunch in a restaurant on (literally on) the river.

What our ferry crossed to get from Helsinki to Tallinn.

Ferries are very comfortable places for naps. We think buses are too!

Estonia

Major Estonia landmark: choir festival shell.

After all of Isaac's visa-getting adventures, we want you to see that Isaac really made it to Estonia.

Guided lecture-tour through a blizzard in Tallinn. Icy hair is sort of fun. The problem is that once you go inside, it drips into your scalp for the rest of the day.

Posing after our concert in the Tallinn, Estonia Town Hall.

Putting music in order before singing for 500 people at Tallinn's big, cold Kaarli Church. Look at the order picture again, and notice how we sort of echo the painting behind us.

Photo op at the Kaarli Church with Ambassador Joseph DeThomas, who grew up in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Singing along with ancient Estonian Citizens, and meeting Russian-language television crew at Tallinn's Town Hall. Here's part of our interview! And here's a transcription of that conversation.

Lunch in Tartu, modeled here by Adam. Since I'm allergic to carrots, I got a special boring version of this meal, which I think still had carrots in it.

Wild night of folk dancing with the Tartu University Chamber Choir.

Amanda and Jeremy are careful to observe the warning signs in Tartu.

Obliging the young autograph hounds at the English College, Tallinn.

Scenic airplane views of Helsinki, en route to Budapest.

Hungary

Arriving at Heroes' Square in Budapest and learning about all the heroes.

Festive evening of rehearsing, antiphonal singing, combined singing, close-harmony singing, and partying, with the Mayflower Choir in Budapest.

Now we know why they call it the Beautiful Blue Danube. Here's Liz looking at the Danube from the Bastion, and Greg taking pictures.

Singing informally at St. Stephen's Basilica, Budapest.

Singing after Mass at a cathedral in Szentendre, Hungary.

Katherine and Anita keeping us legal on the Budapest subway.

Slovakia

Our final concert was at St. Elizabeth's Church in Bratislava. Can you tell why it is nicknamed the "blue" church?

Sandra found chips at the supermarket in Bratislava. We wonder what the woman in the background thinks about this photo.

Vienna

Lunch!

Here's what the reporter is saying in the interview clip from Estonian television. In Estonia, it was broadcast with Russian subtitles!

Reporter: You know, somehow you are destroying our imagination of American colleges. Because from America’s movies, many people think that all day children are only playing baseball—and do something like in the movie American Pie.
NG: Oh, my goodness.
Reporter:— and nothing more. And suddenly they are singing such interesting, such a classic music. So, our imagination was wrong?
NG: (elaborate explanation about Lafayette College, American universities, choirs, and educational values)
Reporter: Not only playing baseball?

Updated June 4, 2005 by Nina Gilbert, adding the e-mail journal.
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