Let’s face it: History lessons aren’t always fun. Too often, an artistic event that strives toward historical accuracy leaves you feeling educated but not really entertained. Shoring up some cracks in your knowledge base can be worthwhile but seldom extremely enjoyable.

However, one of those infrequent occurrences happened Sunday afternoon when St. Paul-based early-music group the Rose Ensemble welcomed the Music in the Park Series back to its home neighborhood, the freshly repaved St. Anthony Park. But the chamber choir didn’t perform the music on which its reputation is based — motets and madrigals of the medieval and Renaissance eras — instead focusing upon 19th-century American folk hymns and carols, many of them rooted in the Shaker and shape-note traditions.

It may not have been right up the group’s stylistic alley, but it turned out to be a lot of fun, a combination of uplifting church service and holiday hootenanny. Performing in a venue ideally intimate for this music — the woody St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ — the group let reverence segue into celebration, unleashing their accompanying instrumentalists on tunes that sounded increasingly country, Celtic and Cajun as the concert went on.

The Rose Ensemble is known for its harmonic skills, but Sunday’s performance was an exceptional showcase for the talents of each of its members, showing the choir to be the sum of some impressive parts. Like Lisa Drew’s powerful low alto voice on “Pretty Home,” bass Scott Sandersfeld booming out “The Babe of Bethlehem,” or soprano Kim Sueoka soaring above some cowboy-campfire-style strumming on “Peace and Joy.”The latter was but one of many star turns for the accompanying instrumentalists. Ginna Watson turned in the baroque violin she plies so capably for a full-fledged fiddle, transporting listeners to an Irish pub, a Bayou roadhouse and an Appalachian back porch in relatively quick succession. David Burk was equally adaptable to the variety of styles, most impressively when his rustic banjo — a hybrid of African and American traditions — took flight with an extended improvisation on “Cold Frosty Morning.”

After a tour of Germany, the Rose Ensemble will return to the Twin Cities — and to the music for which they’re known — performing “Elizabethan Christmas” concerts Dec. 18-20.

Germany Tour

We leave Wednesday for an 8 day tour in Germany beginning with a concert in Dachau on Saturday night at the Castle and then off to Neuss.  Similar to the Twin Cities of  St. Paul and Minneapolis, Neuss and Dusseldorf are Twin Cities separated by the Rhine.  We will be there next week in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Sister City relationship between Neuss and St. Paul and will be greeted with a reception in the City Hall followed by a concert at the St. Quirinus Cathedral the following evening.  This is our second visit to Neuss and we are looking forward to reconnecting with friends from our previous tour.

As always, I look forward to reading your comments!

I’m back home.  It’s was kind of a bittersweet tour for me this time.  I loved the Festival, seeing old friends and meeting new ones, singing with new Rosies and making some really fantastic music.  The churches were glorious and Piggy gave everyone a great smile.  Jordan from The Rose Ensemble has written a couple of blog posts that are a great read, and I’m including a few excerpts here:

“Ciao everyone – It’s another beautiful but hot day here in Legnano. The wisteria has started blooming and the hedges of jasmine are so fragrant (especially at night). There are red and blue hydrangeas everywhere (they’re HUGE) and in spite of the heat, everyone you see rarely actually looks hot (except for us, the Brits, the Norwegians and the Bulgarians; obviously the Cubans are doing fine). People here look good even when they’re going to the grocery store and there are more shops for shoes, purses and suits than one can imagine. Clothing is pretty darn pricey here, but the simple things seem to be cheaper. For example, a really great latte costs a mere 1.2 Euros (an espresso is only 85 cents) and you can get a decent bottle of Prosecco at the grocery store for about 3 Euros.

Last night was another “choral marathon” with all five choirs singing sacred programs at the stunning Church of the Redeemer. As usual, the church was HOT, there was no oxygen, most of the other choirs went over their allotted times, we were LAST on the program, and ended up entering the stage at about 11:30pm. I wasn’t surprised, of course, but just once we were hoping to do one of these programs a little fresh. That said, I got smart and grabbed everyone and took them outside the church to get some fresh air about 15 minutes before we went on. We were sad to miss part of the Norwegians’ program but we needed to be together and just breathe. It helped a lot, I think, and we gave a very high-energy program. The crowd cheered as we were announced and we hit the ground running with the impressive 12-part Magnificat by the Polish Renaissance composer Mikolaj Zielenski. All of our selections went well but I must say that the women’s chanting of “Alme Presul” was a complete standout. They have mastered this piece and chant together so well that their sheer unison singing is as impressive as any well-tuned chord. I’m really proud of them for working so hard on this piece.Voces8 (from England) sounded great as usual, in spite of Dingle (their bass) being under the weather. And the Cuban choir really rocked the house. They sing from their heart on every piece and I just love watching them perform. The Bulgarians also sounded nice (they were first on the program and were very fresh) and their choral sound was lovely but I must say I prefer when they let loose on the folk style.

Speaking of folk music, tonight is another choral marathon but this time it’s secular music (strangely set in a gorgeous church here in town). We are THIRD on the program (YAYAYAYAYAYAY) and we had a great rehearsal this afternoon. We’ll do some Hawaiian and American music, Ginna will trade in her vielle for her fiddle and the men have decided to perform barefoot. Should be fun.”

 “You may recall that The Rose Ensemble was given two free days (June 21-22) and everyone made the most of them. You already know about my adventures with my German friend, Ellen, but here’s a rundown of several others in the group: Tim, Kim, Linda and Matt went to see our friends in Asti (they say that they sat around at the most gorgeous country home and loved every minute of it); Kris and Ginna went to Venice and I hear they had a lovely time, finding a cute little 12-room hotel run by a young couple with two kids and a grey kitten; Kathy went to Switzerland for a day; Roy and his wife Amy walked the Cinque Terre; and Carrie went to the beach at Lago Maggiore Not bad, I’d say. Hopefully, some of them will post photos and/or share stories…

Today, however, we were back to work. We shared the concert bill with our new friends in the Bulgarian women’s chamber choir from Sofia. We all piled in the bus (yes, ALL of us) at 5:00pm (for a(9pm concert) and drove west toward Venice to the lovely town of Brescia. Because of the small, narrow medieval streets leading to our performance venue, the chapel of the St. Christopher Monastery, the bus parked a considerable distance away and we had to walk. We were a bit piled down with our outfits and gear, but we managed (it wasn’t nearly as hot today, which was good). On our way up the steep stairs to the chapel we discovered that the festival mascot (the huge red treble clef) which is placed outside of all the concert venues, had somehow fallen down the stairs. Good thing the festival is almost over!

To say the chapel was merely beautiful simply wouldn’t do it justice. The frescos on the walls and ceiling (although in disrepair) were truly impressive and added such elegance to this gorgeous room. Our dressing room (the sacristy) had some of the worst mildew I had ever seen, so several of us threw on our concert outfits as fast as we could and spent the rest of the evening either watching the Bulgarians perform or sitting outside in the courtyard (we could still hear them singing just fine). Oh yeah – I forgot to mention that because of our early departure, we weren’t able to eat dinner at the cafeteria in Legnano, so we were supplied with what everyone here calls a “packet lunch,” Throughout the festival, this has been the same thing and has become quite dreaded, I must say. It’s two hard (and mostly stale) white rolls with super-greasy slices of either ham or salami (no butter or cheese), along with a piece of fruit. Mmmmmmm.

Anyway…the Bulgarians sounded really great and we went on stage just after 10:00pm (which we were all joking about, saying how nice it was to sing at such a reasonable hour, in comparison to the other shows we did earlier in the festival). We did short versions of our Slavic and San Francis programs, but with a special surprise we had been preparing all week. Mark (our international relations expert), who has been doing an excellent job of socializing with the Bulgarians, decided it would be fun to teach them the chorus and last verse of our final number, “Laudar Vollio.” You should have seen the audience when all the Bulgarian women joined us on stage! And the piece sounded just great. I was a little skeptical in the rehearsal, wondering if we would be together with so many people singing, but it turned out really well and the crowd just loved it. And then for a special last number, The Rose Ensemble and the Bulgarian choir sang a very special Orthodox piece called “Mnogaya Leta,” which basically asks God to bless the Bulgarian people. We are told that everyone in Bulgaria knows this piece, so we were happy to learn it and sing it with the fab Bulgarian women. The cool thing about this piece is that it begins with a massive bass solo than rises higher and higher until a final high note, which is when the full choir enters. Mark rehearsed for hours with the Bulgarians, learning the Church Slavonic text and sang this solo with such passion. Having all the voices singing together was really special for us and the audience.  Back at the hotel at 1:30am!”

“Our last day (yesterday) was filled with as much activity as any since our arrival. Last night was the final concert, which we shared with Voces8 (our good friends from England) and we had a lot of preparing to do. Normally, the festival format for shared concerts is simply that one choir does the first half, the other choir does the second half, and there’s really no expectation to do any combined pieces. But Voces8 and The Rose Ensemble decided we wanted to do a true collaborative concert and I believe that the festival organizers (and the audience) really appreciated this.

We began the show with a group piece, William Byrd’s “Sing Joyfully.” Because of the Voces8 schedule (they had a gig in Milan around 5:00) we didn’t actually get to rehearse on stage with the full group and test the acoustics, but we took it all in stride and hit the ground running. The Rose Ensemble then performed a set of four songs – two of which featured Stefano Buratti (the crowd cheered wildly when I introduced him to the stage) , who played really well. It was so fun to have a walking bass line on this rep, as it adds so much. Following this was the combined group’s performance of “Magnificat” and “Nunc Dimittis” from William Byrd’s Great Service. After a short intermission, the combined groups sang the glorious 16-part motet “Crucifixus” by Antonio Caldara (a rarely performed piece), which was followed by a set of jazz tunes by Voces8. As a show-closer, the combined groups sang “Jesus the Light of the World” (we taught this to Voces 8 about 10 minutes before show time), and the audience enthusiastically joined in as well. Our encore was another combined piece, the impressive double-choir motet “Jubilate Deo” by the Venetian Renaissance composer Giovanni Gabrieli. (I forgot to mention that I conducted the group pieces, but if any of you are familiar with my conducting, you would want to forget about it as well.) We were called out for a second encore, and I asked Voces8 to go first (they sang a cool arrangement of “Good Vibrations”). Several in the crowd were screaming for “Laudar Vollio” so The Rose Ensemble performed this is as our final encore. The crowd sang loudly on the refrain, which was just about the coolest thing ever. Here we were, this early music ensemble from the US singing a 13th-century Italian song to Saint Francis, and not only was the crowd shouting out the title but they all joined in singing. Makes me love Italians even more than I already do…

Back at the hotel, the bar was actually open (usually not, for some reason) and Voces8 along with a handful of Rosies took their places with tall cold pints of beer (I don’t recall seeing beer much at all this trip, but there it was). The lobby was filled mostly with Bulgarians (who with Mark had assembled an impressive spread of meats, cheeses and wines), Cubans and a few Rosies. Stefano was there with his special prosecco, Isacco was there with his huge smile, Francesco was there socializing like only he can, and the Bulgarians and Cubans were dancing. It all felt quite natural, really, and even after some fairly intense rug burning with the Bulgarians, at 2:30am I found myself sad to have to begin to say goodbye to everyone.” 

I’m a little sad because I was unable to explore the area this time due to a case of Plantar Fasciitus - a  condition that affects the bottom of the foot between the toes and the heel causing cronic heel pain.  This caused difficulty in walking about and I spent most of my free time in the lobby of the hotel resting my foot on a bag of frozen peas. Ice is very hard to come by in Italy and thankfully we had a Bennett (supermarket) across the street from the hotel.  It made for some amusing looks from passers by and I can only guess what they must have been thinking.  A friend on Facebook commented something like “The Princess and the Peas” to only make me laugh.    Seriously, I’m glad that I was in Legnano last year and had the opportunity to explore the area then!  I lived voraciously through the stories from my collegues of their adventures to Lago Maggiore, Venice, The Cinque Terre, and Switzerland and look forward to seeing their photos on Facebook.

Don’t get me wrong though.  I had a great time.  The opportunity to perform in a country that loves music is amazing and all of our audiences were extremely warm and wonderful.  And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? 

• Read all of Jordan’s blog posts here
• For more about The Rose Ensemble: http://www.roseensemble.org/
• Piggy’ Photo Album in Italy

What an amazing evening.  We weren’t sure at first how things were going to go.  Our bus was due to leave Legnano at 6:30pm, but there was no sign of our guide or our guest instrumentalist.  Around 7pm, Issaco arrived explaining that our guide was with the Norway choir and that our packet lunch and programs were left at the other hotel, so he had to swing by to pick them up on the way.  The sack lunch was there, but the water was missing and the programs were actually with us at our hotel.

On the bus another discovery was made – the programs were printing with the wrong show.  Not a problem – we  just didn’t pass them out and announced from the stage what we would be singing. 

We arrived in Missaglia to a wonderfully restored 16th century chapel and convent – the building was started in 1492 and completed in 1560.  On the chapel walls frescos remain that will be in the process of complete restoration.  The chapel itself was decommissioned and is now run by the town.  We are actually the first to give a concert in this space since the restoration.

And what a space!  It reminds me of why I sing the music I choose to sing.  Its places like this where our music was originally heard and imagining all the history behind the building.  We did an outstanding concert, starting with our Slavic program with a slight pause and into the new Franciscan program.  We needed a night like this – on our own, not waiting around for hours to sing and to entertain as we know how to do.

The audience was wonderful and attentive applauding genuinely and giving praise to the pieces they enjoyed most.  We ended the show with 2 encores, Sergey’s “Bogoroditse Devo” and a spiritual, “There is a Balm in Gilead.”  We were presented with a velvet box containing a plaque from the town for their appreciation of our performing a concert for them and we each received a commemorative book on the history of the grounds.

After the concert, they held a wonderful reception for us in the courtyard – beautiful cold roast beef, pasta salad, cherry tomato/mozzarella spears, sparkling chardonney that almost had a creme sherry taste, cantelope with procuitto, fresh strawberries on a bed of sugar…  yum.  A photographer was on hand to capture most of the concert and the reception, so check online to see if we show up – he said he would be posting them on the internet.

We also had an incredible post-concert experience – Jordan met a gentleman that turns out to be a Count with a family castle not 5 minutes from our performance space, so he invited us all over.  We arrived and were shown into the private chapel of the residence, built from the remaining walls of the Roman castle that once stood in its place.  On the altar wall is a beautiful fresco of Mary from the 14th century and above a fresco from the 18th century.  The chapel was restored in 1960 and during its restoration the original walls were uncovered and buried within were found a Roman coin from 3 B.C. and a human skull from a former military soldier. 

Our host has the coin in his private collection and 2 our our Rosies were able to hold it and examine it closely, still showing the details and engravings.  A rare opporunity since this is something that you would only find in a museum under glass. We were taken into the house where many rooms were basically living museums of his family’s private collection from the centuries.  The majority of the family collection was of military items on hand including helmets of Spanish conquistidors to caps from various officers of recent wars up to WWII, and quite a collection of rifles, guns, swords, crossbows, and artillary.  The family is well connected to Italy and he is pictured as a boy with the last King of Italy to a photo with the Pope.

In part of the restoration of the residence, a tunnel was discovered from the Roman period that was assumed to have been used for escape from the fortress.  The tunnel is estamated to be at least 40 meters deep with water at the bottom and he takes great

pleasure in demonstrating the depth by dropping burning newspaper into the hole as visitors watch it continue to fall to the what seems like an endless drop.  The hole is covered by a grate, which is again covered by a marble hatch.  Over the marble hatch is a rug to hide it and a very heavy table is placed on top.  He has an alarm triggered by laser going into the room to alert the household of entrance.  Definately well protected from any danger that could happen.

We ended our tour around 2am and moved into the chaple to sing a song of gratitude to our host, “Give Good Gifts”, a simple Shaker song that was very well received.  He has invited us to come back the next time we return to Italy to enjoy the day on the grounds – I wouldn’t mind.

An hour drive home and to bed by 3:30am.  Just another day in Italy. 

Day 2 began with a quick breakfast at the hotel.. rather decent, actually. It’s buffet style with scrambled eggs, a selection of breads, croissants, pastry, cereals, & fruits. And coffee. But not just any coffee, you see you get a choice of a brewed pot of espresso or a pot of American coffee. I found that almost amusing – I mean come on. You go to Italy and have “American” coffee? One cool thing is that they steam the milk here and have that in a pot as well – how smart is that. It definately keeps your coffee hot rather than cooling it down with cold milk or cream.

Breakfast was rather quick – we had a 10:30 rehearsal and quick meeting to go over the day’s events. Tonight we sing part 2 of the choral marathon and I’m told we are the last of 10 choirs. The saving grace in all of this, as tired as we are from just arriving yesterday, is that we should be done by 9pm and back to the hotel by 10pm. This will give me the chance to hopefully catch up on much needed sleep since my body clock is still working the 7 hour time difference.

Well that was a good thought or should I say wishful thinking… Jordan came back from the Director’s Lunch and while we waited for the bus told us the bad news. They have divided the evening up into 2 separate concerts – 5 choirs will sing their popular programs between 5-6:30 then there will be a break and at 9pm all the choirs will present 1 song each as an intermezzo to the beginning of the 2nd concert. We are to be last on the bill.

We sang pretty much in the heart of Milan – it’s just really too bad we didn’t have the chance to get out and explore, but were expected to sit in the audience and listen to all the choirs give their short programs. Good thing the theater was air conditioned – it’s been a little steamy here with temps in around the 90 degree mark. 

What was supposed to be 15 minutes per choir really ended up being close to 25-30 for most. By the time we presented our program, it was 11:30pm. One thing about The Rose – we are the only Early Music ensemble here, so our program was much different than the programs of contemporary choral music, jazz and show choir music that was presented throughout the evening.

We gave as much variety as we could pack into our 15 minute set – Kaulana na pua, Kim’s Na Luna hula, my Pretty Home solo, Star in the East and There is a Balm in Gillead. I’m proud of our group for the way we performed as exhausted as we all are, but I don’t think it really wasn’t out best show. It was just a long day and I’m happy to be back at the hotel.

This morning we met at 10:30-12:30 for a rehearsal for our first full sacred concert – Slavic music and music of St. Francis. We have added some wonderful instruments to the St. Francis half of the program with one of the Festival’s guides, Isscao, whom we met last year. He’s a brilliant medieval wind instrumentalist and will bring so much charm to this program. He and Ginna play beautifully together and I’m excited to hear their part of the program this evening.

We will be traveling to Missaglia and sing at Monastero Santa Maria della Misericordia , a 16th century Franciscan convent about an hour and a half north of Legnano in the Lake Como region. I’m not too sure if we will get a glance of any of the lakes while we are there, but the area should be stunningly beautiful. Our bus leaves at 6:30pm for a 9ish concert (to quote from last year, “we sing when the people come”).

Now it’s time for a quick siesta. Ciao for now and thanks for reading. Your comments are always welcome and I look forward to hearing from you!

so here’s the scenario…  we land in Newark just in time to miss our flight to Milan… that was Thursday.  Spent most of Friday in Newark hanging around the airport playing on the iPhone and taking Piggy to Dunkin’ Donuts.  Since we don’t have one of those in Minneapolis, I thought he should savor the experience.  He thought it was an excellent diversion to the fact he wasn’t in Italy yet.

Made it on the plane – very full flight and my seat, be it an exit row, was right next to 2 bathrooms, one of which was a family changing room.  Made it for a very busy hallway most of the night.  So, no sleep for this one on the plane – that’s 9 hours and I can safely say I was up for a solid 24 before we made it to the UNA Malpensa Hotel in Lengano.

It’s a beautiful place the Festival is putting us up in until Wednesday – very modern, and there is a shopping mall practically next door that I might have to check out, just so I can say I’ve been in an Italian mall.  Piggy, my husband’s website mascot (www.bobwaynesweblog.com) was happy to find his first cup of espresso and a good nap before our 3:30 rehearsal this afternoon.

We left on the bus with the Latvian choir at 6pm this evening for a marathon of choral singing – 10 choirs and we were 9th on the roster.

3-1/2 hours later, The Rose blew everyone away with our short performance.  We did a good job and I’m happy to have one under the belt.  Tomorrow will be insane as jet lag will surely set in.  We have a 10:30 rehearsal, lunch at 1pm, back to the hotel then off on the bus for Milan for another marathon 10 choir concert and I think we’re last.  Ouch.  Only saving grace is that this will start at 5pm rather than 8pm, so we should be back by 10pm.  Note to self: I have to remember to buy some beverages.  Seems the bar at the hotel hasn’t been open…

More to come – ciao for now!

sigh….  We were delayed in Minneapolis due to weather on the East Coast.  Delayed 2-1/2 hours.  Sadly, we were on a Northwest flight and had a connecting flight on Contintental leaving Newark at 6:25pm.  The irony of the airport thing is they can delay flights coming in, but didn’t delay flights leaving, so we arrived just as our connecting flight was leaving.

Needless to say, 9 of us, 10 if you include Piggy, are in Newark at a Days Inn Hotel with a lovely view of the NJ Transit Tram, freeway and such.  They gave us a late checkout of 1pm when we head back to the airport and wait for our 6:30 flight.  If all goes as planned, we should arrive tomorrow at 9am – hopefully with luggage.  I would really like to change clothes at that point, and we are also doing our first show tomorrow night!  No luggage, no performance clothes.  And Piggy is bummed he’s not in Italy yet.

Ah the joys of being an artist….  stay tuned!

For an unprecedented return engagement, The Rose Ensemble has been invited back to participate in the “La Fabbrica del Canto”, an international choral festival that takes place in and around the Milan region of Northern Italy.  The following blurb was published in an Italian paper this past week:

“The Rose Ensemble dal Minnesota, Usa (torna quest’anno a grande richiesta dopo l’acclamato successo dello scorso anno)”  – translation:  “The Rose Ensemble from Minnesota, use back this year in great demand after the acclaimed success of last year”

We will be presenting 2 separate programs, one sacred highlighting our Slavic show of Russian, Polish & Czech music and music of St. Francis of Assisi, and one secular program featuring music from our Hawaiian and Early American programs.  All of the choirs will perform two 20 minute highlight shows for the general public on two separate evenings at the beginning of the Festival.  This allows the audience to see what the choirs sound like and choose what programs they would like to see.  All concerts are free and begin at 9pm every evening during the run.

The nice thing about returning to a festival is that you have a really good idea of what to expect.  We already know that concerts will generally start around the 9:30ish time (we start when the people come!), we have great friends that we will meet up with, and we have a good idea of where to eat!  I seem to remember this great little gelato place on the plaza…

Speaking of meeting up with great friends, the vocal group Voces8 from London will be performing with us this year.  We had a wonderful time with them when they sang with us in Minnesota and we’re looking forward to repeating the experience in Italy.

Three of our members left today for early rehearsal and the rest of the group will leave Thursday with arrival on Friday morning.  Our first concert will be Saturday, so we have a little rest before we begin the marathon.  Look for posts from Italy as well as photos.  Oh, rumor has it that a certain little ‘Piggy’ might be stowing away in my suitcase…

Stay in touch and drop me a line – I would love to hear from you!

April Showers have begun to fall and the lawn is developing this beautiful emerald color, trees are beginning to pop and the buds on my daffodils are swelling.  I’m hoping this year that they will actually bloom.  Last Spring was not kind – we had a warm spell and then a freeze – darn near killed most growing things that felt safe to come out again.

So far, so good this year.  My husband and I did some serious yard work over the past 2 weeks getting things all cleaned up for a visit from my brother – he hasn’t been here since 2000 and has never seen my house.  I admit I was a bit nervous about getting his approval.  He is a true city dwelling, living on the 15th floor in a beautiful condo in downtown San Diego with a view of San Diego Bay from the balcony.  I live in a typically blue collar neighborhood, but also have a lovely view of a city park with walking trails that run alongside a creek.  I get to see the ducks fly overhead and land into the creek at full speed.  My brother gets to see the jets fly overhead and land at Lindbergh Field.

Instead of the balcony, we have a deck that we built ourselves (and very well, too.)  More plans for the backyard include a small area with a couple of gardens and a covered patio area where we can sit and listen to the rain on a warm summer evening.  Plans will have a wait a month or two.  

In May I head out to L.A. to sing at The Getty and then head down to San Diego to celebrate my mother’s birthday.  A few weeks later, in June, I will return with The Rose Ensemble to sing in Legnano, Italy where we have been invited back for a repeat visit to the La Fabbrica del Canto International Choral Festival. 

Needless to say, I’m thrilled it’s finally Spring in Minnesota.  The down has been put away and the umbrella has been taken out. Looking forward to those May flowers!

The last of the summer European tours is behind us. The Rose Ensemble headed out to Paris and Tours for a whirlwind 4 days in France with 2 concerts in different cities. We had a blast. The first concert, part of the Festival d’Ile de France, was in an ancient cathedral (not surprising) in the village of Larchant near famous Fontainbleu, about an hour’s drive from Paris.

The church building has attracted pilgrims from the 12th century onwards and was witness to the religious turmoil that characterised medieval French history. Evidence of this is found in the ruins of part of the building that has been preserved for us to see today.

The acoustics are sweet. We performed our Hawaiian show here with the full band, Greg Hippen on acoustic bass, David Burke on ukelele and guitar, and Wade Oden on guitar, along with a new arrangement of Lili’u e for the women – sultry and warm, like a summer’s day on the beach in Waikiki.

Jordan & Tim left a few days earlier to teach a Hawaiian music master class to a local French choir. In the six hours, they learned and performed for the crowd three Hawaiian songs before our concert on the outside steps and came up to join us in the last number, Hawaii Aloha. Although amateur, they sang loud and proud and did a respectable job not having much exposure to the language.

We were filmed for French TV, recorded for France Radio and interviewed. After the 4:30 concert I was hoping to get back to the hotel in enough time to hop the Metro to some of the Parisian sites later that evening, but we didn’t get back to our hotel in Paris until 10pm after sitting in 2 hours of traffic.

Dinner was on the agenda at this point, which isn’t easy to find on a Sunday night, even in Paris, but we managed to find a nice cafe at the end of our block in the Place d’Italie.  And not too bad, I might add.  I had this incredible salad of lettuce, thin green beans, thick bacon pieces, fried potato slices, and all this topped with two duck thighs, brilliant. Oh yeah, finish this off with probably the best creme brullee and you won’t miss the fact that you just spent 5 euro 40 on a cup of coffee.

The next morning, an early train at 9am to leave for Tours. I wrote a little history about our Sister City in my last blog, so I’ll try not to bore you again. We arrived safe & without incident, checked into our quaint Hotel l’Europe very close to the train station and then met in the lobby to walk to our venue for the next night’s concert at the Eglise Notre Dame La Riche for the opening of the Festival de Musiques Anciennes.

The walk was a good half-hour and led us through the Medieval quarter of the City. When you walk through this area, just think of the Canterbury Tales – timber exposed buildings with wood-carved cornices that still remain today and saved from demolition in the 1970s. You seriously have to thank the Gods for that. Today it is a bustling area full of shoppes and cafes, and some incredible ruins of the once vast Basilica of St. Martin.

According to history, the church was completely demolished in 1793 during the Revolution. All the remained of the basilica was the two towers which are still standing. To ensure the basilica could not be rebuilt, the atheistic municipality caused two streets to be opened up on its site.

After our 3-hour rehearsal for the Slavic show, we hurried back to our hotel to change for a dinner with the City officials at the beautiful Hotel d’Ville.

Great conversation, wonderful food, and gifts from the City welcomed us, in a way, back home to the first European city we had the priviledge to sing in, almost 3 years ago.  It was wonderful to see the familiar faces of Bruno and Marie-Bernarde as well as meet new friends and the director of Diablous Musicus, who The Rose Ensemble will be presenting in early November in Minneapolis.

Tuesday was a mostly free day.  I wandered the streets of the city, past the glorious 13th century Cathédrale Saint-Gatien de Tours, home to some incredible 13th century stained glass, most notably the St. Martin Window, then finding myself looking down at the Loire River rushing under the bridge, and then leisurely walking up the Rue Nationionale lined with its expensive boutiques and department stores.

Most of us met for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants in Tours, Au Martin Bleu.  The food is still remarkable and highly recommended for anyone that has the chance to visit Tours.  My meal started with a salad with Scallops St. Jacques, lightly grilled and melt-in-your-mouth good.  My second course main entree consisted of lamb chops in a beautiful demi-glace with roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables.  Yum.  I actually passed on the dessert, since this was a meal that was costing me about 25 euros, but from what I witnessed and got to taste, the prize was the homemade lavendar ice cream.  A vanilla based ice cream, extremely rich and creamy with a hint of fresh lavendar, not at all perfumey, but delightful.

Our concert went well that evening, and we were once again treated out to dinner at 10:30pm at one of the medieval cafes by our City hosts.

Goodbyes were said around 1am and we all sang Namalakama la and Aloha O’e for the restaurant staff and new friends.  Alas, remains of packing still to be done and an early train still awaited us at 7:30 the next morning for our trip home.

As always, your comments are more than welcome!  Stay in touch and thank you for your continued support!

~Lisa