Nothing like typing a blog entry while watching “Friends” in the hotel lobby in Italian….
We arrived safe and sound. Amazing. Not one incident unlike some of our previous trips abroad. The security line at MSP was practically non-existent, all the instruments made it through TSA and the flights were on-time, in fact, we arrived in Milan a little early at 8:20am this morning (1:20am CDT) to a rather cool and rainy day.
The Rose Ensemble was greeted at the Milan airport by 2 4th year high school translators/assistants, Giacommo & Yxaiu for our 2 weeks here – both young men anxious to practice their English with a group of Americans. I was fascinated to learn that Yxaiu’s family runs a Chinese takeout in town here and am curious to see what the difference might be between Chinese Italian and Chinese American takeout. But that’s a whole ‘nother blog.
Our hotel is just fine – Kris Kautzman and I are sharing a 3rd floor room at the Hotel Elitis, (a very nice hotel) with a street view and the hustle and bustle of the city. Legnano has a population of about 60,000. The retail shops operate much like they do in Spain, so most are closed during the afternoon. What is an American Capitalist Shopper to do??
Lunch and dinner is provided to us by the Festival Chorale International, and all 5 choirs participating in this event are being housed in the same hotel. They will arrive tomorrow, so the current quiet scene should become more interesting.
I opted to forego lunch and sleep – didn’t get much of a good night’s sleep before we left and it’s next to impossible for me to sleep on an airplane. When I ventured outside around 3pm I ran into Jordan who just came from a press conference. Apparently it’s a really huge deal for us to be here. The Rose Ensemble is the first American group to appear in this festival in 11 years. The last was The Greg William Singers from New York. Jordan was the only director interviewed at this press conference, with 3 photographers and a slew of reporters. There’s a good chance we’ll see this in the local papers in the morning.
All of the concerts are at 9pm – we will have a 15 minute sound check tomorrow afternoon and do our first 20 minute concert tomorrow evening with the other groups.
Ciao!