Today was yet another early morning day for the group! We boarded the bus at 7:30 and enjoyed muffins on our trip to St. John’s. We made sure to get there on time because this Sunday marked not only the day of our last morning Eucharist service, but also the day we visited “Leonard’s church.” Leonard had been our tour guide in past South Africa tours and is actually the uncle of our current tour guide, Enrico. In other words, within this church, we were surrounded by the community of people who had welcomed previous generations of the BCS tour choir, which was definitely very special.
The service itself, which was full of connections to yesterday’s celebration of National Women’s Day, came with several special moments for us as well. In addition to having the chance to follow along to the lyrics to both more modern and more traditional hymns played by a live band, we got to watch a young group of liturgical dancers perform a moving interpretation of “You Say” by Lauren Daigle. Towards the end, we sang “God’s Gonna Set This World on Fire” and “Ka Waiata” and, thankfully, our performance of “Soos ‘n Wildsbok”, a challenging hymn in Afrikaans, for the first time in several months went surprisingly well. Various singers also experienced their own special moments at the service. Gavin’s upcoming 16th birthday was recognized in the special announcement prayers and Reuben did another great job of summarizing who we are as the Tour Choir, although he did accidentally mention how great it was to be “here at St. James”, which we all know is all the way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We began to initiate conversation with the members of the church while we were served more traditional refreshments (this time we were given koeksisters, cupcakes, mini sandwiches, and different types of sweet bread). I was very excited to have met and talked to one of the community members who had hosted two former Tour Choir members during one of the past South Africa tours! Unsurprisingly, my conversation was interrupted by a “thank you” performance we decided to give of the “Dinasi Ponono” and the “South African Folk Songs.”
Next we spontaneously started singing “Dumelang,” which I thought was very cool, considering that we had learned it from the South African Youth Choir only two days ago. Then, as the room was being cleaned up for the next day of refreshments, we began reviewing the “Jamaican Folk Songs” to make sure that they would be ready for an important performance later in the day. After running through some of the medley’s different sections a few times, we got back on the bus. Immediately we headed to the Hugo Lambrechts Auditorium, the location of the 2025 Boston ChoirFest. We quickly learned that it would be an event full of amazing choirs and important logistics and, therefore, had to really pay attention as we were directed to various different rooms.
The first stop was the green room that had been set aside for our group, where we enjoyed fresh fish salad sandwiches and began warming up to perform. Later, as we were guided onstage for our sound check, we were told that this auditorium is well-known throughout Cape Town for its sound quality. Even after a few short run-throughs of the songs on our program, it was clear that this space had been specifically constructed to maximize the beauty of all different types of music.
Shortly after, we were joined by the other choirs participating in the Festival (Heavenly Sound Youth Choir, HippoYini Acappella, Tygerberg Mafia Boys’ Choir, Totius Primary Senior Choir, and the University of Cape Town Choir!) to work on our three combined pieces: Let the River Run, Modimo, and Auld Lang Syne. Each song was conducted by the director of a different choir. Although they were clearly all very knowledgeable, it was cool to get to know their different styles.
Once each conductor had finished working with the huge group, our choir was guided up to our amazing seats overlooking the stage. We put on our red scarfs for the first time ever on this South Africa Tour in anticipation for the performances, and soon the event’s MC Otto van der Walt from Fine Music Radio had begun introducing the first choir.
The performances varied from traditional South African pieces, sacred pieces, and even a medley of pop songs, and every one of them was breathtaking to watch and listen to. It was especially special to be able to see the University of Cape Town Choir perform again, and many of our singers recorded the pieces they had amazed us with the first time we had met them, such as Baba Yetu and Way Over in Beulah Lan’.
Right at intermission, we began to head to our new green room and were surprised to find the University of Cape Town Choir rehearsing with We Shall Overcome Alastair Moock to be able to perform it with us onstage. Those of us who were very hungry were given muffins to quickly scarf down, those of us who needed them grabbed our drums, and then we were escorted to the stage doors. We waited there for several long minutes as the Totius Primary Senior Choir performed and then as what seemed like its 100 young members exited the stage.
Our own performance was very successful, and even the reworked version of the Jamaican Folk Songs went well. Of course, the most powerful moments came when we sang with We Shall Overcome and then the combined pieces. The conductor of the University of Cape Town Choir even instructed the audience to sing along to Auld Lang Syne, which was very moving too.
However, the performance wouldn’t have been complete with an impromptu performance of Shosholoza, this time with singers from other choirs who taught more of us how to do the Zulu step.
After jumping into a group quick photo, we had to rush out of there to make it on to the bus and head back to the retreat after this long day. However, this long day wasn’t truly complete until after a delicious dinner, a game of poker for some singers, and the showing of a bizarre, yet award-winning short film featuring our own Gavin Walker for others