This Saturday, 46 UT students began a 4,133-mile journey across the Atlantic to perform in cathedrals older than their native country.
The UT Chamber Singers and their family and friends number 57 in total. Before the group left for England on Saturday, a few choral members shared their excitement and hope for their overseas tour.
For Roxanne Cabrera, recent graduate in music education, international venues aren’t completely foreign. Cabrera traveled with the Chamber Singers to Ireland in 2012 and has been preparing for this summer’s tour ever since.
“Everything we’ve done has been building up to this,” Cabrera said.
Other performers, such as Marissa Stiles, will be leaving the country for the first time. Stiles said she appreciates the preparation that brought the ensemble to this moment.
“Since Ireland my freshman year, we started working on songs for this,” Stiles said. “We’ve kind of been performing (the tour program) throughout the years.”
The international performance tour will give ensemble members valuable professional experience as well as a cultural education. Stiles is most excited for “being able to perform in historical cathedrals, because not many people get a chance to do that.”
The ensemble will be performing an evensong service at famous venues throughout England, including Canterbury Cathedral, Saint Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.
Cabrera described the evensong as “an evening prayer … kind of like a church vespers service.”
Additionally, the ensemble will perform two public concerts, with the proceeds from one of these being donated to the restoration of church stained-glass windows damaged in WWII.
The group’s previous trip to Ireland gave them some learning experiences that they haven’t forgotten this time around.
“I think we’re all better prepared,” Cabrera said. “Of course, the people who weren’t on the Ireland trip can learn from the stories that happened.”
One story starts with the ensemble traveling from Knoxville in two separate groups and ends with half of the ensemble stuck in Chicago for a 72-hour delay.
“Batey took the process and has put safeguards in place so that doesn’t happen again,” Cabrera said. “All of us know better than to not pack emergency overnight stuff in our carry on and stuff like that.”
However, the greatest learning experience of the Ireland trip remains a newfound awareness of the professional potential of the singers.
“It’s not just for giving a concert at UT; it’s not just doing it for fun,” Cabrera said. “Our art can take us places, and I think that’s really cool.”
UT Chamber Singers rehearse at Farragut Presbyterian Church on July 15.
