Grüß Gott! Chorale Tour, Day 1

Grüß Gott! My friends, we made it over to Salzburg. Let me give you a few highlights from our first day of tour.

Our flight was flawless. Let me tell you that Lufthansa knows what they are doing with International Travel. The flight crew exhibited utmost professionalism, and the airplane felt like a spaceship gliding through the clouds with not one bit of turbulence.

We landed in Munich and made our way through customs. After grabbing our bags, our coach whisked us to the Marienplatz in München for an afternoon of shopping, sightseeing, and eating...und bier zu trinken! Man, I thought beer was great, and then I had an authentic Paulaner Hefeweizen in an outdoor market int he Marienplatz...never again will I be able to drink that beer over here. After a lunch of Weißwürst and Kartoffleknöppeln, we did a bit of church hopping. Oh here, let me just show you some pictures.

Best beer ever. Or at least in a long time. 

Lunch, which doesn't include the AMAZING pretzel I had.

A view inside the Heiligekirche, a church that was built in the 1300s. NBD.

A view of Michaelskirche.

Beautiful fountain

The Rathause in the Marienplatz

I also bought a Deutschland Fussball-Bund scarf to get me in the spirit of the huge football championships. 

Then we transferred to Salzburg for dinner. We're all on the verge of passing out, so I'll keep this short. Here's one more picture for the road. 

Or rather, from the road.

Just a view of the Alps on our way to Salzburg. No big deal. So tomorrow we get to explore the Mozarthaus, Mozarteum, and the Fortress, along with other palaces and such (I hear Eddie Izzard now: "You Americans think we're up to f______ here with castles. And we are!")

But for now, it's time for Operation Stabilize Circadian Rhythms.

Tchüss!

-JC

Auf Wiedersehen: Rhodes MasterSingers Chorale on Tour, 2012

My friends, take a gander at these three pictures:

Beautiful Salzburg

Picturesque Vienna

Magnificent Prague

This is where I will spend the next 10 days with the Rhodes MasterSingers Chorale on tour. We will sing Mozart's Missa Solemnis, K. 337, Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, and three spirituals by Moses Hogan.

It's okay if you're jealous! I've been looking forward to this trip for the last 10 months, and tomorrow, I'm going to get on that Europe-bound plane and not come back...for ten days.

I want to invite you to join me on my journeys. I'll be providing tour updates as often as I can complete with pictures, so check back often. 

Until then, Auf Wiedersehen!

-JC

Rhodes (Chamber) Singers Tour, Day 4

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have come to the end of our tour, and what a tour it was. The Rhodes Singers and Chamber Singers offered some a cappella anthems for Broadway Baptist's 10:50 AM service, and you could tell that the congregation thoroughly enjoyed our music. The pastor gave an excellent sermon based on John's account of Jesus turning over the tables of the Temple and thereby chastising the swindling merchants for turning His Father's House into a common marketplace. The crux of his sermon was this: we should not read this passage with the intent of joining Jesus to clean house. Rather, we should allow Jesus to turn over the injustices and evils of our heart, and perhaps it is our own spirits that need cleansing more than anything else around us. Fresh take on a familiar passage.

Entrance for the gardens.

Aerated pool

Feet in Water

Active Pool

Mom and I went to lunch at Taco Cabana (mmmmm), and then I spent the afternoon wandering around the Ft. Worth Water Gardens. Dear reader, if you ever find yourself in this fantastic city, be sure to stop by the Water Gardens. Designed in the 1970s, this park features three large pools each with a different nature. The Quiet Pool was a still body of water with gently cascading water falls along the boundary of the pool. The Active Pool was quite the opposite, with loud waterfalls and swirling rapids. In this pool, you could descend down the side of the falls into the gathering area of the water; the roar of the water was quite deafening by the time I reached the bottom of the trail. Finally there was the Aerated Pool with plenty of jets to create the illusion of a tiled water path. This was a great place to center; water, whether still or active, is a powerful image for me. It reminds me that most of my body is made of water, that water is a symbol of cleaning and sanctification in the Bible, and that water is a vital element of life.

Final rehearsal before showtime

After a relaxing afternoon, it was showtime. We went back to the church at 5:00 for dinner, rehearsal at 5:30 PM, and concert at 7:00. We had a pretty full house, and my entire family was there: sister, two nieces, mom (yes, this constitutes roughly 85% of my family), so I was glad that they came. I think that this was my younger niece's first choral concert, so I'm glad that I could provide that for her. The choirs were excellent. The Fauré Requiem was exquisite. Chamber Singers were impeccable in that beautiful sanctuary, and their Locus Iste was magnificent. Rhodes Singers were in top form; I haven't heard them that musical in a very, very long time. I'm very proud of my choir, and I can't wait to share them with a Memphis crowd on April 15!




So tomorrow we perform at Oak Ridge High School, and then we make our long trek back to Memphis. Tomorrow's blog post will be less of a summary of the day's events and more of a  meditation on why tour is important for choral ensembles. For now, we sleep heartily (and I'm sure the students party hard). We'll see you back in Memphis!

Rhodes Chamber Singers 2012

Until next time,

-JC

Rhodes (Chamber) Singers Tour, Day 3

Hey everybody! We're now in Ft. Worth, and we've had a full day of rehearsals with the Broadway Baptist Chancel Choir as we make final preparations for tomorrow's huge concert. We are joining forces with them to perform Faure's Requiem with members of the Ft. Worth and Dallas Symphony Orchestras, so if you're in the area tomorrow night at 7:00 PM, please come hear this free concert!

It was a gorgeous spring day in Ft. Worth, and we had the entire evening to spend as we pleased. My mother came over from Dallas, and we went to the famous Joe T. Garcia's for dinner. Afterwards, we walked around the Ft. Worth Stock Yards and drove around downtown. Tomorrow morning, Rhodes Singers and Chamber Singers will offer some a cappella music in service at Broadway Baptist, and then we'll spend the afternoon resting before the big show.

I'll keep the text of this post short, and I'll let today's pictures speak for themselves. 

The choir loft and organ at Broadway Baptist

Beautiful Caravants organ, one of the largest in the state.

Amen. Seek the Shalom of your city.

Broadway Baptist, exterior

Downtown Ft. Worth

Joe. T. Garcia's! 

Cowboys, boots, wranglers, and rodeos. Excellent.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Until next time,

-JC

Rhodes (Chamber) Singers Tour, Day 2

I believe you mean
"Welcome Home to Texas!"

Howdy from Texas!  Day 2 began with the rude awakening of my alarm clock at the unsightly hour of 5:30 AM. My colleagues - fellow director Bill Skoog and accompanist Debbie Smith - stayed at a hotel while our students stayed with families from St. Paul's UMC, so we had to return to the church to pick them up at 6:45 AM. Thank you for the graciousness of our host families who were willing and abel to rise early with our students. We hit the road for Texas promptly at 7:00 AM, and by 11:30 AM, we were entering the the DFW Metroplex. After a brief lunch stop in Rockwall, we made our way through downtown Dallas to Fort Worth Country Day, a private school in Ft. Worth that has a long tradition of sending their graduates to Rhodes College.

Rhodes Singers preparing for
Concert

We gave a quick concert at the school for two purposes: more concert experience for us and a recruitment opportunity for the College. We know the school is already sending two of their graduating seniors to us in the fall, and we hope to attract several of next year's seniors for the class of 2017 (realization: that would be my 10-year anniversary of graduating from Rhodes. Oh my.). We didn't do our entire set since this was only a 45 minute concert. Chamber did 3 out of 4 songs - we cut "Angelus ad Pastores Ait" - and Singers did roughly 66% of their rep. It was a challenge to get off the bus after a 7 hour drive from Little Rock and perform a concert with minimal warm-up, but my Chamber Singers were up to the task! Despite those kind of conditions, they performed admirably.

After our performance at FWCD, we boarded the coach and traveled south to First Baptist Church in Crowley, TX. As you see in the picture, they have a wonderful sanctuary with excellent acoustics, so Chamber was able to quickly warm-up to the space. After a hearty meal, we made our preparations for the evening's concert. Clearly the meal and some downtime did my singers well; they were in higher spirits tonight!

Sanctuary at First Baptist Church in Crowley

Tonight's concert at the church was a special one for me. One of our pieces, "Locus Iste," is a short prayer: "This is a place made by God. It is a priceless mystery; it is without reproof." I always tell my audiences to think of their locus iste, their sacred place. It does not have to be an intrinsically religious location, such as a church or temple, but that it could be a natural place, a special time or event, or a group of people. Tonight, I shared my locus iste with the group: dear brother Billy Collins was at the concert. It really meant a lot to me that he came up from Waco to hear our ensembles, and I could tell that he really enjoyed the show. After show, Billy and I were able to connect for about 45 minutes. He's an important person to my life, and I'm thankful for him.

So that was today! Tomorrow will be a little less hectic; we won't have any performances. What we do have, however, are two two-hour rehearsals with the good folks at Broadway Baptist Church in downtown Ft. Worth to prepare for Sunday night's concert. My mother is coming in from McKinney to support our work, and we're going to eat at the famous Joe T. Garcia's for dinner. Should be a fun night.

But for tonight? A much needed night of deep, 7-hour slumber.

Until next time,
-JC

Brother Billy and me.

Rhodes Singers Tour, Day 1

Hey everybody! Greetings from Little Rock, Arkansas. I'm on the road with my Chamber Singers for Rhodes Singers Tour 2012. We're traveling with the Rhodes Singers - OK, to be honest, they are the headline choir - from Memphis to Ft. Worth via Little Rock, and the next few days will be full of performances and rehearsals. A little summary of today's events:

-We left Rhodes College at 2:00 PM for Little Rock, and we made it to St. Paul UMC just in time for dinner. We changed into concert attire, warmed-up, and sang an excellent first concert.

St. Paul UMC, our first stop

Well...actually, that's it. That was our first day. I must say that I was very proud of my Chamber Singers for having an excellent first concert; first stop is always the roughest. Tonight, though, my Chamber Singers gave their best performances yet of their repertoire, which can only mean that tomorrow's (Friday's) performances will be better. Furthermore, all of our students had classes to attend today, so last night they were busying packing their suitcases and working on homework and last minute practicing on their music. Chamber Singers are offering hard rep:

"Angelus ad Pastores Ait," Mauro Zuccante
"Salve Regina a 4," Josquin Desprez
"Locus Iste," Anton Bruckner
"Witness," Arr. Jack Halloran

Ladies of Rhodes Singers rehearsing before concert

If you know choral music, you'll see a trend. This is sacred, a cappella music of the last 500 years, with "Angelus..." being the most recent (2010) and "Salve Regina" the oldest (late 1400s). I wanted to teach my students the sounds and styles of our western choral tradition, and I want my audiences to hear music written from a bygone era, to see how expressions of faith are at once similar and foreign to Christians of the 21st century.

Tomorrow begins early; we load the bus at 6:30 AM so we can get to Ft. Worth for a 2:30 concert at Ft. Worth Country Day School. Then at 7:00 PM that night, a full-length concert at First Baptist Church of Crowley, TX. Excited to return to the great Republic, and my dear friend and brother Billy will be in the audience! If you're in the Ft. Worth area, please come hear our concert at the church!

Until next time,
-JC

PS, if you use Twitter, follow me at @jcorn819 to receive up-to-the minute updates on concerts, performances, and fun facts from tour. #RSTour2012

Looking ahead to 2012 (My 150th post)

As I write, the setting sun casts a long shadow on the final day of my Texan vacation; I will arise early tomorrow morning to begin the long journey back to Memphis. Though the last ten days fall under the umbrella of "vacation," my time here felt like anything but a vacation. I'm teaching two classes at Rhodes, so I spent a lot of my time reading, researching, and preparing two syllabi and course calendars. My grandad died on my third day of rest, and we quickly boarded a plane to New Mexico to pay our final respects; less than 48 hours later, we were on a plane back to Texas. Four hours after our return to Dallas, I got in my car to drive 2 hours south in order to spend New Year's weekend with dear friends in Waco. New Year's Eve party, playing with the dog, hiking Cameron Park, and watching the new Mission Impossible film twice (yes, twice...in 24 hours) - something closer to an actual vacation. Today, I drove from Waco to Dallas to clean, pack, and hit the road at 7:00 AM tomorrow morning, and there will be a church choir rehearsal to lead as soon as I get back. I have travelled through the gamut of human emotions during these ten days joy, and now I am tired.

No one wants to greet the new year with a tired heart. We all want a fresh start on the tabula rasa of the year, but life has its own plans sometimes. Life also moves forward, whether or not we are ready to move into a new adventure, so with my spirit burdened by death, fatigued by travel, and concerned with a new semester, I nonetheless must ask myself, "What do I want to accomplish in 2012?" Having the right attitude at the onset is crucial to success, so I while I should and must grieve, rest, and laugh while I still can (I truly thank God that classes don't start for another week), I should not allow recent events to distract me from a wonderful year. So with that said, what do I want to accomplish in 2012?

2011 was a remarkable year full of large steps forward towards adulthood; I rented my first car. I know that sounds stupid, but you don't know how thrilled I was to sign my own rental papers! I directed my first choir concert featuring just my choir. I taught my very first lecture class this past spring. I coordinated and raised funds to bring my good friend Andrew Marin to spend a few days in residence in Memphis. I began designing my very own course to teach this semester at Rhodes. These were projects well beyond the scope of any endeavor I've ever taken, and each of them bore good fruit. These projects, as great as they were, are the beginning of even bigger undertakings this year. I will teach the course that I researched, Music of Latin America. I will work with Andrew Marin to start some dialogue-based programs in Memphis this year. I'm paying my way to go to Europe this summer. I'm taking my Chamber Singers on the road this spring. 2011 was a great year, but it's a prelude to the incredible adventures of 2012.

But what do I want to accomplish? A successful choir tour? An informative, thought provoking class? A thriving ministry of healing and reconciliation? Yes, yes, and yes, yet it's not enough. Those are things I want to accomplish, but I want to become a better person, a more mature disciple of Christ, a more thoughtful neighbor. I want to be Jimmy Cornfoot, man of God, and in order to be me, I must know me. In order to know who I am, I must know who Jesus is. If I am to know Jesus, then I should look upward to the heavens, outward to my neighbor - the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed - and inward to my spirit. If I can know Jesus, then everything else should fall in place, even when life throws you a curveball. To know Jesus, to love my neighbor, and to know my place in creation would be the greatest accomplishment I could achieve in 2012. These are goals not to be finished this year; they are steps to be taken every day of my life.

Here is what I want to be able to say on December 31, 2012. I want to write in my journal:

I grew in character, wisdom, and status not because I left the country or started new programs. I grew because I tried to teach a new class and stumbled about it like a blind man in the dark, but man, I gave it my best shot. I'm a better person because I got into a fight with my neighbor and took the initiative to apologize to her instead of waiting for her to come to me. I am more connected to God, to people, and to myself because I turned off the computer every night and weekend; it's okay to avoid social media to find real social community. I enjoy more peace because I looked for it. I did not run away from conflict, and I did not embrace it either. I saw personal and social tension as a necessary good and fertile soil for maturation, and I refused to shut down when I encountered something I could not understand. Fasting, silence, and meditation showed me that I don't need to be dependent on things; I can enjoy the Jesus within me without the benefit of things. I am, at the eve of 2013, a more peaceful, centered, and content man. To God be the glory.

Join me in a time of reflection, action, connectivity, exploration, and growth! Frohes neues Jahr!

Until next time,

-JC