Music update

by Graeme Stevenson

This year's destination for the University chamber choir was Lisbon, Portugal. We chose to go to sunnier climes this year and waited, patiently for the sun to appear...

Our first concert was in the Catedral De S. Paulo (Igreja Listana - a beautiful church. At 3pm when we were due to start it didn't contain many people but it rapidly filled up. Our programme, a mixture of folk-song arrangements, part-songs and sacred music, was very well received and we were delighted to be called back for two encores and a standing ovation.

Following the concert we were invited into the church hall where we were lavished with very generous helpings of cakes and tea - always an excellent way to end a concert. While we were there, we met a University of Dundee graduate who had kindly popped along to support us.

The following morning we were to lead the worship at the Anglican church in Lisbon, St. George's. Set in a large cemetery, this was another beautiful place to sing, and we performed three works throughout the communion service: Locus Iste (Bruckner) as an introit, Byrd's Ave Verum Corpus during communion and John Rutter's Gaelic Blessing at the end.

Due to a fire, this was our last engagement and this gave us an afternoon and evening to take a leisurely trip round Lisbon, get last minute postcards etc. (Still no sun though!)

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