The past week has both been wonderful and horrible, but it has certainly been an enriching and inspiring experience that I will not soon forget! This year is the 40th anniversary of the choir of St-Michel, so we have been preparing music since our Christmas concerts ended last winter, and our incredible, visionary of a director has been preparing for the last five years. The weekend was a grand festival in honor of the anniversary of the choir, held at college St-Michel. Friday night was a reunion for the 400 St-Michel singers and alumni. We sang the anniversary composition, learned old pieces, shared memories, and celebrated together. This was hard for me because I only have had, and only will ever have one year with this wonderful choir. On Saturday morning there was a speech in the interior courtyard of St-Michel and the windows of the surrounding building were filled with singers that tapped, spoke, sang, and threw paper airplanes in a brilliantly choreographed display for the onlookers down below. Choirs from all over French-speaking Switzerland and even from Armenia were invited to sing in the church of St-Michel throughout the two days in a sort of exposition of music. Each night we had our own concert in the theater of the University during which we sang "Annelies" by James Whitbourn (a full-length choral work based on the diary of Anne Frank) accompanied by a professional quartet and soloist, and four pieces written by Fribourg composers that sympathized with the conflicts in Palestine for which we had an amazing quartet of young siblings from Galilee.
Annelies is incredibly beautiful! Just as the diary, it is not only filled with the sufferances of the young Jew, but also with her amazing capacity to dream, hope, and love in spite of her condition. This work absolutely radiates with beautiful emotion! There was one part that made me cry twice, and it was not even the most powerful. I could simply sympathize with it the most. When the soloist sang "my last night in my own bed" I thought not only about the home that I had left, but the bed that I would soon be leaving here in Switzerland. The first time we sang Annelies the whole way through the with musicians in the rehearsal room up on top of St-Michel, with the widows open wide and the blue sky that Anne Frank so loved tumbling in with the songs of the birds she used as metaphors for freedom, I was so filled with joy that during the break I ran down into the lower hallways of the school with the grand stone tiles and arches to dance to the music sill ringing in my mind. My heart has not been so filled and inspired by movement and music since I left ballet. I did not think I would find that again, but here is all the joy and passion I had before as though it had simply been sleeping inside of me.
The 40th anniversary festival has been avidly followed by the media in Fribourg. The last week of rehearsals and performances have been accompanied by a host of photographers, television camera men, and radio broadcasters, which made doing anything a little stressful. "Big brother is watching you!" Here are some links to media coverage, but you may have to strain a little to verify my existence. I really should have taken my own pictures and videos...
http://choeursaintmichel.ch/40ans/
https://www.laliberte.ch/info-regionale/fribourg/le-choeur-st-michel-fete-ses-40-ans-346661#.VzoDHfmLTIU
http://www.laliberte.ch/photos/galeries-de-l-annee-2016/fenetres-sur-le-monde-40-ans-du-choeur-st-michel-346664#.VzoDcfmLTIV
http://www.rts.ch/play/tv/12h45/video/le-choeur-st-michel-fete-ses-40-ans-en-chanson-a-fribourg?id=7722878
http://www.latele.ch/play?i=59704
http://www.rts.ch/espace-2/programmes/chant-libre/7672208-chant-libre-du-08-05-2016.html
http://www.rts.ch/play/tv/12h45/video/incendie-au-canada-justin-trudeau-sest-rendu-sur-les-lieux?id=7722880
Read with caution:
This entire process of preparation and manifestation of the festival has been too much for me. The last week we had rehearsals so late that I would get home in the middle of the night and then have to get up again early for school and stay the rest of the day in Fribourg until the middle of the night for the next rehearsal. The pieces we worked on were so packed with emotion that I could feel myself crumpling away like the banks of a river, and they swam through my head even as I worked at school. Being constantly at Fribourg and constantly surrounded by people was difficult and it wore me out, but because I was worn out, every time I was alone I would break down and cry, so I had to stay occupied to keep myself functioning all weekend despite/in aggravation to my deteriorating composition. Adding on to all of this I got sick on Friday, and then sat shivering in the St-Michel church all weekend where I could not exactly rest or take care of myself. My throat was torn, my nose ran, my head hurt, and my eyes never wanted to stay open. I did not even stay for the after parties or clean up until two in the morning, so I can hardly imagine how hard this must have been for those who actually organized and ran the festival! I did manage to help our director a little by arranging chairs and moving platforms in between concerts in the church, which almost made me happier than listening to the concerts themselves as I felt my existence was not in vain. I was often late to rehearsals as the schedules were difficult to follow and transportation was a nightmare. I did not always talk to people or join in the discussions, and I would miss events and things the other singers did together because I didn't have the energy, but this made me feel even father from my friends, separate from the choir, and alone. It was a never-ending cycle of physical and emotional fatigue that just kept digging itself further and further in. I would not let anyone recognize how I really was inside, because faking it was all I could do to keep from falling to pieces. I knew if I missed this weekend, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
http://www.rts.ch/play/tv/12h45/video/incendie-au-canada-justin-trudeau-sest-rendu-sur-les-lieux?id=7722880
Read with caution:
This entire process of preparation and manifestation of the festival has been too much for me. The last week we had rehearsals so late that I would get home in the middle of the night and then have to get up again early for school and stay the rest of the day in Fribourg until the middle of the night for the next rehearsal. The pieces we worked on were so packed with emotion that I could feel myself crumpling away like the banks of a river, and they swam through my head even as I worked at school. Being constantly at Fribourg and constantly surrounded by people was difficult and it wore me out, but because I was worn out, every time I was alone I would break down and cry, so I had to stay occupied to keep myself functioning all weekend despite/in aggravation to my deteriorating composition. Adding on to all of this I got sick on Friday, and then sat shivering in the St-Michel church all weekend where I could not exactly rest or take care of myself. My throat was torn, my nose ran, my head hurt, and my eyes never wanted to stay open. I did not even stay for the after parties or clean up until two in the morning, so I can hardly imagine how hard this must have been for those who actually organized and ran the festival! I did manage to help our director a little by arranging chairs and moving platforms in between concerts in the church, which almost made me happier than listening to the concerts themselves as I felt my existence was not in vain. I was often late to rehearsals as the schedules were difficult to follow and transportation was a nightmare. I did not always talk to people or join in the discussions, and I would miss events and things the other singers did together because I didn't have the energy, but this made me feel even father from my friends, separate from the choir, and alone. It was a never-ending cycle of physical and emotional fatigue that just kept digging itself further and further in. I would not let anyone recognize how I really was inside, because faking it was all I could do to keep from falling to pieces. I knew if I missed this weekend, I would regret it for the rest of my life.
I would use the metaphor of Galadriel for the festival, when she was tempted by the ring in LOTR. "All shall love me and despair!"
"Avant, l'avenir ça voulait dire: bientôt "Les 40e unissants".6 ans de gestation d'un projet fou!
Le rêve devient souvenirs. Ceux-ci prennent désormais place dans ma boîte aux trésors. Ceux qui sont le moteur de mes jours et de mes nuits.
Merci d'avoir partagé avec nous un gâteau d'anniversaire glacé d'humanité.
Et maintenant, on sèche ses yeux, on va dormir pour se relever demain plus déterminé que jamais de vivre pleinement l'avant de l'avenir: le présent intense."
- Philippe Savoy (Director)
Lily, I am so proud of your determination amid this challenging combination of beauty and despair. What a marvelous opportunity you had to participate in this event. Thank you for sharing your experience with us--the highs and the lows. Love, Mom
ReplyDeleteLily, you have really grown as a photographer this last year in Switzerland. You have creative and interesting composition styles that make your photographs fun and interesting to view. I sure hope you feel better and the sacrifice for the choir will be a reward and memory you will carry with you the rest of your life. I have really missed you and have enjoyed your blog. Very entertaining and informative. Keep shooting, you certainly have a gift. Love always, riki.
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