Laura Taylor ’11 Recounts Memorable Experiences From Nine-Day College Choir Trip to Spain

Last month, 44 members of the Holy Cross College Choir, along with choir director Pamela Mindell, embarked on a nine-day concert tour in Spain. They visited the cities of Madrid, Sevilla, Toledo, Granada and Malaga.

The choir performed four concerts at Catedral de Alcalá de Henares in Alcalá de Henares; Iglesia de la Anunciación in Sevilla; Basilica de San Juan de Dios in Granada and Iglesia de San Agustín in Málaga. Music included sacred Latin music, Spanish folk songs, Latin American pieces and North American folk songs and spirituals.

Here, Laura Taylor ’11, a double major in English and psychology from East Hartford, Conn., reflects on the trip.

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Picture it, Madrid 2009. There we were; a group of 44 droopy-eyed Americans plopped down in the middle of a cramped restaurant with far too many colors on the walls. Even if we could have moved, there was nowhere to go; we were stuck. So, we stared blankly at our plates overflowing with some rice dish, which smelled vaguely of a New England wharf, praying that this excursion would be quick and relatively painless. If we could just survive another 60 minutes, we would be allowed to return to the comfort of our hotel rooms and sleep off the 24 hours of passport flashing and airplane food we had just endured. And then it happened.

Three men filed onto the miniature stage, guitars in hand, followed by a middle-aged woman in a long red and white polka dot dress. She looked as though she had jumped straight out of a Disney film, and yet something in her step demanded our respect. As the music began, the woman moved about the stage stomping her four-inch heels and clicking a pair of dark-wood castanets in time with the guitars behind her. As the pace of her step picked up, so did that of our hearts. For nearly two hours, we sat entranced as one flamenco dancer after the next crossed that stage, filling our eyes and ears with Spanish culture. When the music finally stopped and the daze broke, the realization of where we were and what we had seen struck us squarely on the head like a falling safe in a Warner Brothers cartoon. As Holy Cross students, we had been given this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity not just to share our songs, but to experience the rich music, art and history of this beautiful country as well, and we would not let it pass us by.

So, we made our way from the royal palaces of Madrid to the narrow streets of Toledo, a city famous for its overlapping of Christian, Jewish and Moorish influence; and from Toledo to Sevilla, where we climbed 100 meters to the top of La Giralda, the bell tower of the largest gothic cathedral in the world. Our next stop was in Granada, where we had the privilege of singing with another choir from the Universidad de Granada in the magnificent Basilica San Juan de Dios. Though only one or two of us were able to converse with the other students, we understood one another clearly through the power of our music, whose words of rebellion, love and justice left our audience in tears.

Whether it happened on the altar of that basilica or as we held an impromptu performance in the middle of the resonant Palace of Charles V or during one of our bumpy (and rather comical) bus rehearsals, we became a family. As we sat together on the beach in Málaga preparing to return home, that ignorant daze which had plagued us on that first night made its final ascension. We experienced first-hand the wonders of a whole new world: one which did not always speak our language or share our customs, but one whose value could no longer escape our thoughts.

For some it was a chance to see the world and make themselves heard; for others, a final hurrah at the end of their Holy Cross journey. For me, however, this tour was much more than a page in my scrapbook. With our minds opened and our voices raised, the Holy Cross College Choir and Chamber Singers will return to our own St. Joseph Chapel in the fall to share our experience and continue to serve our community with these gifts of song with which we have been so graciously afforded.

Related Information:

• Photo Gallery: During Tour, Holy Cross Choir Takes in Breathtaking Views of Spain • College Choir