On the road again!

After a very successful concert and well attended concert (which made the Irish National Newspaper!) the International Messiah tour moves to London today!

The chamber orchestra and organ, combined with the acoustics of the church made for an exciting evening in ChristChurch - Dublin!

We're packed and ready for an early departure and a short flight to London!

Happy New Year to one and all!

Messiah performance was great!

One blogger writes of the famine statues...

Along the north quays at the east end of Dublin city centre you’ll find some strange and disturbing figures. Gaunt and disturbing, these iron figures commemorate the great hunger that killed a huge portion of Ireland’s population in the last century.
I don’t feel like I can adequately discuss the famine itself in this entry. Perhaps this image of the statues will do what seeing them for the first time did for me: lead to you reading a bit more about what happened to these people.

(from http://www.irelandlogue.com/places-to-go/dublins-famine-statues.html)

More photos! (you asked! :-)

Another photographer's eye catches the sights (you can imagine the sounds) of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The choristers sat in the choirstalls - places normally reserved for the cathedral choir - and rehearsed and performed sections of the Messiah. Dr. Sharp told the group that this was the very church in which Handel recruited members of the choir to sing in the chorus. Mr. Waugh learned that he was playing pipework inside the organ that Handel himself played in a recital at St. Patricks.

Happy choristers experience the sights and wonderful acoustics of the cathedral!

At Phoenix Park, largest park in Ireland (>1700 acres), which is more than twice the size of Central Park in New York. The Irish President's home, the US Ambassador's home, the Irish Zoo, and several Cricket, Rugby, and Polo clubs are located here. Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass for over 1 million people here also.

In "awe" of St. Patricks

Practice/Performance at St. Patricks Cathedral.

Our tour guide explains the Famine Memorial on the Liffey River. This is a memorial to the Irish potato famine.

We are ON the EMERALD ISLE!

On the cliffs near Hawth. A brisk morning after a wonderfully safe and uneventful trip!

We are boarding the plane to Ireland soon

Waiting in charlotte. Slight delay :)

IRELAND & ENGLAND - HERE WE COME :-)

Final preparations are done and the trip starts on Saturday with a bus ride to Charlotte airport for the TRIP of a LIFETIME! For your benefit, at the bottom of this page you'll find two clocks; one for US EST and one for GB so you'll know what time it is for us!

We're singing portions of the oratorio MESSIAH in Dublin, Oxford and London under the capable baton of Dr. Timothy Sharp - ACDA Executive Director!

We hope to post photos and information from the trip so you can follow our journeys to expore the land where "Boar's Head and Yule Log Festivals" all began in the Medieval times! There is NOTHING like actually walking on the grounds of cathedrals and castles that have been around since King Arthur ;-) Imagine singing in a church that was a part of a Viking settlement and established by a Viking in medieval times!

Wes Haile! Come virtually join us on our trip! This trip is one of the high points of the 15 year tradition of excellence in vocal music at PikeView High School. Just a few weeks ago we celebrated the 15th Boar's Head and Yule Log Festival and had *many* of our alumni back to sing with us. WOW! The excitement continues :-)

The PikeView CHORALE has performed and competed across the east coast and in Canada up until now. Every competition earned superior group ratings! The CHORALE has appeared in Atlanta GA, Orlando FL (twice) Toronto Ontario Canada and TWO INCREDABLE performances at Carnegie Hall, New York, where they performed Mozart's REQUIEM and many works of Morton Lauridsen, including his LUX ETERNAE and O MAGNUM MYSTERIUM with the composer present!

This is certainly a "trip of a lifetime" for the group and their director, who is serving as organist for all of the MESSIAH concerts.

A special thanks to all of you reading this who helped by generous donations and work at fund raising! We owe it ALL to you!

Chorale/Messiah Tour

Sightseeing - WE will BE THERE!

We will see LOTS of famous sights! Above this text you see Westminster Abbey ( just google and see all the history of that church!) and the "Eye on London" which is on the bank of the River Thames and gives an awesome view of Parlament and all the government buildings on the other side of the river!

On New Year's Eve we can be a part of the groups gathering for fireworks at the River Thames near the Eye on London! We'll get to celebrate 2009 several hours before all of you at home!

We hope to be able to post some of the words and photos from the trip RIGHT here - so come look! When we get home, I hope we'll be able to post all the photos somewhere on line!

Bon Voyage!

Concert Spots - Sheldonian Theatre - Oxford

THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE

Oxford University

The Sheldonian Theatre, located in Oxford, England, was built from 1664-1668 after a design by Christopher Wren for the University of Oxford. The building is named after Gilbert Sheldon, chancellor of the university at the time and the project's main financial backer. It is used for music concerts, lectures and university ceremonies, but not for drama.

Christopher Wren designed buildings in the US as well. The Sir Christopher Wren Building is the oldest college building in the United States and the oldest of the restored public buildings in Williamsburg. It was constructed between 1695 and 1699, before the city was founded, when the capital of the colony of Virginia was still located at Jamestown, and the tract of land which was to become Williamsburg was populated by simple timber buildings and known as

"Middle Plantation"

St Paul's Cathedral in London has always been the touchstone of Wren's reputation. His association with it spans his whole architectural career, including the thirty-six years between the start of the new building and the declaration by parliament of its completion in 1711

Concert Spots - ChristChurch, Dublin

ChristChurch Dublin is also known as The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. A cathedral is defined as any church which contains the seat of a bishop, in this case, the ArchBishop of

The earliest manuscript dates Christ Church cathedral to its present location around 1030. Dúnán, the first bishop of Dublin and Sitriuc, Norse king of Dublin, founded the original Viking church, which was probably subject to the archbishop of Canterbury. This cathedral is another that is firmly in the medieval period!

This last undertaking was to provide the cathedral with a much-need facility for hospitality and to mark the millennium year 2000. It now houses the important Treasures of Christ Church exhibition, together with the superb video of the cathedral history by Louis Marcus. The exhibition features manuscripts and artefacts that give the visitor some impression of nearly one thousand years of worship in the cathedral and nearby churches. Outstanding among the rare church silver is the stunning royal plate given by King William III in 1697 as a thanksgiving for his victory at the battle of the Boyne. Also on display are the conserved tabernacle and the candlesticks used in 1689 under James II when the Latin rites were restored for a three-month period.

Concert Spots - Saint Patrick's Dublin

One of the four MESSIAH concert locations is in the historic Saint Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland.

Saint Patrick's Cathedral was originally named Árd Eaglais Naomh Pádraig in the Irish language and was founded in 1191. The cathedral is the largest church in Ireland.

The catheral was founded in medieval times. The basis of the present building was built between 1191 and 1270, though little now remains of the earliest work beyond the Baptistry.

Much of the work was overseen by the previously mentioned Henry of London, a friend of the King of England and signatory of the Magna Carta,who was also involved in the construction of Dublin's city walls, and Dublin Castle.

Legend has it that Saint Patrick's was the origin of the expression "chancing your arm" (meaning to take a risk), when Gerald, Earl of Kildare cut a hole in a door there, still to be seen, and thrust his arm through it, in an effort to call a truce with another Earl, James of Ormond, in 1492.