July 13, 2012: Siros (concerts of the Festival of the Aegean)

July 13, 2012: We were getting used to staying at the Faros ("four star") Hotel. At first the beds were like sleeping on plastic lawn furniture but with the extra pad we requested, we were able to sleep comfortably. The air conditioner was wonderful to get away from the extremely hot weather -- some nights it got so cold I actually needed covers to sleep. And, we got used to our bathroom with its tiny (63 cm x 63 cm, or 25" x 25") shower. The plastic curtain was held up by fanlike (as in Chinese fan one would use to cool down) spokes. The shower was so small that the curtain clung to our bodies as we bathed:

Our shower with fanlike spokes holding up the plastic curtain

After rehearsal with Maestro Rutter, we headed to downtown Hermoupolis to hear two concerts of the Festival of the Aegean. The first was the "A Cappella Sacred Choral Music at Sunset" concert held at the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church:

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

The concert featured children's choirs from France and Greece as well as the Yellow Rose Singers, an adult women's chorus from Texas. The children's choirs were quite good -- there's nothing like hearing the purity of children's voices in a cathedral. Since we got to know many of the singers in the Yellow Rose Singers while rehearsing with them for our two concerts, we decided to hear them perform. Here are videos of the children's choirs and the Yellow Rose Singers:

After the concert, we went out for dinner and then to hear the New Zealand Chamber Soloists perform Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C major and then Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A major. The Albanian Symphony accompanied them in the Concerto and then played the 7th. The New Zealand Chamber Soloists were quite talented and did an interesting encore by the Greek composer Psathas from his Three Island Songs.  It was a nice way to end another musical day.