July 2, 2012: Greece - Athens

July 2, 2012: Background: My wife, Ruth, is in a local choir. Her choir has taken trips to perform in concerts organized by Mid America Productions. I have joined this choir to participate in some of these trips. The first concert we performed in was John Rutter's "Requiem" several years ago at Carnegie Hall in New York. John Rutter himself conducted this concert which included not only our choir but several others plus a full orchestra and soloist. This has to have been one of the most inspiring events I have participated in during my lifetime. Below is a picture of us on stage at that concert.

The following year, by "popular demand", we performed in another concert at Carnegie Hall this time performing Rutter's "Feel the Spirit" and Vivaldi's "Gloria". This concert was conducted by Sean Boulware, Ruth's choir's director at the time. It was another inspiring moment.


For our third trip in 2012, we joined a group of other choirs from Texas, Canada, France, and Greece plus the Albanian Orchestra to perform in two concerts on the island of Sirus in Greece. Sirus is the largest island of the Cyclades (pronounced "Cyclods") that are located southeast of Athens, and the concerts were part of the Aegean Festival which takes place for two plus weeks every July. Below are the posters that advertised this festival. 

Our choir performed in two concerts for this festival. The first concert consisted of an all Beethoven program including his Emperor's Piano Concerto and then his mighty 9th Symphony. The second concert included two overtures (Nikola Zoraqi's Festival Overture and Thoma Gagi's Albanian Dance with tambour), John Rutter's "Magnificat" (conducted by John Rutter himself), Ravel's Bolero (featuring a Greek National Opera Ballet dancer performing as the music played), and finally the Choral finale of Beethoven's 9th.


After our trip with the choir, Ruth and I continued on a ten day long vacation visiting the countries Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, and Montenegro. This blog appendix provides pictures, videos, and description of our adventure on this enjoyable trip.