Today marked our final full day in Germany as well as our final concert of the trip! In the morning, we departed from the academy after breakfast to head to Mainz. Along the way, we made a stop at a lower viewpoint of Loreley Rock!
We also made a stop to view a castle in the middle of the Rhine called Pfalzgrafenstein. The castle still operates as an event space (including concerts), and one of our alto members has a maternal lineage in the Pfalzgraf family that traces back roots to the castle!
We arrived in Mainz in the early afternoon and had a few free hours to explore, so I got lunch and walked around the area near our hotel. Interestingly enough, Mainz is a sister city of Louisville! This year marks the 30th year of the partnership, and in September, a delegation from Louisville is coming to Mainz to mark the occasion.
The concert was held at St. Bonifaz Cathedral, and due to the status of Louisville and Mainz as sister cities, the mayor of Mainz attended and gave a brief speech. A member of the Mainz delegation for the sister city organization also gave brief remarks. The concert was a joint concert with Ensemble Vocal Mainz, which is a local community choir. They sang one piece to open the concert, and then Cardinal Singers did about 30 minutes of music. We received a rousing ovation, so we did one encore piece and then closed the concert by performing Rheinberger’s Abendlied with Ensemble Vocal Mainz.
After a short night of sleep, the Cardinal Singers are traveling home on the 18th! This marks the last blog post of my German travels, and I could not be more grateful for the experiences. From performing in the Cologne Cathedral to exploring Bach’s Leipzig, this trip has been filled with wonderful memories and performance opportunities! I hope the rest of the choir understands how lucky we are. These are experiences that we will remember for the rest of our lives, and I’m proud of the Cardinal Singers for rising to every moment and embracing the artistic work ethic needed to pull off a trip like this. Intrepid readers, thank you for following along on my journey! On June 29, I will be heading to Italy to serve as the rehearsal pianist and a choir member for some performances of Mozart’s Requiem, so I’ll be keeping a blog then as well. Thank you for reading!
Leave a Reply