We bid farewell to Seoul this morning, but not farewell forever as we get to return later in our tour for a few more concerts! Before I get on to where we traveled today, I’d like to make one more observation about Seoul: coffee shops are as numerous as the skyscrapers. As someone who likes to have coffee in hand as I catch up on email and news in the morning this is a gift to me, and today I tried a delicious iced latte from a company called Compose Coffee (an appropriate name for me) before we departed Seoul.
After having some free time this morning for breakfast and packing, we departed Seoul around 1:00pm bound for Yongin, which is part of the Seoul Metropolitan Area and about a 50 minute drive from Seoul. Our bus was nearly full due to luggage and people, so Amelia, my roommate Jackson, Dawson and I volunteered to ride in a van with Dongcheol and Minji (two of our Korean grad students). I’m happy to report Dongcheol is an excellent driver, and we arrived without issue after stopping after a convenience store for snacks and lunch.
Shortly after arriving at our hotel in Yongin, we headed to Dankook University for a combined rehearsal with their choir. Dankook was founded in 1947 (as the first university to be established after the Korean National Liberation Day), and after our rehearsal, we had a fantastic surprise. Each Cardinal Singer was paired with one or two “buddies” from Dankook’s choir to accompany us on a campus tour and hang out with us before our evening concert. My two buddies were Jehee and Min Jae, and they immediately surprised me with an extremely heartfelt gift. After finding out I was their buddy a few days ago, they found my Instagram and realized that I was engaged, so they got Amelia and I matching traditional fans and coin purses as well as some Korean snacks! Getting to know them before the concert was a joy, and all of our singers loved making new friends at Dankook before we sang together.
The concert itself was wonderful, as the Cardinal Singers were well received and Dankook’s choir was absolutely stunning! They sang Korean pieces both new and traditional as well as some opera choruses, and on Purcell’s “Dido’s Lament” from his opera Dido and Aeneas, my “buddy” Jehee was the soloist and gave me chills. To close out the concert, we sang two combined pieces: first “Precious Lord, Take My Hand (arr. by Arnold Sevier),” then an arrangement of “Arirang (arr. by Hyowon Woo),” which is one of the most famous Korean folk songs in existence. I had the most fun in this concert of any on our tour so far, and I think this was in large part due to the enhanced joy of our collaboration with Dankook’s choir from getting to spend time with them and become friends before singing together. The Cardinal Singers made valuable friends and connections for life tonight, and I am so grateful to Jehee and Min Jae for their thoughtfulness and kindness in welcoming me to Dankook!
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