Today, we had our last a cappella concert of the tour at Lotte Concert Hall! Lotte Concert Hall is one of Korea’s best performance venues, but what’s truly unique about it is that it’s inside a shopping mall! Lotte World Mall is one of the largest in the world, and it’s many floors contain the concert hall, a cinema, an aquarium, hundreds of shops and restaurants, and there’s even a theme park outside of it. It’s also connected to Lotte World Tower, which is the 6th-tallest building in the world. We departed the hotel together around 11:00am, and we had some free time for lunch in the mall upon arrival before our first rehearsals. Amelia and I ended up at a traditional Chinese restaurant, and as you can see in the photo below, it was delicious!
The concert hall itself is designed in a vineyard style, which means that there are seats on every side of the stage. This is the second concert hall I’ve performed in designed like this (with Berlin’s Philharmonie being the first), and the space was reverberant without being too echoey. We were one of nine choirs total to perform on the concert as part of the Seoul Choral Festival, and we were the only American choir to participate.
Once our rehearsals were done we had some more free time to shop and find dinner, and there are some fantastic stores here. Due to its proximity to Japan, big brands we’re aware of in America such as Pokémon and Studio Ghibli have more retail locations here, and there was a cute photo-op in the Studio Ghibli store with a life-size “No-Face” from the film Spirited Away! We got Pokémon themed-donuts as a snack, and then we headed back to our dressing rooms to change into formal wear and prepare for the concert.
We were the finale of the concert, and we were graciously well-received. While I’m always grateful for applause, sometimes stunned silence is just as touching, and after we performed Rheinberger’s “Kyrie” from his Mass in Eb there was a brief silence permeated by only a few gasps and hushed “wows” before applause broke out. Our closing piece was Moses Hogan’s arrangement of “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel,” and our powerhouse featured trio of Martha Ottaviano, Carol Kittner, and Kylie Bennett received applause that I wasn’t sure would ever end. Then, all of the choirs returned to the stage, and we performed two traditional Korean songs as a combined group with Dr. Hatteberg conducting one of them.
After six years of serving in the Cardinal Singers, it began to hit me last night that these are some of my last days as a member of the group. From singing in a parking garage during the pandemic to traveling to Germany, South Africa, and South Korea, this group has changed the course of my life and given me some of my most cherished memories. While our art form exists in temporal moments, the impact of those moments will remain instilled deep in my soul for the rest of my life. On nights like tonight, where I see a Korean nun seated in the front row of the hall grinning from ear to ear while we sing “Kyrie Eleison” (Lord Have Mercy) in the same liturgical Greek she has prayed halfway around the world, I know why I sing, and I’m grateful for the gift of doing so.
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