Tonight was the last concert of the tour, and took place in San Salvator Church—the tour directors only figured out this afternoon that there were TWO San Salvator churches which were having concerts tonight, and they had to scramble to let everyone know that we were in the OTHER San Salvator Church!

We were also informed that a couple on our tour had their room broken into, and laptop computers, an iPad, and a passport were stolen. They were late getting to the rehearsal because of having to talk to the police and the American Embassy.

So it was with great relief that after the Hawaii Masterworks Chorus sang a Czech song that the people in the audience started smiling. Thereafter director Tim Carney had them in the palm of his hand and the group was rewarded with enthusiastic applause and a standing ovation. They absolutely loved it!

The program was shared with a Czech choir who began with a long (40 minute) Tchaikovsky piece which was technically excellent. However, no one smiled—the choristers were very serious looking, and of course, there was no applause during the multi-movement work.

By the way these were observations I heard by choristers on the bus afterwards because I was up in the organ gallery. Tim decided that I should begin our portion of the program with a “short and happy” organ piece, so I played Marcel Dupré’s “Antiphon V” from his 15 Antiphons. After the choral rehearsal, I had a few minutes to play this beautiful instrument and played another Dupré Antiphon and a choral prelude by Gerald Near. The organ was absolutely gorgeous! It has recently undergone a major restoration.

Then followed Bruckner’s Locus iste, which I think was the choir’s best performance of this piece so far. Come to think of it, I think tonight’s program was their best ever—maybe it was because it was the last concert of the tour. Maybe it was also that we sang to a full church, not just our “groupies,” (spouses and family members who have come along on the trip.) Maybe it was because this was a church with fantastic acoustics and our hosts made everyone feel welcome.

I got some beautiful flowers at the concert even though I only played one piece!

After the concert, it was late but I was hungry having not eaten since noon and it was now nearly 10 pm. Chandra Peters, Don Plondke and I went out to a restaurant which could be called a Czech pub. (Chandra is a former soprano in the LCH choir and Don is an organist who used to live in Hawaii years and years ago.) When we were seated at a table in the back room, it was filled with a long table of Czech women who had finished dinner. They were singing song after song after song and a bunch of women at another table joined in! I made the observation that they sang in a very low range and in harmony, not unlike the singing I’ve heard the Micronesian women do in Hawaii.

What a unique experience!