Thank you!

This is our last post for this blog. If you'd like to stay in touch with us (and we hope that you do!), you can follow us on Facebook or Twitter. We post free audio regularly on SoundCloud.com/cantussings and occasional videos on YouTube. Or you can send us an email (info@cantussings.org) to add your name to our mailing list. If you haven't found it yourself, our website is cantussings.org  Our national touring schedule is posted here.

Before we leave you, we want to say a tremendous thank you to Garrison Keillor and the staff of "A Prairie Home Companion," especially Sam Hudson, Deb Beck and Kate Gustafson. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us in so many ways. The trip was so beautifully organized and you took such good care of us! Thank you for all you did to make performing for your audience such a joy!

Wheel!! Of!! Ports!!!

Our final concert today was a game show! 

WHEEL!!  of!!  Ports!!

Baritone Matt Tintes played the role of Vanna quite nicely, offering our unique "wheel" of ports to audience members to spin.  Bass Chris Foss (Pat Sajak) encouraged the audience members to share their favorite stories from each port. After each wheel spin, the ensemble sang a song from that 

country until the wheel had no more spots left.

The wheel held all of the countries we visited: England, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Russia. But of course, the country that we are now all thinking about is America, home. So we finished with a Shaker Hymn: "Simple Gifts" and with the audience, sang "America the Beautiful." 

Chris Foss as our very own Pat Sajak.

Vanna, um Matt, holds the wheel for an audience member to spin.

A final bow.

Cantus

A rainbow to guide us home.

How Swede It Is

Earlier this year, Cantus decided to program the Barbershop Harmony Society’s signature song, “Keep America Singing,” as a part of our touring program, Anthem because nobody loves singing together as much as barbershoppers. It is very common in the barbershop community for groups of singers to come together, form impromptu quartets, and sing “tags:” the end of a popular barbershop tune. Parts are usually taught by rote, and after four or five goes at it, the singers are ready to belt it out. New Cantus tenor (and my Minneapolis roommate) Blake Morgan has a diverse performance background that includes barbershop quartet singing, which is one of the first things we bonded over.

Coincidentally, Sweden has produced one of the finest barbershop quartets of the past 5 years, the Ringmasters. Lead singer and Stockholm local Rasmus Kingstrom is a friend of Blake’s, and invited a few of us out to have dinner and sing a few tags with him and his friends. After dining and talking shop, Ringmasters’ baritone Emmanuel suggested we catch the tail end of St. Jacobs Ungdomskör (Youth Choir) rehearsal at a nearby historic building. This group made up of singers in their 20s and 30s has a stellar reputation in Sweden and throughout the world, and their sound did not disappoint! After a breathtaking rehearsal of Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem, they invited us out for “Choir Beer,” a weekly tradition of quenching one’s thirst after rehearsal.

The local tavern enjoys the patronage of Ungdomskör very much. Just say “Choir Beer” at the bar, and you get a discounted pint. After a few swigs, everyone was ready to sing again, and sing WE DID! The Swedes delighted us with a rousing version of a traditional folk song, glasses in the air, with hearty cheers and laughter following the final chord. Our rebuttal? Michael McGlynn’s Dúlamán, featuring Paul Rudoi. The bar erupted with applause after the sudden finish to the exciting, wordy sea chanty. Smiles on every face lighted the room as we sealed a musical bond with our new friends.

--Sam

Sunnuntaina Helsingissä! (Sunday in Helsinki)

We began our urban hike through Helsinki by stopping at a local cafe for kahvi and vaniljapulla. While seated outside looking over the map and scanning the area for signs of life on a quiet Sunday morning, a woman crossing the street called out to us in Finnish and gestured toward the park. Seeing our shy smiles and classic shoulder shrugs, she restated in English “There will be free food in the park in just an hour! Today is Restaurant Day!” We thanked her, finished our coffee and continued toward the Central Railway Station and many of the surrounding historic sights and new features of the city’s architecture and vibrant community. 

On our way back to the harbor in the afternoon, we encountered several small tables dotting the neighborhood where we’d started. Smiling, laughing people were gathered around them, tasting and clearly enjoying what was being freshly prepared right behind each table. We stopped at one that had signs in French and discovered that Restaurant Day was definitely in full swing all over this part of the city. So, we continued down to the harbor and took advantage of a little tent that offered what looked to be a full meal.

The three friendly women running this pop-up restaurant explained to us that they were offering Vorschmack, the favorite dish of Finland’s most famous military leader and sixth president, Marshal C. G. E. Mannerheim. Vorschmack, which arguably originated in Poland, consists of a spiced mixture of minced lamb, beef and herring, and is served with smetana sour cream and accompanied by a baked peruna potato as well as punajuuri beets and suolakurkku pickled cucumbers.

To complete the meal, they offered a delicious, warm slice of mustikka kakku blueberry cake with crème anglaise. One of the women claimed having picked the berries the day before, smiling with justified pride. They made no apology that a non-Finnish drink, chai masala, an Indian spiced tea was the recommended drink with the meal. We affirmed it was a worldwide favorite and welcome to lovers of Indian food.

Restaurant Day is a pop-up trend, started in Finland in 2011 that has spread to 56 countries around the world so far. The woman preparing Vorschmack are not connected to a restaurant, rather just like to prepare food for the occasional event as a way to interact with the community. The meal was delicious and a perfect compliment to a sunny Sunday afternoon in the waterfront park. 

--Shahzore

Dearest Group 12

No, not Venice, Russia!

Visas into Russia are expensive and difficult to procure. The easiest way to see St. Petersburg on a cruise is to go on an excursion arranged by the cruise itself with a visa included in the arrangements. So for my trip into St. Petersburg I chose a canal tour and then a stop at the beautiful and amazing Church of the Spilled Blood.

Our tour had a truly charming guide who addressed us consistently as “Dearest Group 12.” Elena probably said this to remind us of our tour number in the midst of swirling crowds, but it was still very effective.

St. Petersburg is an important port for Russia but has few natural resources. When Peter the Great won the land back from Sweden in 1703 and wanted to complete the city of his vision, he had to import every stone, every artist from another country. He used an Italian designer to create the plan for the city, using the rivers and canals to create the “Venice of Russia.”

As a result there is (for me) a feeling of two cities: the expected Russian grey and bleak outer city and then a very colorful, Italian-type city along the main rivers of St. Petersburg. Each member of the royal Romanav family produced their own large family and each child needed their own palace when they became an adult…and it appears, that palace needed to be better than their cousin’s or uncle’s. Thus, as Elena told us, there are 300 palaces (and one castle).

A "coffee house" for the ladies of Tzarina Catherine in the midst of her park.

The Church of the Spilled Blood

The Church of the Spilled Blood was built to honor Tsar Alexander II after his assassination. A small shrine in the church marks the spot where a grenade was thrown at him in 1881. His son Alexander III built the church to honor his memory. It was begun in 1883 but was not completed until 1907.  Among all of the Italian architecture of the city, the church stands out for its more traditional…and even medieval…Russian architecture. While the outside of the church is striking, it’s the interior and its over 25,000 square feet of mosaics that is breathtaking. The main pillars are biblical figures, but I was equally entranced with the floral borders designed to depict the Garden of Eden. Not one border is repeated throughout the entire church!

Wikipedia has a concise version of the church’s history after the Revolution of 1917: “In the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, the church was ransacked and looted, badly damaging its interior. The Soviet government closed the church in the early 1930s. During the Second World War when many people were starving due to the Siege of Leningrad by Nazi German military forces, the church was used as a temporary morgue for those who died in combat and from starvation and illness. The church suffered significant damage. After the war, it was used as a warehouse for vegetables, leading to the sardonic name of ‘Savior on Potatoes.’”

Elena told us about her own experience of the long process of restoration of the Church. Begun in 1970, the church was covered in scaffolding and concealed from the public for 27 years. Coming up out of the Metro every day, she never gave it a second glance. After all that time, no one even thought about what was under the exterior coverings. She told us that “no one can believe it” on the day that it was completely revealed again in 1997.

If you’d like to read more, the link to the Church is here: http://eng.cathedral.ru/saviour

-- Mary 

The Song Festival Grounds in Estonia

Cantus has been singing Estonian choral music for many years and the tradition of choral singing in Estonia is so ancient that it can barely be traced.  Estonian mothers often say that their children learn to hum in harmony before they speak their first word.  Then, of course, there is the incredible and truly awesome story of the role of music and especially singing in their peaceful revolution to independence less than 25 years ago. 

This is just a fraction of what we were all thinking today as we stepped foot on the Song Festival grounds today.  The space is massive—a wide-open grassy field with a huge arched performance shell that rises out of the ground like a wave.  The shell has built-in concrete risers for a choir of 10,000 and there is room for 100,000 people to “comfortably” stand on the grounds for the festival.  According to legend more than 300,000 Estonians packed the grounds during the nights that led up to the revolution—that is nearly one in every three citizens. Near the back of the festival grounds is a grand sculpture of composer, conductor, and song festival cheerleader Gustav Ernesaks.  I love that this tribute to such a great man has him sitting in the back...listening.  There's something brilliant about that.  

We brought a few pieces of music with us and we had the chance to sing.  It was incredible to sing Veljo Tormis’s “Double Dedication” and our brand new arrangement of “How Can I Keep From Singing” by Stephen Caracciolo.  I’m sure we looked like a choir of ants in the massive space, but it was thrilling to be there and add our voice to a space where people truly let freedom ring. 

-Aaron

The Cantus Game Show

Wouldn’t it be awesome if Cantus had its own game show? Reviewing pictures from last night, that’s exactly what these shots look like. In actuality, the event was a sing-a-long with Dan Chouinard at the piano and hosting.

APHC had done its research and provided all of the words to all of the verses for us up on the screen. But before the program, Dan had met with Cantus to find out favorites from individual singers. Then, during the fun, each singer had a chance to introduce themselves, where they were from and a little about the song.

Tonight the ensemble joins Garrison for a "Sons of Bernie" performance and no, we don't know (yet) what that means either!

--Mary

Do you know the second verse to "America the Beautiful"??

Bass Chris Foss shared "Ring of Fire" with his co-bass Sam Green.

At one point, the computer with the lyrics "froze" and new tenor Zac Colby kept the audience entertained with a fictional backstory about his life to date.