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Day 11 - Saturday 12 May

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This morning, the boys had to be at the Musik-Akademie Basel at 08:45am, for a rehearsal.   Chef gave a type of presentation/workshop about African choral music here from 10-00-11:00am, with the boys demonstrating all the concepts he taught to the audience.   The Musik-Akademie Basel is an institution for music education and comprises a music school, college of music and a center for early music research and performance. It is a beautiful school, nestled up against a hill in Basel, with a mix of old and modern architecture.  Interestingly, this is also the school where Nathan Julius, a Drakie old boy and Hilton College alumnus, is studying.   We met up with Nathan quite a few times during the course of the festival (he attended some concerts of ours), and we are very proud of him and his achievements as a singer and an old boy. Chef and old boy Nathan Julius in the Musik-Akademie Basel After the presentation, the boys walked to the Uni Mensa (this is basic...
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Day 10 - Friday 11 May

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This morning the boys had to be at the meeting point, Martinskirche, at 08:45am, where we had a rehearsal from 09:00-10:00am.   We had two concerts today, the first one was in Martinskirche at 11:00, and the second one was this afternoon at 17:00pm in Peterskirche.  We shared the morning concert with the Knabenkantorei Basel (KBB) and the Children's Choir from the University of Lissabon (Portugal) again.   The KBB also performed the Chichester Psalms by Bernstein, but they performed an orchestral reduction version, with only one percussionist.   I found their performance really refreshing – they sing with a beautiful, round tone.   The Children's choir from Portugal has a very similar approach and style of singing than our boys – their music is also very energetic and animated and they also have movements and theatrical aspects to their performance.   The Martinskirche is again a wonderful venue for choirs to perform in, with a beautiful, ornate interi...
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Day 9 - Thursday 10 May

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We woke up to a very grey, dark and rainy day.   The boys had to be at our meeting point, which was the same church that we rehearsed in yesterday morning – Titus Kirche – at 09:00am, where we had a rehearsal from 09:00-09:45am.   Many boys had to take the bus and tram to the church from their hosts’ homes (accompanied by the hosts), so I think that our boys are now used to and comfortable with using a public transport system. We performed in the Ascension Day service of the service at 10:00am.   It is a Protestant church, with the service being very similar to a Dutch Reformed service. The audience just adored the boys’ singing and performance, and I saw many tears when the choir performed Now we are free , as well as Ndikhokhele Bawo.   There was also loud affirmation and clapping along with the choir’s final song, Ahona ya tswanang .   In general, I must say that our European audiences have been most rewarding to perform to.   They have a w...
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