Last Night’s Concert: Was It All A Dream?
(Written on the bus to Bilbao, Spain – our final tour city.)
Labyrinth Choir performed in the Auditorio Ciudad de León (a gorgeous concert hall in León) with the Orfeón Leonés Choir, a delightful community choir. We met the choir for a joint rehearsal at 7 pm. They performed first and then it was our turn. We looked into the concert hall and saw that it was nearly full-over 500 people! What a thrill! Labyrinth Choir performed with musical excellence, incredible attention to phrasing, plus emotional intensity. We flexed! (Thanks Heather!)
Abby Haynes: “Singing in the beautiful auditorium was unforgettable. Such an appreciative audience, such a beautiful city. I loved the acoustic there. It felt like a legit performance space. You could tell by the space itself how dedicated the people are to music in their city.”
Lisa Hadley: “Our León concert was a sincere pleasure with about 600 people in the audience, who were overly enthusiastic. Clapping about 30 seconds to a minute after each piece. Standing ovation at the end and we literally had to walk off the stage to unending clapping. What a thrill to be so well-received!”
Kate Meifert: “So wonderful to have so many people who understood the importance of and the love of music. I love how we communicated with the music in a way that we and the people of León understood each other without needing to speak the same language. Our common language is music.”
Peter Schilling: “The things I remember about the concert: the sharing of culture, and that we were able to bridge the language divide with music. We sang one piece in English, one in Spanish, but the conducting is universal. The fact that Anita didn’t speak Spanish and “Bob” didn’t speak English had no bearing on our interconnection. I honestly didn’t expect standing ovations before the end of our program, but the audience was so moved and so appreciative.”
Jeanne Lucas: “I really felt like we experienced the true spirit of León that night. We had seen the beautiful city, learned all about the history, seen the amazing Cathedral, seen so much beautiful art, but it was singing the Hymn of León with the León choir and seeing and feeling the energy, joy and pride of the people in the audience that really made us feel that we knew this place and these people.
Anita conducts Labyrinth Choir in León, Spain
Photo: Pilar Pino
Anita conducts Labyrinth Choir in a performance of her original composition, "Peace Sanctus."
Photo: Brian Meifert
The Supergroup! Labyrinth Choir and León's awesome choir Orfeón Leonés, in a performance of "Himno de León,"
conducted by Jaime Palomero.
Photo: Brian Meifert
Labyrinth Choir in front of the theatre and our electric billboard!