On May 30, the Brown University Chorus will fly to Argentina for its first-ever performances in Latin America. The chorus will spend two weeks there performing in the Argentine cities of Mendoza, Córdoba, Buenos Aires and Iguassu as well as two cities in Uruguay, performing with university and other local groups.
"We had more offers for concerts than we could fit into the tour," said Clara Schuhmacher '06, the tour manager. Such high demand is due in part to the "huge choral tradition in Latin America," she said.
Erin Lewis '06, president of the chorus, said she looks forward to the range of venues, which include performances at the prestigious Teatro Roma in Buenos Aires and the CompañÃa de Jesús cathedral in Córdoba's historic Manzana JesuÃtica district.
The trip's 40 participants include undergraduate and graduate students, alums, one professor and Frederick Jodry, director of the chorus and lecturer in the Department of Music. This "high turnout" represents around 70 percent of the full chorus, Schuhmacher said.
In determining the repertoire for the tour, the chorus made selections from many different genres: music by Argentine and Russian composers, songs with lyrics in Latin, folk songs from various countries and even the poetry of Federico GarcÃa Lorca put to music. The chorus performed some of the music in concerts last fall and is learning some of the pieces now for the first time.
"We've pulled from different countries and added in new songs," Lewis said. "We'll have enough so that we can vary the performances if we're performing twice in the same city."
Though the chorus generally takes tours to foreign countries every three years, chorus members decided to take the Latin American tour after just a two-year hiatus. Most recently, in 2004, the chorus spent two weeks touring Russia and Finland. Over the past 30 years, the chorus has traveled to Italy, Spain, Greece, Israel, Egypt, Japan, China, India and other countries.
"We definitely don't go to the typical tour countries," Schuhmacher said. "There's something about going to places off the beaten path, which has characterized past tours."
To begin the process of selecting a location for the trip, Jodry sent an e-mail to the singers over the summer seeking suggestions. Eventually, the chorus decided between Turkey and Argentina; the latter seemed "easier to pull off," according to Schuhmacher.
"A good number of people (in the chorus) speak Spanish to some degree," said Schuhmacher, "as opposed to when we went to Russia," where signs written in Cyrillic befuddled nearly all of the trip participants. This year, many group members are taking mini Spanish classes with attention given to learning how to avoid "cultural faux pas," Lewis said.
Due to the foreign locations chosen for the tours, singers "often can't communicate with the people with whom they're singing or for whom they're singing, but there is this other kind of connection," Schuhmacher said.
At a cost of almost $90,000, the trip to Argentina required many hours of fundraising to ensure that "everyone who wants to go can afford to go," Schuhmacher said. Contributions from trip participants accounted for 70 percent of the total figure, which includes lodging, most meals and some group excursions, she added.
"Some (singers) even take on commencement jobs to contribute as much as they can," Lewis said.
An alum phone-a-thon generated another $6,000 for the trip, donated mostly by former members of the chorus, including some who sang during the 1930s when the group was called the Glee Club. The chorus also used proceeds from previous concerts, each of which raises approximately $2,000, depending on the size and timing, according to Schuhmacher.
In most cities, the participants will stay in hotels, though they will carry on their tradition of home stays during their time in Córdoba.
Schuhmacher said the singers learn much about the place they are touring through their interactions with locals. "We try to set up as many home stays as possible, depending where we are and whom we sing with," she said.
For all trips, the chorus makes sure all its music is memorized and unaccompanied to facilitate impromptu performances, such as breaking into song while waiting in a train station.
During such moments, passers-by often approach them to ask "'Why are you here? Where do you come from?' They're really interested in who you are and where you will be having performances," Lewis said.
Some participants are reluctant to give up more than two weeks of their summer for the trip, though many say the tour seems to end as soon as it begins.
"At the end of the Russia tour, we couldn't believe it was over," especially since the seniors concluded their time with the chorus soon after arriving back in Providence, Lewis said. Going on tour allows the chorus to "become this unit both socially and musically. You start to learn that those things are connected in a way," she said.
