Homage to Catalonia: choir tour to Barcelona

19 September 2013

Hertford College Chapel Choir has just returned from its ‘summer’ tour to Barcelona. We were participants in the 34è Festival Internacional de Cant Coral Catalunya Centre held in Puig-reig. Our choir performed alongside choirs and vocal ensembles from France, Bulgaria, Senegal, Peru and Catalonia. The choir was masterfully rehearsed and directed by organ scholars Ed Whitehead (Music 2011) and Nick Graham (Music 2012). We received a warm welcome, were interviewed by local radio, and presented with a large, bubbling seafood paella.

The choir also had the privilege of singing to a packed church in the Abbey of Santa Maria de Montserrat, the famed mountain-top shrine of the Black Virgin.

Continuing the tradition of guerrilla singing, the choir crammed the lifts to the top of Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Família to sing out briefly across the Barcelona skyline. While in the city, we witnessed the celebrations of the National Day of Catalonia (11 September), which, fueled with talk of an independence referendum, culminated in the formation of 400 km human chain along the Catalan coastline.

The tour, marking the end of the 2012/13 programme for the choir, has prepared the way for an exciting new year ahead, with the introduction of choral awards and more international tours.