The second to last weekend in March was the ACSI Honor Choir and Strings Festival in Madrid, Spain. Evangelical Christian Academy (ECA) hosted the event, bringing in a college-level choral conductor to coach the choir. I coached the string quintet while playing viola.
3 students and 3 chaperones came from BFA. We left on Wednesday the 23rd. When we got to the airport in Madrid, my violinist realized he had left his passport on the plane! Fortunately he was able to get it back.
Someone from ECA picked us up, took our luggage to the school, and dropped us off with some students from ICSV (International Christian School of Vienna). We experienced a bit of Spanish culture by going Tapas hopping. “Tapas” means appetizers. We went to various Tapas bars and had little sandwiches and other things.
Sunshine could model for Coca-Cola advertisements!
One place specialized in seafood, so our guides ordered fried squid for all of us. It wasn’t so bad until I realized I could see the tentacles and eyes.
Mmmm.... fried squid!
Thursday and Friday were big rehearsal days. We practiced a lot!
ECA's violinist E.H. prepares to play
Adrianna marks in a bowing
Though we worked hard, we enjoyed our breaks!
Spanish soccer game that involved juggling, shooting on goal, and being "punished" if scored on too many times
More soccer
On Friday afternoon we played “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” for ECA’s chapel time. The choir also sang a couple songs.
It was a rough performance for us. We had some intonation issues. So Friday night and Saturday we buckled down and came up with some strategies to improve the quality of playing. It was a stretching experience for me as a teacher. I think I learned as much as the students did this weekend!
Saturday morning we did a tour of Madrid.
Bus to Madrid
The entire choir and strings group
The most famous statue in Madrid: a bear kissing a tree
Plaza Mayor
I think this was the Communications Building
Madrid's version of the Arc de Triomphe
There was a Pro-Life demonstration in the central part of Madrid (Puerta del Sol). Katie and I tried walking the wrong direction.
Si a la Vida - Yes to life
We weren’t sure exactly what the focus of the event was. There was something about abortion, funding for pregnant mothers, and the events in Libya. It was all tied together.
Saturday night we played at the town hall in Camarma (the suburb of Madrid where ECA is located).
The choir sings beautifully
Our Quintet
For this performance, we played Eine Kleine (much more in tune) and the first and third movements of Elgar’s String Serenade.
The program cover
Inside the program
Program directors
Sunday morning we had a worship service at the school. The speaker talked about being salt and light in our schools. Then each school had a student stand up in front of the group and share about the youth in their country and ask for specific prayer requests for the school and the country.
Many of those kids have a great heart for the youth around them. One student said he had been challenged, “Don’t just be a missionaries’ kid. Be a missionary kid.” Even as children, students can be a light in the world. Many of them reach out by offering opportunities for the youth to learn English. One of the recurrent themes was that in the youth of most European countries, a great sense of apathy reigns. Please pray for these MKs as many of them are the future missionaries to the cold hearts of Europeans.
After the sharing time, we broke up into groups to pray, then had our banquet.
Salad at the banquet
Katie smiles with her salad
Hunter, chaperone extraordinaire, prepares to dig in.
Our final performance was at the Tres Cantos church, home to a certain community choir. This choir hosted us, bringing food and drinks before our concert. They also gave Dr. Anderson and me a special gift: the score and recording of their 50th Anniversary Commemoration Mass, composed by their very own conductor!
Commemoration Mass score and CD
The performance itself went very well. We performed Eine Kleine and the entire Elgar String Serenade (the 2nd movement was the hardest but the students’ favorite). The acoustics in the church were lovely; it gave our little group of 5 a much more resonant sound.
Posing before the final concert
Ready to play
The 2011 ACSI Honor Choir and Strings
Funny picture
We were all fairly exhausted at this point in time. Back at the school, the kids said their goodbyes. It was amazing how quickly the students bonded. They have so much in common, despite their various backgrounds.
Early Monday morning, we said goodbye to the 2 girls from Kiev staying in our guest house.
Then we went to the school and said a few more goodbyes, dropped off our luggage, and took a train to the city. Our flight didn’t leave till the evening, so we had an entire morning and afternoon to roam the city.
Finally we went to the airport and sat at a table until it was time to go. We were sleep deprived and slap happy, ready to be home!
Crazy and sleep deprived chaperones!
Poker with a twist
