VYOA News & Updates

Today we woke up bright and early to a gorgeous day in Rochefort. There were bright blue skies and beaucoup de soleil (a lot of sun)! After eating a wonderful breakfast in the hotel, we all piled onto the buses to spend a day in Fouras.

At Saint-Sauveur in La Rochelle

After being in Paris for a couple days, I actually enjoyed getting out of the huge city. Don’t get me wrong – Paris is unbelievable and I didn’t really want to leave. But, a break from the taxi horns and bustling crowds is also refreshing. Spending time by the water in a less populated town made for a very quiet and relaxing arrival and we had great fun walking up and down the streets.

First we took a guided tour of the city and then we had free time to shop. Finally, we played our concert later that night. The guided tour was fun and I learned a lot about the old city. I think it’s funny that Paris is the first city that pops into everyone’s mind whenever someone mentions France. With perhaps fewer famous monuments, Fouras was just as old and as beautiful as Paris.

Sitting by the river in Rochefort

After shopping in the old village in Fouras, we went to the beach to relax and play in the sun before the concert. A little awkward at first… because there were a lot of topless women… But hey, C’est bien la France! There was a very low tide, so the beach was more like a mud pit. Everyone had so much fun squishing their feet in the mud, some going all the way up to their knees. I smiled as I watched the little French kids rolling around and making mud castles, their bodies caked in the gooey stuff. I can’t even describe how wonderful it felt to lie in the hot sand and sun. Especially after being on the bus for an entire day yesterday, a bit of sun bathing was well-deserved and much needed!

Dodging raindrops

Our concert was wonderful. We all played well and the audience seemed pleased with our performance. I have never performed in a concert so late –  9:00pm. It was exhausting, but still very fun. I cannot even believe that we only have one concert left before returning home. This trip has gone by so quickly. I’ve had so much fun and everything has been très magnifique!

I don’t ever want to go home.

Daphnée Vandal, violin    (Photos: Troy Peters & Caroline Whiddon)

At our first concert in Québec only about 50 people were in attendance. It was slightly disappointing at first, but this little audience was so into the music and so very vocal about telling us this; it was totally worth it to play for the reward: tons of enthusiastic clapping and vocal appreciation.

Loading busses after the concert at La Madeleine

The audience at our second concert in Paris was much larger – about 300 people. Our tour guide said that this was incredible for la Madeleine in the summer. Paris has so many concerts offered every night, sometimes attendance can be low. And, it is summer…full of holidays – July 14^th is Bastille Day – one of the most widely celebrated French holidays, much like our Independence Day.

This audience was softer in volume than the Québec audience. At first, I was worried that they were just being polite and didn’t enjoy our music very much. But, as I watched members of the audience, I realized that just the opposite was happening – they were really into our music!

Some people sat totally still with their eyes closed while others held their hands over their chests; all listening intently. Afterwards, audience members kept thanking us and telling us how much they loved and appreciated the concert. In fact, some told us that they thought we were a professional orchestra because of the caliber of our playing.

This concert was meaningful to me for two reasons. Two of our living composers (Troy Peters & Drake Mabry) were in the church with us today. AND, two of the composers whose works we performed on the program were actually organists at La Madeleine during the 1800’s (Camille Saint-Saëns from 1858-1877 and Gabriel Fauré from 1896-1905). Although I thoroughly enjoyed playing both the Bacchanal (Saint- Saëns) and the Pavane (Fauré), it was truly amazing to be playing these works at exact the same church were these men worked and played.

The whole time we were playing these songs, I imagined Monsieurs Saint-Saëns and Fauré sitting near the organ at the back of the church, listening in…. For the first time, I wondered if we were playing the pieces exactly the way these composers had intended for them to be played. I wondered if they heard their music performed in this very church 200 years ago and if they smiled, like I smiled as the last chord playfully bounced off the stone walls for several seconds before dying away.

Johanna Taylor, violin     (Photo: Troy Peters)

We just played our first concert in France!

Our venue, again, was amazing. Amazing, but really different from the last hall. The hall in Quebec City had clear acoustics where we could hear everything cleanly; here in Paris, we played in l’Eglise de la Madeleine, a very old and majestic church with a very echo-y sound.

Detail from The Last Judgement - by Lemaire - on facade of the church

There is an exhibit of modern art currently on display there. So, there were plenty of people milling     around while we unloaded the truck and tried to get the rented cellos and basses in tune. Once we started playing our rehearsal, people sat down to listen and clapped after each piece. There were also a lot of people taking pictures of us; one elderly man in particular came up right next to the podium with his camera, and then made Mr. Peters stop to get his picture taken when he went out to check the balance. The modern art was placed all around the inside and the outside of the church. Some people thought it was a little out of place at the old church, but the sculptures, outside especially, were cool.

Just being able to play in one of the big tourist attractions of Paris was an honor. The acoustics, though, were thrilling. We would stop at the end of a piece or at a grand pause, and the sound would continue, even though everyone had stopped playing, and bounce around within the expanse of space above us for almost thirty seconds. Melodies would soar above the accompaniment, echoing back a couple seconds later. The end of Drake Mabry’s Prelude and Tango sounded like a jet taking off! We would all smile at each other at each moment of silence or at a big change in dynamics, listening to the boom above.

Suzanne Calhoun, horn

Here’s looking at them….

(Photos: Troy Peters)