St. John's Boys' Choir In Czech Republic (live final concert)

Dobry den!
(Good day!)

My apologies for taking so long to send you another update. Things have been very busy for both the boys and the staff. The Festival has been in full swing and the final concert in Dvorak Hall is tonight. The boys continue to receive compliments from Festival staff and the other conductors – compliments about their performance, behaviour, camaraderie and openness to interacting with boys from other choirs. Here’s a little run-down of what we’ve done recently:

Thursday: In the morning the boys had their solo concert performance and received wonderful reviews, especially about Mi’kmaq Honour Song. They then spent the afternoon in Prague. Unfortunately the weather was uncooperative, but they made do. The security guards at St. Vitus Cathedral, in the middle of the Prague Castle allowed the boys to stay in the church during the huge rainstorm and the boys sang in the church, entertaining other tourists visiting the church at that time. They also visited the Astronomical Clock and Charles Bridge. The rain took away some of our shopping time, but we did end up going into a mall where many of the boys bought Czech soccer jerseys.

Friday: The first gala Festival Concert in Dvorak Hall. The boys performed impressively, and in fact one of our own boys (Charlie Slivnik) began the entire concert with a solo of Bob Chilcott’s “Dona Nobis Pacem”. It was an incredibly hectic day, but the boys did so well. They were rewarded at the end with a giant picnic, and although the 4th of July fireworks were cancelled due to weather, the boys played soccer at night and had a good time.

Saturday: This was a completely free day. We started the day playing the Estonians in soccer (sadly, we were humiliated, 7-3, but it was still fun). The afternoon consisted of swimming in the amazing AquaCenter and having a pizza dinner at the SportCafe.

Today is the final festival concert and you can listen to it LIVE on Czech Radio. The concert is at 5:00pm CEST (10:00am in Minnesota). Go to:
http://www.rozhlas.cz/zive/#vltava

MISSED IT LIVE...  download the entire 2 hour program (MP3 - 160 mb file )

Download StJohnsBoysChoirCzech.mp3

As we are heading into the mountains tomorrow, we will likely not get another chance to send you an update, so I hope you get a chance to listen to the concert and we look forward to seeing you all back in Minnesota VERY early on Thursday morning!

Na shledanou!
(Goodbye!)

_________________
André Heywood
Artistic Director, The St. John's Boys' Choir