What a joyful time for singing!
Jack Kerouac once said, “The only truth is music.” Music has the power to bring people together and singing in a choir intensifies that sensation tenfold. From each crescendo and fermata, the members of a choir grow closer and closer in song–exposing the true healing power of music.
For four years you sing and lead and lead and sing with a high school choir and then you graduate… does the bond dissipate like the setting sun? No, you carry that bond with you throughout your life.
So, as a veteran choir teacher, why not capitalize on the choir’s sense of belonging and friendship? Form an alumni choir group and travel the world with mature voices and responsible identities!
A performance tour is the perfect way to travel and create memories in the UK and cities in Ireland, England and Scotland.
What is an alumni choir?
An alumni choir brings together former members of a choral program to create a new ensemble. In fact, these choirs can combine generations of programs and join music communities together with grace.
Why form–and tour with–an alum choir?
These choirs offer many advantages–mature voices, mature souls–but beyond that imagine touring Europe with a rambunctious brood of teenagers. Your tour bus stops in front of Trevi Fountain and fifty adolescents flood the already crowded tourist hot spot. Instantly, they scatter, and you are left wondering if you’ll ever see your rebellious star tenor again or if he would run away with a busty Italian speaking broken English.
Now, imagine your bus pulls up in front of Trevi Fountain and thirty-year-old businessmen and forty-something-year-old lawyers pile from the bus onto the cobblestone gravel. They have fanny packs and mom jeans, and they smile and form an awkward group picture with a selfie stick.
It just works–no buddy system and no child-to-chaperone ratio.
How do I form this kind of choir?
There are many ways to create these choirs but here are a couple of suggestions:
Newsletters
If you work in a large music program, you might have a music program that puts out a monthly newsletter. Include a cute graphic and announce practices that way! It’ll be an easy way to reach alum from all walks of life.
Social Media
A thriving social media is a perfect place to announce your new choir! Choral programs across the nation are investing in their future–not only for marketing but also for community–and joining social media. So, post your brilliant plan on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to share it with your band of followers.
It’s such an ordeal. How can I coordinate it all?
It’s an unavoidable truth that this kind of choir trip would be difficult to organize, but the outcome is beyond worth it. Nonetheless, you still have to figure out to juggle your normal class load plus thischoir.
Here is the catch–adults aren’t high school students, and the adults enrolling in your new choir will careabout the choir. They will have an attachment to the music, the people, and you.
What does that mean for you? You can expect a certain level of responsibility.
So, pick your music. Do you have any emotional attachment songs? Does your choir sing “Seasons of Love” from Rent at the beginning of every concert? Does your choir sing “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” at the end of every concert?
Pick those emotional response songs to start. Then, make a lineup. Send out soundtracks. Ask your former students to learn them.
Beyond that, you can ask these adults to form a committee–maybe the former choir president or choir chair could take the helm. Then, those men and women can help organize the logistics of the trip. Who knows? You might have fantastic organizers in your midst! Use them!
Nonetheless, if the task of organizing the choir and the tour still seems too daunting, consider a professional touch. Peak Performance Tours can make your choral tour a breeze. The company designs and manages the needs of not only bands but also bands and dance troops design the perfect European concert performance tour for their needs.
According to their website, the company Peak Performance can arrange tours in North America, Europe, and Pacific Asia from St. Peter’s Basilica to the churches of Rome and Venice. UK travelers can use cities in Ireland, England and Scotland. They collaborate with communities, educational facilities, and prestigious locations–both educational and sacred.
So, let Peak Performance Tours create a proposed itinerary for your trip to Italy. This no-obligation proposal might be the start of a new journey–full of music but also friendship and love.