Page 33 - Priorities #68-Summer 2017

June 10
On to Barcelona! Our first stop in Barcelona was a tour of the Palau de la Musica Catalana–a Modernist concert hall built in the early 1900’s specif- ically for Barcelona’s premier professional choir, Orfeo Catala. After the tour, and checking into the hotel, students had some time to explore Bar- celona, and the option to attend mass at the Barcelona Cathedral, and get a sense of the Gothic Quarter of the old city.
June 11
A bit of time to sleep in, a late breakfast–then we were at it again. Our day started with a bus tour of the city, on our way to see the Basilica de la Sa- grada Familia–the massive church by Gaudi, set to be finished in 2026. We saw several other Gaudi and modernist architecture sites, then we were dropped off for the duration of our morning. Our walking tour consisted of the Gothic Quarter, and several sights of the Old City of Barcelona. After lunch, we grabbed our concert things, then traveled to the Iglesia de Santa Anna de Barcelona, where we rehearsed and performed our final formal concert of the tour. The medieval basilica, beautiful acoustic, and dramatic lighting helped the students give their finest performance to a very appre- ciative audience. All of the donations collected from the large audience at the concert went to help support the church’s mission to feed, clothe, and provide services for the homeless of Barcelona.
After the incredible performance, we went to dinner at a restaurant lo- cated on the top floor of a shopping center housed in a historic bull-fighting arena, where we could watch the “Magic Fountain” show in front of the National Art Museum of Catalonia.
June 12
Last full day of the tour! We took our bus up the narrow and winding road to Santa Maria de Montserrat, just outside of Barcelona, 4,000 feet above the valley floor. We were the special guests of Fr. Sergi, who arranged for Tanner, a teacher at the Escolonia to give us a tour of the dorms, classrooms, and rehearsal spaces of the fifty 7 to 14 year old boys who attend school there, specifically to sing and play music. Montserrat hosts one of the oldest and longest-running boys’ choirs in Europe, and we had the fortune to hear their youngest group perform at the noon service in the basilica. Prior to the service, we were preparing to sing our “informal performance”–which we were told would be short (15 minutes) and would probably consist of a few tourists wandering around the church while we sang. What we faced was a different story–the entire basilica was packed with over 600 people from all over the world, visiting Montserrat as part of a large conference. The students stepped up, adjusted to the changes, and without rehearsal (or a warm up!) gave an outstanding performance that represented the best of Priory, and the US. I could not have been more proud of them!
Back in Barcelona, we had a lovely farewell dinner at the Marina, gave some toasts, and went back to the hotel to pack our bags.
June 13
We said a fond goodbye to Pilar and Oscar, our driver, and boarded our plane for Munich, then SFO–after nearly 20 hours of travel, students greeted their parents, and headed off to enjoy their summer!
In the Iglesia de Santa Anna de Barcelona.
Atop the bullfighting arena/shopping center- Barcelona.
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Final formal performance of the tour, Barcelona.
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