July 4: CICF Day 2

Being in Croatia and spending time with my host family has been such a remarkable and fun experience. Waking up every morning with a warm welcome from Jerko [Yer-ko], Manda, Ika, Mario, and Victoria has by far been the best part of the tour. Everyday is a new experience for me, from trying homemade štrukli, a fresh cheesy pastry dish, to touring the city of Zagreb, I can honestly say that everyday is a good day to be in Croatia. However, this particular day is different from any other day because today is the 2nd Croatia International Choir Festival.

Matthew helping the singers warm up their bodies.

Rehearsing Emlanjeni at the Academy of Music

The CIFC began last year and its mission is to inspire good will through music involving other choirs around the world. We began by meeting at the Zagreb Academy of Music, where we rehearsed seven songs in the morning, two of which were traditional Croatian and which we sang with all of the choirs performing in the concert that night.

After lunch at a restaurant of interesting salads with gorgonzola and eggs, we bumped into some members of one of the other choirs in Zagreb for the festival. They heard our rehearsal and wanted us to perform a song right there, so we performed a mini pop-up concert of the Three South African Folk Songs before returning to the Zvjezdice rehearsal space for the afternoon.

Rehearsal with the joint choirs

Jemima and Aaliyah thoroughly enjoying Ave Verum Corpus rehearsal.

Dressing room shenanigans with Siveny

The Zagreb Music Academy is one of the best music academies in Croatia and affiliated with the University of Zagreb. It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of and would definitely do it a million times over if I could. We sung with nine other choirs, ranging from age ten to senior citizens and including groups from from Canada, Australia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. We sang five pieces by ourselves, Be Like a Bird, Emlanjeni, Ka Waiata, O Meu Maracatu, and Quien Va Cantar. After those, we sang two pieces with all of the other choirs, Ave Verum Corpus, a traditional Latin song, and Tam Prek Drave Grimlavica, a Croatian song. We were very proud of ourselves for being the only choir to have memorized Ave Verum Corpus!

After our set

Overall we had a very good concert with many singers feeling they brought something new to the concert they never had before. Two of the conductors came up to us and said they thought we were the best of the groups! We are also very grateful that we didn’t have to start the day until eleven o’clock. We have had early mornings for the most part and were happy to take the opportunity to sleep in.

Best, Derrick and Finn

Singer of the Day: Cora; for a selfless and supportive friend to all the singers and staff to help us all overcome the challenges of the day.

Here's a little bonus clip of the singers breaking into a spontaneous and silly version of "Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down". They were having so much fun, I had to share it.