Joint Concert and Hosting Experience with Carmina from the Czech Republic!

Guest Writer: Nina Goodman, Premier Choir

With this being my second year in BCC, I am still surprised by all the great things that we are able to do. When my mother and I arrived at the airport to pick up the six Czech choristers from the Czech choir, I had assumed that it would be like when the choir from Chicago had stayed with my family the past year. But, to my astonishment, it was an entirely different cultural experience. While at the airport every one was trying to imagine what the visiting singers would be like… would they be as excited about meeting us as we were to meet them? The answer to that was yes.

With rehearsals every day and all sorts of other tourist-y experiences planned for the Czechs, they got just enough sleep to get through to the next activity. We managed to have a great deal of fun and perform wonderfully under the hectic circumstances. It seemed that the best time that we were able to have together was at the potluck dinner the Mia Ferguson and Sherylynn Sealy (Premier Choir Vice President and President) put together. With music, food and a small craft to break the ice, we all got along great. As we made traditional paper hand turkeys, Sherylynn shared some information about thanksgiving and although the language was somewhat difficult, we got to share an aspect of our culture with the visitors.

During the second to last night of the Czechs visit, they showered us with gifts from their homeland, which included embroidery, chocolates, chocolates, and more chocolates. We gave them Boston red sox jackets so that they could say that they were official Bostonians.

The next night was the concert that was filled with all sorts of fun suprises. Carmina wowed us with their expressiveness and enthusiasm on stage, however the highlight was when the whipped off their regular performance outfits and performed some classic Czech folk songs in traditional Czech clothing. The song that I believe we had the most compliments on was “Freedom Trilogy”. All in all I think that it was a great concert and a fabulous experience through out the whole thing.