June 15: Tours – Eastern Europe 2008, Prague

Jon Curtis Season of the Day, SOTD - June

Moving just 300 miles north and four years back in time, we go from Zagreb, Croatia to Prague, Czechia (or as it was called when we were there, the Czech Republic).  2008 was the first tour by the newly formed Allan Petker Chorale.  This chorale is formed every three years from members of all the choirs that Allan is directing, for the purpose of touring overseas.

Quiz of the Day
Can you name the four principal cities and the five concert venues on the APC tour of Eastern Europe?  Each day of this series will show a video of one of the concerts.
(Answer below)

You can also find the answer in the tour’s original brochure.

We assisted with Mass followed by a concert at the Church of St. Ignatius in Prague.  The best collection of high resolution photos of this church can be found on google maps.  The highlighted image at this link is taken from the nose-bleed balcony where we sang into a very acoustically live sanctuary.

Many years ago our video equipment wasn’t the same quality as our modern smart phones, but we are very grateful to Bill Calendar for sharing the videos we will be viewing in this series.  Today’s video is of us singing a composition by William Billings, “Hail, Sacred Music, Hail” and then posing for our tour photo on the front steps.  Unfortunately, the photo does not include our non-singer “groupies” that have always played a vital role in our tours.

William Billings is considered the United State’s first important composer (1746-1800). This edition was edited and arranged by Leonard Van Camp commemorating the 250th anniversary of Billings’ birth. “Billings was a largely self-taught amateur who made a living as a tanner of leather, as well as serving as a hog reeve, scavenger and inspector of trade. His tune “Chester” became the rallying cry of the rebel troops in the Revolutionary War.”


Answer: The tour traveled to, and sang in, the capital cities Prague Czechia, Vienna Austria, Bratislava Slovakia, and Budapest Hungary. We had a second concert in Czechia at the monastery of St. John Beneath the Cliff. The concert in Slovakia was in a small town east of Bratislava called Trnava.