May 27: Tours – Introduction, 2008

Beginning in 2008 Consort members began a series of international tours with the “Allan Petker Chorale”. This chorale was brought together every three years from the choruses that Allan directed. It has toured in Eastern Europe, Dalmatian Coast, the Baltics, and Argentina. In addition to these tours, two others have been planned. A South Africa tour in 2020 did not have enough registration, so a tour of Scotland was created to replace it. However, due to the pandemic, this tour has now been postponed to 2021.

Quiz of the Day
Can you list the choruses that have participated in the Allan Petker Chorale?
(Answer below)

Pocket Songs For the 2nd tour Allan began asking us to prepare “Pocket Songs”. These were 1 or 2 songs that we would either memorize or have a small copy that we kept with us at all times. What we had discovered is that sometimes opportunities would arise to do impromptu singing in places like churches, caves, or other buildings and places. One song has been a favorite pocket song for all of the tours since. It is “Hear My Prayer” by Moses Hogan. For the next few days we will hear and see renditions of this song as an introduction to each tour.

Our first tour was to Eastern Europe in 2008. We visited the 4 capital cities and did 5 concerts in Czechia, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Since we had not yet started the pocket songs, today’s audio recording is from Consort’s first performance of “Hear My Prayer” from our Opus 17 concert in 2010.

Moses Hogan, Hear My Prayer from Opus 17, 2010

Today’s answer: For most of the tours the participating choruses have been Consort Chorale, Santa Clarita Master Chorale, and Los Cancioneros Master Chorale. Another source you may not have remembered, has been the First Presbyterian Church of San Pedro’s choir, which Allan directed until recently.