The King's Connection Magazine Volume 24 // Number 2 | Page 8
CAMPUS NEWS
CHOIRS
TOUR
EUROPE
By Dr. Melanie Turgeon, Assistant Professor of Music
O
n May 4, 2014, The King’s University Chamber Choir and
Kappella Kyrie Slavic Chamber Choir, both under the
direction of DR. MELANIE TURGEON, departed on a twoweek tour to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. King’s faculty
member DR. JOACHIM SEGGER travelled and performed
with the choir, and PRESIDENT MELANIE HUMPHREYS
also joined the group. The tour included four full concerts,
two shorter performances, including a concert at a Nursing
Home in Przemysl, Poland, plus singing The Divine Liturgy
of St. John Chrysostom at three different Greek Catholic
parishes in Poland and Slovakia.
The concerts were well attended and the program was
extremely well received. Parish communities would often
host the choirs for beautiful, bountiful receptions. The
program included two main categories: Ukrainian music
(almost exclusively sacred repertoire), and both sacred and
secular music by North American composers. The Ukrainian
repertoire included contemporary works as well as music
dating back to the 18th century. This assortment of
Ukrainian repertoire was balanced with a variety of
Canadian and American selections from the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries.
In addition to performing, the choir members enjoyed
sightseeing including a tour of Wieliczka Salt Mine, a visit to
Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, a three-night
stay in the glorious Krasiczyn Castle Hotel, and a brief visit
to Budapest, Hungary. The tour concluded with a farewell
dinner at an authentic Hungarian restaurant complete with
live ethnic entertainment. Many King’s students remained
in Europe, or traveled to meet their families at various
destinations, while others returned home with the group on
May 17, exhausted but fulfilled and inspired from a fabulous
time in Central Europe!
6 /// The King’s Connection /// Fall 2014