BYU Singers First-ever Tour to Ireland and Wales

The Brigham Young University Singers are touring Ireland and Wales for the first time this spring. The choir will be participating in an international choral festival held annually in Cork, Ireland, and will be returning to England during the tour as well.

The Brigham Young University Singers are touring Ireland and Wales for the first time this spring. The choir will be participating in an international choral festival held annually in Cork, Ireland, and will be returning to England during the tour as well.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” said choir conductor Ronald Staheli.

Staheli said the choir was invited to participate in the festival two years ago, but had already made plans to tour in South Africa that year. The BYU Singers asked to defer their invitation until 2009, Staheli said, so they could participate in the festival.

The choir will be starting the tour at the Cork International Choral Festival, where they will be spending five days. “It’s so nice to start a tour that way,” Staheli said. Usually touring groups are moving and performing constantly, and by having five days in one city at the festival, “you have a chance to get your feet underneath you before you have to start travelling and performing every day,” he said.

The elite choir has been preparing for this tour all year. Staheli said it is important to have a repertoire for any audience, and the choir has prepared at least three different concerts’ worth of music.

“At the festival we’ll want to be singing classical choral music,” he said. “But there are other audiences where the idea is more an evening of beautiful music and an entertainment value involved.”

During the tour Staheli said the choir will have the chance to sing in many different churches and have the chance to give firesides as well.

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Brent Rogers, who has participated in BYU Singers for five years, said he is also looking forward to this year’s tour. “It’s so cool to make such great music with such good people,” Rogers said.

Both Staheli and Rogers said one of their favorite pieces is “Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine” by Eric Whitacre.

“It’s really fun just because it’s an exciting piece musically,” Rogers said. “But it’s also a piece that speaks to the human experience.” The piece tells the story of Leonardo Da Vinci dreaming about flying and building a machine to accomplish the dream.

Rogers said all of the music the choir performs is excellent. “I don’t think we’re singing any music I don’t like,” he said.

While the choir doesn’t actively proselyte on tour, Rogers said that he hopes the spirit of the music will help open doors to people in Great Britain.

“We try to make a spiritual connection in every piece of music that we sing, no matter what it is,” Rogers said.

The Singers will have a Bon Voyage concert on Saturday, April 25 at 7:30 at BYU. The concert is free and will showcase some of the music the choir will be performing on tour.

Click here to see UK tour dates and venues.