The Monmouth Chorale recently returned from our spring break tour to New Orleans. Tour is an annual tradition for the chorale, wherein we leave for spring break, usually on some sort of road trip (every four years, we go international), to explore and sing in various locations along the way. This year, as mentioned, the trip was to New Orleans, but included stops in Nashville and Memphis, Tennessee, Huntsville, Alabama, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Chorale posing in front of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Photo by Tim Pahel
Chorale president Colin Kreipe had a hand in planning how the chorale would afford to go. To ensure the trip is as affordable as possible, fundraisers were necessary, and Kreipe explained how important that truly was, saying, “80% of planning the tour was the fundraising. No money? No tour.” The executive board did not have to worry only about the funds; Kreipe detailed how they helped conductor Dr. Tim Pahel in finding stops along the way that they thought would be fun and engaging for the group. They also collaborated on tour jobs for students (nurse, venue checker, and program manager are among some of them) to ensure everything ran smoothly and that students were a part of doing so. From there, it was a matter of getting on the road and always continuing to rehearse our music.
The first stop of the chorale was Nashville, Tennessee. This included a visit to the Gaylord Opryland Resort, a sprawling hotel lush with indoor gardens, food, and shops, as well as the famous Opry itself, just a ten-minute walk away. The hotel certainly lived up to the hype, providing a place to explore for a few hours before the road demanded we return and wind our way down to Huntsville, Alabama. Two stops were made along the way; one to a Buc-ee’s, (which was an absolute hit: keep an eye out for your friends in chorale, they may have a few new clothing articles and souvenirs with the cheery beaver on them) and one to see the U.S. Space and Rocket center, tucked away in Huntsville, and marvel at the very real shuttles that dot the landscape around the research centers.
Chorale made a stop in Huntsville to sing. After that, the next concert was in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Accompanied by Dr. Justin Swearinger, in charge of wind activities here on campus, we were able to go to these places thanks to his connections, as he completed his graduate and doctorate degrees at them, respectively. Hattiesburg was in tandem with the Southern Mississippi choir, a group consisting of undergrad and graduate students alike. They watched our concert, and we watched them as they gave a preview of the music, they will be taking to Europe this summer. Junior music education major Kent Huth describes the experience as “phenomenal.” He said, “They’re all so good and committed to the music, every piece shone with a brilliance that I loved sitting and listening to.”
Huth, along with the rest of us, got to speak with these students after the concert and form our own connections to them. In doing so, he questioned them on their rehearsal process and learned it was not terribly different from processes he recalled from high school. No doubt the experience of hearing this choir and speaking to its members motivated many of our own students in their music journeys, regardless of where it takes them going forwards. As a final word on the kind and welcoming people of the Southern Mississippi choir, Huth says, “This choir was top-notch and a very welcome peek into what a truly outstanding choir can sound like.”
Of course, the centerpiece of this southern escapade was New Orleans, Louisiana. We arrived there a few days into the trip. We did have a concert on our first night in the city, but much of the day had been free before that, and we would have the next day off as well. This provided the chance to explore New Orleans at our own paces, a preferred method, according to McKenna Rahn. “Personally, whenever I travel to a new place, I like to explore from the lens of someone who lives there,” she explained. “Being able to explore without a set itinerary allowed me to see New Orleans from this perspective.” The chorale appreciated all this free time because it let us prioritize what we wanted to see most in the city. On the personal end, I most enjoyed getting to float from one place to another, from a beignet breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, listening to exciting street music performed only an arm’s length away, to a beautiful stroll inside the historic St. Louis Cathedral, to the creepy (and grisly) delights of a New Orleans ghost tour. We enjoyed shops and cafes that the French Quarter has to offer, as well as educational stops like the New Orleans Jazz Museum and its many original instruments, including a trumpet played by Louis Armstrong, and the Audubon Zoo, full of sneaky, pale gators, silly flamingos, and curious giraffes.
As Rahn explained, “I find a trip more enjoyable if I can discover things by happenstance rather than having a very structured experience.” In this way, we all got to choose what parts of New Orleans mattered to us the most and make the trip a special one by doing so.
One of Chorale’s many performance stops inside a cathedral along the way. Photo by McKinley Rexroat
The spring break tour allows us to spend a lot of time performing music in a way we do not normally get to; usually, the songs are performed for a concert and then retired, but the tour allows us to do it for audiences even more. The connections between chorale members and the audiences who see them is one of the most beautiful parts, especially on a trip like this that lets us meet another choir and hear about their own adventures. Furthermore, now that we are a couple of days out, I do not think it is hyperbolic to say many members of the group fell in love with the city of New Orleans. A city of rich culture and history was the perfect stop for a group of students on the road to share music. On the subject, Kreipe said, “I’m so thankful to the chorale, the exec board, and Tim for making this a fantastic tour. Going to New Orleans was an experience that will stick with me forever, and even though I’m not there now, I can still feel the soul of the city with me.”