Saturday, June 21
The Madrigals rehearsed Jesus Christ the Apple
Tree to be performed at the morning's worship service.
While the Madrigals rehearsed with the Festival
choir and the orchestra, the non singers took a
walking tour of Bern.
One stop was the Bern clock tower. The tower houses
a large clock that was designed and created in 1530
by Kasper Bruner. The clock is wound by hand and
still keeps accurate time to this day.
Here is a view from the clock tower of the Munster
cathedral.
Here are pictures of the Bruner clock. This thing
is about the size of a small car. Kasper hand forged
all of the metal parts including each of the many
gears. It is powered by weights that hang from the
tower which must be wound by hand. Kasper even had
a device using a small weight to keep the clock
working for fifteen minutes while winding the weights.
This was the only clock he ever built.
At dinner, we were surprised to see Maja and Daniel
Muhl! The Muhls are the parents of Mirjam Muhl who
came over to Annapolis from Switzerland for three
months and sang in the Girl's Glee Club at AACS.
After dinner we boarded the coach to the Casino
concert hall for the gala concert!
In addition to the Madrigals, Sam (top left in the
picture below) also participated as part of the
festival chorus!
The Madrigals did a wonderful job as the semi chorus
and were even acknowledged by sir David Willcocks.
After the performance of the Dvorak Mass and the
Mozart Regina Coeli, there was a brief intermission.
The Madrigals were invited by the BBC producer to
come to Manchester England for a week to sing live
on a morning radio program that reaches 275,000
people each day!
At the end of the concert, Sir David left the stage
during the applause. As the applause continued,
he came back to the stage and took another bow.
Then he turned around and pointed to the Madrigals
and motioned for Cindy to come to the font of the
stage!
As Cindy approached, sir David gave her a hand shake.
As Cindy returned, the whole festival choir gave
sir David a standing ovation.
Flowers were given to Sir David, Paul Leddington
Wright, and Nielson & Young.
As Paul Leddington Wright was walking off the stage,
he threw his flowers to Cindy!
After the concert, Paul Leddington Wright and Sir
David Willcocks were presented gifts from the Madrigals.
Knowing Paul collects stuffed bears (or people just
keep giving him stuffed bears), Paul's gift from
the Madrigals was a 'Build a Bear' Teddy Bear which
was dressed in a white Navy uniform representing
Annapolis. If you're familiar with a 'Build a Bear',
you know that the bear is custom stuffed, comes
with a birth certificate, and can emit a personal
twelve second recording when its hand is squeezed.
At this point, the Madrigals sang the Barocha to
Paul after which he was asked to squeeze the Teddy
Bear's hand. After a little silence, Paul squeezed
the little guy's hand, we could all hear the Madrigals
singing twelve seconds of a faster Barocha! Those
twelve seconds were recorded in Annapolis before
we left!
A big fan of puzzles, Sir David was presented with
a puzzle of Annapolis.
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