WI Choir Tour 2007

Six months ago David Johnston began auditioning musicians in order to make a choir worthy of entering the 1st Summa Cum Laude International Music Festival in Vienna. David Johnston is the founder and principal of Wesley Institute for Ministry and the Performing Arts in Sydney, Australia.
Soon there were forty-eight young people ready for rehearsals under Johnston’s direction. The choir assembled was a mix of vocalists, instrumentalists and drama students ready for the challenge of a European tour and international competition.
The upper room at Wesley Institute was soon filled with the haunting sounds of Bruckner’s “Locus Iste” and the roar of Rachmaninov’s “Ave Maria”. Rehearsals were intense. They had to be.  Johnston was shaping a group of young people, some of whom had never sung in a choir before, to take the stage in Vienna. Tutorials in Russian, German and Latin began. Conductors Neil McEwan and David Russell from Sydney Conservatorium were called in for workshops. After five months of hard work, Johnston had transformed a rag-tag bunch of musicians into a working, breathing instrument.
The tour was extensive and wonderful. The great cathedrals of Europe were soon audience to the voices of young Sydney musicians. But they were more than ready for the task. Encores and standing ovations became a regular occurrence for the almost bewildered choir. St. Mark’s Venice, St. Bartolemeo Pistoia. St. Maria Maggiore Rome- voices danced and spun in these ancient buildings with delays of nine seconds.
 There is nothing more magical than hearing these voices sing in buildings that are made for them to sing in.  We began to live the repertoire. We woke up at night singing the pieces. We woke up early in the morning singing the pieces. That meant we didn’t sleep a lot- we slept on the bus.
 After Rome, Florence, Venice, Salzburg and Munich the choir arrived at the Kavalier Hotel in Vienna for four nights of competition. It was a little bit overwhelming. Vienna is music’s home. The world looks to Vienna to watch it perform and now the choir from Sydney was preparing to make its mark there.
The opening ceremony was held at the prestigious Schloss Schonbrunn. It was a hall that Mozart himself had performed in. Choirs and orchestras from the world over filled the halls as they attended workshops and lectures over the next few days.
We certainly felt the pressure of the occasion. There was so much history and so many wonderful young musicians. Rehearsals began in the hotel and curfews were put in place to ensure we would get some sleep!  We sung tricky passages over breakfast and read over our scores late and night. We basically did everything we could.
The day of competition we dressed in our matching uniforms and made our way to the University of Vienna where we would compete. A panel of four judges greeted us as we quietly entered the room to perform. It was surreal. Two set pieces, three of our choice and it was over in the blink of an eye. We don’t know how we did yet, we barely even remember performing.
The next day David Johnston takes his choir to the Golden Hall at the Vienna Musikverein. We learnt that it was one of the top three music halls in the world. That was an honour to perform there.
The day was largely spent rehearsing for the gala concert that night with the two thousand tickets selling for up to seventy dollars. At the end of the rehearsals all the choirs and orchestras were called back in to the hall and asked to sit down. We sat in silence as the chairman of Viamusica took the stage and began to speak. This was in fact, the announcement of the winners. We had no time to prepare mentally. All we could do was listen breathlessly as Richard Schulz worked his way through the choirs and their awards.
Shanghai- fifth place.

Ukraine- fourth place.

Phoenix boys Choir- second place.
 That meant that there was a joint second. Who with?

Christ’s College Chapel Choir New Zealand- second place.

I think all of us at this point were wondering what was happening. There were five good choirs in the competition and four of them had been announced. There was only one choir left and one place left- first place. Richard Schulz then confirmed our disbelief-
 
“First place in the category of mixed choir with outstanding success- Wesley Institute.”

Up went the roar from Wesley as cheers filled the Golden Hall. We had just won first place at the 1st Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival in Vienna. That night we were asked to perform a new German piece that had never been recorded but the judges wanted performed by Wesley Institute!
It was an incredible night. Twelve world-class choirs and orchestras performed at the Golden Hall because they all liked to play and sing. The prizes had already been announced, so the night was spent enjoying it for what it was. Young people the world over were brought together playing world-class music and a world-class hall.
We congratulated each other, made friends from around the globe and proved to ourselves that anything is possible. David Johnston took a bunch of inexperienced choral musicians who were ready to work and brought them to Vienna to win the grand prize.
Tomorrow we drive to Prague and then to Budapest. I feel like we have some sort of international reputation to uphold. I’m sure we’ll be fine. David Johnston will keep us in shape, he got us this far.
 
By Jonny Robinson.