Brazil Day 11 - Photoshoot

Today we had a relaxed time for breakfast, as we only met for group photos at 10 AM. We wore our travel T-shirts from this year and gathered at the beautiful beach that borders our hotel. Many took the opportunity to snap some pictures against this stunning backdrop. Afterwards, we met at 11 AM for a group rehearsal to go over the program for our concert. Then we gathered in our voice groups to focus on tuning specific notes and rehearsing certain sections. We had the afternoon free, and most of us jumped back into the pool or the sea.

At 3:30 PM, we set off to João Pessoa to the concert hall of the Universidade Federal Da Paraíba, where we met the Coro de câmara de Campina Grande, a student choir. The conductor of this choir is Vladimir Silva, who has been a great support in our trip planning beforehand. Together we rehearsed “Baba Yetu” and “Dark Night of The Soul,” a 15-minute piece by Ola Gjeilo featuring a string quartet. The cellist from the quartet then rehearsed our next piece “The Cloths of Heaven” with us. Afterwards, we sang a few more pieces and prepared for the performance.

At 8 PM, the student choir opened the concert with three lively Brazilian pieces, where we were especially impressed by their blind pianist. We sang a diverse one-hour program with songs such as “Echo,” “Kein schöner Land,” and as an encore, our revived “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Together, we then presented the previously rehearsed pieces, which received great applause from the audience.

After the concert, we wanted to have dinner together at a restaurant, but unfortunately, it had already closed. So it was Plan B: McDonald's! There we briefly caused a little overcrowding, but quickly everyone found something to eat (Thomas's first McDonald's visit in his life:))

Late at night, we returned to the hotel, where everyone fell exhausted into their beds.