Nine North Country vocalists will tour Europe in July

Jun. 17—PLATTSBURGH — Nine North Country vocalists will sing their way across Europe on an American Music Abroad, "The Voices Tour," from July 5-24.

It is a performance tour program of Europe for high school and college-age band, choir, and orchestra musicians.

"Back in 2019 is when I first started talking with this company," William Verity, choir conductor and Plattsburgh High School music teacher and director of the Select Vocal Ensemble, said.

"They reached out to me to ask me if I was interested in joining the team bringing students from the Northeast. They are basically based out of Pennsylvania/New Jersey, but they wanted to expand outward to include more students from upstate New York and asked if I was interested in conducting and being part of their team to go over to Europe."

The trip was set for July of 2020.

"But of course, everything shut down in February," he said.

"They canceled our trip. Then, the trips in 2021 and 2022 didn't happen at all. As they were finally kind of preparing themselves to get into the position to launch all the trips out in 2023. They did. They have a whole bunch of trips that are going in the summer of 2023. Lots of people are joining back in to go tour."

The vocalists attend Plattsburgh High School, Saranac High School, and Peru High School.

Time travel

"We also have a college student, an alum from Plattsburgh High School that is joining us as well," he said.

"She was supposed to be on the original 2020 trip. But of course, she graduated and she's come back to part of the 2023 tour."

The vocalists are: Charlotte Nystoriak — Saranac, Zoe Rainville — Saranac, Evelyn Verity — Peru, Alexander (AJ) Dion — Plattsburgh, Bea Thurber — Plattsburgh, Kara Kretser — Plattsburgh, Megan Trombley — Plattsburgh, Shelby Midgett — Plattsburgh, and Leah Lacey — PHS alum and current SUNY New Paltz student.

Twenty-five songs were chosen by Verity and other choral conductors that are on the tour.

"We have things that would be appropriate for a cathedral setting," he said.

"We're going to be performing in Austria. I think we perform in a cathedral in Salzburg, Austria. We have many of those performances that are very formal. There's sacred music.

"But, then we also have other performances that are in festivals in the villages and towns that we will be touring. We have to have secular music for that. We have to have fun American music, whether it's spirituals or Broadway musicals. We have to have songs that are appropriate for a festival setting but also music that is appropriate for a cathedral setting."

American classics

Tour highlights include Bruges, Belgium, the Alsatian region for France, the Romantic Road in Germany, Tyrolean region of Austria, The Alps and Hintertux Glacier, and Engelberg, Switzerland.

The vocalists will rehearse regularly until their departure on July 5.

"As you can probably guess, 25 songs is a lot of music to learn all the parts for," he said.

The repertoire includes "Adoramus Te," "All My Trials," "Amazing Grace," "Bring Me Little Water, Silvy," "Build Me Up Buttercup," "Can't Buy Me Love," "Changes," "Chapel of Love," "Duke of Earl," "Earth Song," "From No On," "Hear My Prayer," "Hold Me, Rock Me," "Homeward Bound," "I Believe," "In Flanders Field," "I Sing Because I'm Happy," "Lullaby of Broadway," "Praise, Praise, Praise the Lord!," "River in Judea," "Soon Ah Will Be Done," "The Storm is Passing Over," "There Is Nothing Like A Dame," "Total Praise," and "Tres Cantos Nativos."

"So, we just continue to kind of chip away getting them ready so that by the time we board the bus and arrive down to New Jersey and meet the rest of our singers, the rest of the people that are in our ensemble, we'll be prepared and know all of parts and be ready to contribute," Verity said.

There chorus is 80 in total including the nine vocalists from the North Country.

"There's a whole bunch from, again, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, that will be joining," he said.

"Part of the highlights are not only are we performing in those cathedrals or town square festivals, we will be taking in the local entertainment. There are dinner dances that we to watch and take in as well."

Range of experiences

The vocalists will take a dinner river cruise on the Rhine River and a cable car trip up a glacier in Austria.

"One of the more somber moments, we are going to Dachau Concentration Camp," he said.

"We will be performing a song called, 'In Flanders Field,' and we will be performing at the actual Flanders Field Memorial after we land in Brussels. So, we will be traveling to the actual Flanders Field and performing that song there. Rumor has it that we'll be joined by another high school chorus from Brussels."

The vocalists will tour a beautiful 12th century castle in Ghent and a tour of the Bruges Chocolate Factory.

"There's a whole bunch of historic, but yet a lot of fun, entertaining things to do as well. We fly out of Zurich on the 24th of July," he said.

What to bring

The students' checklist included:

—Getting prescribed uniform

—Pack enough clothing for a whole month

—Get themselves acquainted with the itinerary

—Get themselves acquainted with the music

—Prepare themselves to have some fun.

"Get back to making music and being able to travel again now that we're kind of finding ourselves in a better spot than we were for travel and music in 2020," Verity said.

Family affair

His wife, Sandy, an Oak Street elementary school music teacher, will be chaperoning the students as well.

"She's been working hard to make sure communication to parents is clear and all of our expectations and their attire is all of what it's supposed to look like. So when we get there, hopefully, we should all match up with what everybody else is wearing."

Their daughter, Evelyn, a Peru High School vocalist, will also be on the tour.

"This is one of the very first times that she's going to be actually with us in Europe," he said.

"So, she'll be singing, and I will be conducting her. So that's never happened before. This is the first time to my knowledge that we've ever able to be part of this tour from the North Country and be able, again, to celebrate music and be able to go out and tour once again making music in other countries.

"This is the first time to my knowledge we've been able to do something like this."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell