June 29, 2008
We had some time this morning, after breakfast, before the Festival began at 10:00 am, so I walked around the villaige. This house is right across the street from our hotel. See all the lovely flowers!
Murals on the buildings; just beautiful.
In the shop windows are the wood carvings. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the shops didn't open until after the Festival had started.
The Last Supper
The ever-present mountain (harder to see the cross in this one)
This little display of the three wise men was so adorable. I guess it's a good thing the shops were closed, or Imight have had to bring this one home with me as well.
The other side of the display.
More carvings than you could ever hope to see. Almost everything (except the small stuff) is hand made by the craftspeople in the village.
Another building's mural
And another.
At last! Here comes the band, to open the festival! I found out later that the choirs were supposed to walk in this parade, but only about half of our choir got the word. The rest of us got to watch :D
The band, in traditional German clothing, played for us for a bit outside.
Then they moved inside, as did we.
Here is the Mayor of Oberammergau, welcoming us to Oberammergau and the Passion for Music Festival.
The first choir was our 'Red' choir. (since all the choirs were good, I'm going to try to refrain from repeating that over and over)
This choir is also 'red', but they are from Hungary. They have won several awards singing together.
Then the "Blue" choir entertained us.
Another Red choir? Alas, no. This is a group from Innesbruk, Austria (not sure if I spelled that right). They did several yodeling songs, very fun.
This Jazz band is from South Africa. They really livened things up!
We performed after the South African group--alas, I have no pictures of us. However, I do have a clip from a person who's a friend of a choir member: the Purple Choir Not bad for only a couple days of rehearsal. Good luck finding me--I'm hiden by a folder, all I can see is my hair! :D
Murals on the buildings; just beautiful.
In the shop windows are the wood carvings. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the shops didn't open until after the Festival had started.
The Last Supper
The ever-present mountain (harder to see the cross in this one)
This little display of the three wise men was so adorable. I guess it's a good thing the shops were closed, or Imight have had to bring this one home with me as well.
The other side of the display.
More carvings than you could ever hope to see. Almost everything (except the small stuff) is hand made by the craftspeople in the village.
Another building's mural
And another.
At last! Here comes the band, to open the festival! I found out later that the choirs were supposed to walk in this parade, but only about half of our choir got the word. The rest of us got to watch :D
The band, in traditional German clothing, played for us for a bit outside.
Then they moved inside, as did we.
Here is the Mayor of Oberammergau, welcoming us to Oberammergau and the Passion for Music Festival.
The first choir was our 'Red' choir. (since all the choirs were good, I'm going to try to refrain from repeating that over and over)
This choir is also 'red', but they are from Hungary. They have won several awards singing together.
Then the "Blue" choir entertained us.
Another Red choir? Alas, no. This is a group from Innesbruk, Austria (not sure if I spelled that right). They did several yodeling songs, very fun.
This Jazz band is from South Africa. They really livened things up!
We performed after the South African group--alas, I have no pictures of us. However, I do have a clip from a person who's a friend of a choir member: the Purple Choir Not bad for only a couple days of rehearsal. Good luck finding me--I'm hiden by a folder, all I can see is my hair! :DAnother group from Innesbruk, same conductor, some of the same participants, and yes, there was more yodeling.
This men's chorus was from Oberammergau and a neighboring village. No yodeling this time, but still very good.
Last came the ProjectChoir, I think many of these people were from The Netherlands. They were singing excerpts from The Messiah, so they invited anyone who wanted to participate to join in. Thus you can see several people from previous choirs in the day participating. Their last piece was The Hallelujah Chorus, for which the conductor invited everyone who knew it to come on stage. I relented and went up for that.
I stayed for the rehearsal of "Ode to Joy", the piece we were going to sing for the Mayor at the reception that evening. It was a lot of fun singing with everyone all together.
After our rehearsal; more pictures.
The reception--and our dinner--was held here.
I wasn't the only one to buy a dirndl! Several women did; this is Becky's.
An international flavor to the affair (here the Jazz band is setting up to participate in the final song of the evening)
Pam--in her dirndl! If I'd thought, I would have gone to put one of mine on!
Socializing with the other groups.
Dinner time! Lots of new friends!
And a last shot outside the Ammergerhaus
June 29, 2008
This men's chorus was from Oberammergau and a neighboring village. No yodeling this time, but still very good.
Last came the ProjectChoir, I think many of these people were from The Netherlands. They were singing excerpts from The Messiah, so they invited anyone who wanted to participate to join in. Thus you can see several people from previous choirs in the day participating. Their last piece was The Hallelujah Chorus, for which the conductor invited everyone who knew it to come on stage. I relented and went up for that.
I stayed for the rehearsal of "Ode to Joy", the piece we were going to sing for the Mayor at the reception that evening. It was a lot of fun singing with everyone all together.
After our rehearsal; more pictures.
The reception--and our dinner--was held here.
I wasn't the only one to buy a dirndl! Several women did; this is Becky's.
An international flavor to the affair (here the Jazz band is setting up to participate in the final song of the evening)
Pam--in her dirndl! If I'd thought, I would have gone to put one of mine on!
Socializing with the other groups.
Dinner time! Lots of new friends!
And a last shot outside the Ammergerhaus
June 29, 2008I got up at 2:00 am, after staying up to 11:00 pm packing, and got ready to go. The busses were there before 3:00 am, we got loaded onto them and made our way to the Munich airport. Alas, our lovely time in Europe is over!
Dreaded plane, taking us away from this wonderful place!
Dreaded plane, taking us away from this wonderful place!I will have to return someday.
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