Last week, Sound Choir was in Basel, Switzerland and so was I. How did we get there? Well, it all started last year in Macedonia at the Ohrid International Choir Festival where we have met with the Maennerstimmen Basel men choir. I knew from the moment I saw in their program Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre that this was going to lead somewhere. And it did.

The guys were very friendly and we had some nice time together and we kept in touch over the year. So that in fact we decided to have a concert together and we’ve been invited to sing in their home town this year.

From the few words above one can draw a simple conclusion: I am a very lucky man! Switzerland is awesome and these guys are great singers. They have powerful voices and you can sense immediately the level of music education they have. Some of them are singing since the age of 10, some practice music as a profession, others are just like us in Sound Choir, very passionate about choral music. One of the other things they have is that they are very united. It’s like a brotherhood and that creates a great bond between the members of the choir. They do not gather only at rehearsals but also they party together and hang along together. To make an idea of how this choir sounds like I’ve recorded their version of Lux Aurumque during our concert in Basel.

The concert was held in St. Anthony’s church and is the first church that was built integrally out of concrete. That may not sound very charming but if you take a better look at the place you start seeing the whole thing with different eyes. At a later hour it reminded me of the “Mines of Moria” from Lord of the Rings. Endless repeated structures creating distant echoes.

I’ve made a short movie capturing our trip to Basel. You’d might notice some images that do not relate with Switzerland but that’s only because we’ve made a stop in Stuttgart, Germany before we’ve reached Basel.

Before I end this post I wanted to say that from all the choir tours and competitions I’ve participated with Sound Choir this was by far the best organized. I mean, the guys from Maennerstimmen really put some work in this invitation and they have given us one of the best city tours we’ve ever had. Thank you, guys!

It is now time to invite them to our home town and show them the same appreciation. Hopefully that will happen next year…