It’s been a busy week and weekend. In addition to Spanish classes, and my work with Dima, my English student all week, and our rehearsal in Torrenta on Monday, we had three concerts this weekend.
It always amazes me.
Things can sound so rough in the last rehearsals before the concerts. Then, we get there and by the grace of God, everything comes together.
Our program lasted about an hour and was three pieces by Norwegian composer, Ola Gjelo:
* Days of Beauty (English)
* The Rose (English) and
* Sunrise Mass (Latin)
Thursday, we were on the campus of University Polytechnic of Valencia. It was a smaller concert, with about 200 people attending.
Last week, I confessed my fears about the high school orchestra that was accompanying us. Their choir members also joined us and did fine. But during rehearsals, I (and the others in our choir) had real fears about the strings. I have to give credit to Jose, our director. For the portion of the concert that was just orchestra with their director, they sounded like a high school orchestra. But Jose really brought out the best in them when he was leading with the choir.
Friday night was at a beautiful church not far from my house.
The Saturday concert was in the town of Alcoi, about an hour from Valencia. Alcoi is famous for its festival celebrating the defeat of the Moors by the Christians by King James I of Spain. We took a bus there and found a quaint town near the mountains with cobble stone streets and lots of charm.
As soon as we walked into the church, the smell of incense was thick. Clearly, this was a place that loved ritual and knew pomp and circumstance.
We practiced for an hour. After the incense, the second thing about the suave that surprised me, was the acoustics. We sang right under the dome and the sound just kept going. It was not a very large place. But the sound reverberated for nearly 4 seconds!
After rehearsal, we went to a dinner that was provided by the community. It was fun to have time to talk to the students from the high school that we worked with. With our mix of Spanish and English, I learned about their system of public music schools that helps prepare those who choose to do so to pursue conservatory and eventually, a career in music.
This concert was good. If I were to rank them, I would say that Friday night was the best, followed by Saturday and then Thursday’s concert.
By the time the bus got back to Valencia and the UPV campus, it was after 11:30. Most of the city buses had stopped running. So I walked home…about an hour. It’s was a mild, pleasant evening. And I said a prayer of thanks to live in a city that feels so safe so late at night.
Sunday, I met my friend Rafa and we went back to the BioPark (zoo) that we had visited a few weeks ago… and got rained out.
It was a beautiful day, sunny, highs in the mid 80s. I really love this zoo. It’s designed so thoughtfully and carefully to care for the animals and make them feel as much as possible as if they’re in their natural habitat.
We learned a lot about the animals, including the elephants,
The giraffes
And a little biology lesson from the Rhinos, too!
Afterwards, we went for authentic horchata at a place famous for its horchata, Daniel’s.
Horchata, originated in Valencia. It’s actually just sweetened “milk” of the “chufa” or tiger nut. It’s very different from the rice and cinnamon drink we know from Mexico.
Danieletes and fartons are pastries made to go with the horchata and originated at Daniel’s.
As I’m writing this, I just received a text. Apparently, we have another concert this Thursday to celebrate Europe Day! It never slows down!
Have a great week.
Adventures in Europe 
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