The Marshall University Chamber Choir will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 7, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 3000 Washington Blvd. in Huntington, following the choir’s return from France, where members performed at several iconic locations.
Last month, the choir traveled to France and performed at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, built in the 13th Century; Eglise Saint Eustache in Paris, where they sang at a Sunday evening religious service; Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l’Assomption de Rouen, which is featured in more than two dozen paintings by Claude Monet; and Cathédrale Sainte Croix de Paris des Arméniens, where they sang in a joint concert with a Paris choir.
Dr. David Castleberry, the choir’s director and associate dean of the College of Arts and Media, and Adam Vidovic of the Paris Conservatory planned the concert in which each group performed and the two choirs sang several selections together.
The members of the Marshall choir performed music ranging from Renaissance masterpieces to newly composed works, along with some lighter selections. They also sang Negro spirituals, “always favorites among European audiences because they are among the most authentic works of American music,” Castleberry said.
In addition to concerts, the choir toured the Louvre Museum, visited the famous Latin Quarter, took a boat ride on the river Seine, and made a tour of the Palace of Versailles.
“We are so very grateful for the support of Interim Dean Wendell Dobbs, Dean Maria Gindhart, the Marshall University Foundation, and generous support by the Maier Foundation, all of whom have been essential to the effort to make this tour possible,” Castleberry said. “To experience music in these historic places, to make real what for most of our students have only been pictures and stories on the web, and to have genuine human interaction across the barriers of language and distance – these are experiences that will never be forgotten.”
This is the choir’s first trip in several years, as the 2020 European tour was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the choir was just 10 days away from making a trip to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic when COVID put a halt to all travel.
“It was difficult for the students, after a year of planning, rehearsing, and preparing. But they handled the disappointment bravely. We just had to rebuild and keep going,” Castleberry said.
In 2012, the Marshall University Chamber Choir travelled to France for a 10-day concert tour, performing in Paris’s Cathedral of Notre Dame, visiting prehistoric cave paintings in the Dordogne, and traveling down to the southern coast for a final concert performance in Nice.
To call this kind of trip “life-changing falls short of expressing just how powerful this experience was for our students,” Castleberry said. “Our students returned as citizens of the world. They had the most wonderful interactions with people of a different culture who embraced them with open arms.”
The college committed to undertake similar tours on a four-year rotation, so that students in the choir would have at least one such experience during their time at Marshall. Then Dean Don Van Horn had gathered a group of donors and initiated a project called Global Horizons to raise funds to subsidize a portion of the cost and make it possible for all the singers to make the trip, as well as helping students in other programs travel. The singers performed throughout Spain in 2016.
“I still receive messages from students who were part of those tours, remembering just how special the experiences were,” Castleberry recalls.
This year’s students were no different.
“I cannot find the words to describe how grateful I am to have had this opportunity,” said Kate Dillon, a senior elementary education major. “I come from a small town in northern Appalachia with a population of less than 500. My mother is a teacher and my father is a coal miner. I likely never would’ve had the chance to sing/travel abroad without this opportunity. It has sparked such a thirst for travel that I know I must find a way to continue to travel and interact with my fellow global citizens.”
And the performance opportunities were wonderful as well, students said. “The sound of the choir singing in such amazing cathedrals is an experience that cannot be replicated in any other setting,” said Baylee Parsons, a junior English major.
The April 7 concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church is free and open to all.