A World Class Concert!

Yes, I know I always say the same thing in every post I write, but what can I do, I chose the perfect profession since I was a child and life has put me in the perfect place to express myself and be happy through music... I say this because yesterday I had a great concert again, and it is rare that any of my experiences are not pleasant, in fact I have always thought that my group surpasses itself with every step we take.

Here in Caracas we have already two weeks working on a world congress that will open the doors of Venezuelan orchestral and choral music in the world. We have many special guests from every continent, so yesterday's concert was very important for us. We still have to sing on the weekend which will be the closing of the congress and the World Choir of El Sistema will perform, but yesterday it was only my beloved Simon Bolivar National Choir the group that had to perform in front of the public, so we dressed up and left our hearts on stage, initially with our choral repertoire and then we joined the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra and performed the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony.

I know I recently told you about my love for the musical arrangement of Rosas Pandan for choir, the Filipino piece we will be performing this weekend at the World Choir, but in the video you can appreciate another of my favorites. It is entitled O Salutaris Hostia by composer Vytautas Miškinis from Lithuania. The video was recorded by my fellow tenor Luis Chitty, I asked him for the favor because he has had bronchitis and I could not sing the choral part, although he did have the opportunity to go on stage at the Beethoven. I thank him for the photos and video, but as he was very close to the stage, you can not visually appreciate everything that was happening, but I'll explain 🤣 At this time the men make a sound block in the middle of the stage while the girls are distributed in a row on the back edge and mixed between sopranos and altos, because if you can listen you will notice that after the introduction of the music comes a part ad libitum where they simulate praying from distant places. No female voice coincides with another, it is a moment where each one makes her prayer at her own rhythm and with her personal melody. The men do the choral work in the center and the effect that is achieved is THE GLORY!!!! Sorry if it is not appreciated in the video, but at the end I will share another example on youtube of another choir, although it does not sound better 🤣 it is an excellent video.

The day was very long. You can't imagine how much effort it takes to sing sacred music as sublime as the O Salutaris Hostia in the video and then do Beethoven's 9na, in fact the concerts take many rehearsals beforehand, so I'm surprised that we arrive with so much voice at the moment of truth hahaha. The rehearsal the day before had already left me pretty tired, but the adrenaline and passion that inspires me the music I think also moves my colleagues, we are unstoppable when we concentrate and our hearts beat together when we sing. I confess that I enjoyed the first part more, already for the Beethoven out of nowhere I got a powerful headache, I think it's the first time I sing with migraine, I was already on stage when the orchestra music started and my headache at the same time, besides that my beautiful gala dress was cooking me little by little and it was not a little tight in my neck hahaha, there were many triggers for migraine after spending so many hours and so many days here, in fact there are migraines that I get just for emotion, in that beginning of the Beethoven I could only say: "Que Dios me Agarre Confesado" 🤣

O Salutaris Hostia - The NUSChoir version