Frost Chorale Makes Music in European Tour

Frost School of Music choir students return from a magical performance tour of England and France.
Frost Chorale Makes Music in European Tour

After arriving in Bury, England, 46 Frost Chorale students experienced what, without a doubt, was a once-in-a-lifetime performance European tour of England and France.

"Performance tours can be galvanizing for an ensemble, and our recent tour to France and England provided the Frost Chorale many opportunities to grow and thrive as a group," says Associate Professor Amanda Quist, director of choral activities at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She supervised the tour, which began on May 18 in St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury and concluded at the Notre Dame Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France.

The chorale visited various sacred spaces, performing with famed choirs and guest musicians. They also participated in master classes and workshops, and a special highlight occurred in London, where they attended a workshop on May 19 with the world-renowned vocal ensemble VOCES8. The two groups collaborated in a live-streamed concert, performing in one of the world’s most hallowed chorale spaces, King’s College Cambridge.

Frost Chorale also sang at Gabriel Fauré’s church La Madeleine, and London’s St. Bartholomew the Great, the oldest church in the city. "The ancient spaces in which we sang serve as a reminder of the importance of music and art in the world, and of our shared humanity," says Quist, who felt fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel with the choir and to have had the chance to make music with her students in some of the world's greatest acoustics. "These are memories we will cherish forever."

Zanaiah Niara Williams Billups agrees. "Going to London and Paris as a member of the Frost Chorale has been my first time out of the country and truly an eye-opening experience as a musician and as a human," she says. "I have learned more about myself, the deep roots of choral music, and created magical bonds with my friends in the choir."

This chorale European tour is another great example of what one can experience with a #FrostBuilt education.