KC Tour Day 5

Our last day in Kansas City.  Before we left the hotel the boys sang the blessing to Sharon, a woman who joyously took care of them every morning at breakfast.  So happy and helpful, she added a lift to each boy everyday as they prepared to embark on the daily adventure.  We departed for Visitation Catholic Church where the boys sang two masses and a concert.

We were fortunate to be inside because outside it was 90 degrees with 76% humidity. The congregation loved the boys during the two masses they sang and many showed up for the concert at 2 PM.

Videos were posted on Facebook from the songs the boys sang at Kauffman Stadium, Union Station and the WWI museum.  There were a total of 2,400 hits on the Facebook page for Kauffman, 1,800 from Union Station, and 1,400 hits from the WWI museum.  This resulted in numerous people showing up at the last concert in Kansas City at Visitation Catholic Church.  People came up to the boys and chaperones telling them “we saw you at [Union Station, Museums, and Kauffman] received the tour program and had to come”.  These guys are rock stars.

The concert was very emotional.  One of the seniors said “this is the last time I’ll wear this tie in concert”.  There has never been so many boys from Cantabile crying after a concert.  Chaperones couldn’t keep it together.  The joy and love felt was something one can only experience in the moment.  The hugs after the concert will be anchored in memory forever.

After the concert we went to Worlds of Fun, an amusement park with a variety of thrilling opportunities.  A great way to end the stay in Kansas City.  Good food, thrilling rides, challenging our fears and sharing the experience.  Tomorrow we head home.

It is a privilege to spend time with these boys, Mark, Todd, Anna and the chaperones.  Thanks to parents for sharing your boys with us.  We’ll see you at Concordia for the Welcome Home Concert.  Next stop Spain.

KC Tour Day 4

We were on the buses at 8:30 and after our requisite Starbucks stop for chaperones we arrived at the sculpture gardens outside the Nelson-Atkins Art Museum.  The weather was tropical.  We walked slowly, preferably through the shade around the sculptures until the museum opened.

The boys did a quick warm up (like the heat wasn’t enough) before going into the museum for an hour of viewing some spectacular artwork.  You could spend days in the museum and not see everything.  The museum is amazing by itself, marble columns, and little nooks down hallways that house the art.  Then there’s the artwork.  Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol to name drop a few.  There was Egyptian art and a mummy, intricate ivory and silver carvings, oil, acrylic and water paintings.  Twelve foot high tapestries, marble carvings from 3000 years ago that begs the question how could such beautiful work be done with the tools they had at the time?

The boys gave a concert in a space surrounded by 30 foot marble columns.  Museum patrons came out of the exhibits to enjoy the sounds.  It’s so fun to watch the reactions of people when they hear the boys sing.  They sang beautifully.

Anna and Joe did a Chipotle run and we sat in the shade eating burritos after the concert.  There is no shortage of food for the boys so parents need not worry about the Boychoir keeping their boys fed.

We left Nelson-Atkins and went to the National World War I Museum and Memorial.  Some interesting history behind this museum.  In 1919 Kansas City community leaders organized to raise money for a memorial to WWI.  In 10 days they raised $2.5 million, today that would be $34 million.  The museum and monument are stunning.  The monument is an obelisk like the Washington Monument and the museum is a work of art.  We all wished we could have spent more time viewing the exhibits.  There was a recreated trench where a movie was shown above it depicting the brutal stalemate that the allied and German forces fought in for many months.   We watched a movie about the times leading up to the war and how it evolved.  Weaponry, personal commentary and interactive displays of war machines were very creative presentations. The boys sang a couple of songs at the museum including the Star Spangled Banner which was received with cheers and congratulations as we left the museum and moved on to St. Thomas More Catholic Church.

The boys sang at mass before rehearsing for the evening concert.  The church provided a wonderful meal and then a quick change into formal performance attire.  There was a nice size crowd and the concert was live streamed, we hope you saw it.  The boys performed to their usual high standards and received a standing ovation.  After the meet and greet we left for the hotel.

That was another long and fun day, getting back late the boys had an hour or so to wind down before going to bed. 

KC Tour Day 3

We slept late.  Got up, had breakfast.  Waited 15 minutes then celebrated 3 birthdays with a donut party.  This is the way to start a tour day.  Our first stop was Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, last year’s World Series winners.  True to Kansas City, the ball park has fountains.  We watched the grounds crew meticulously groom the field in preparation for the evening game.  It’s a beautiful ball park.  The boys enjoyed sitting in the dugout and seeing where foul balls hit the ceiling in the press box.

We left the stadium and ventured back downtown to Johnny’s Tavern where we ate burgers and fries.  It was conveniently located across the street from the College Basketball Experience, our next stop.  The College Basketball Experience was a fun, interactive activity where the boys shot baskets, dribbled balls, measured their wingspan, compared vertical leap height and threw passes during a timed event.

Back on the buses and off to the American Jazz and Negro League Baseball museums.  We were introduced to the museums and our thinking was challenged by an engaging guide.  She pointed out a personal frustration with the terms black and white.  She was looking forward to the time when we all simply referred to ourselves as American, a nice thought.

Kansas City was home to some of the early developments of jazz.  It’s where the term Jam Session came from.  The corner of 18^th and Vine was the place to be for jazz music in the early 20^th century.  The adjacent Negro League Baseball museum also showed Kansas City to be a prominent venue for the sport and participants.  We learned that the two activities, baseball and jazz, were intertwined with the fledgling Kansas City BBQ business, which turns out to be a very competitive industry.  The boys sang a couple of impromptu songs at the museums that were greatly appreciated by staff and other museum goers since they naturally appreciate good music.

This was Allegro night out where we hopped on a special bus that took us to 3 different BBQ restaurants.  Cantabile went to Woodyard BBQ and then to a water park.

Allegro night out was great.  Allegro, Mark, Todd and chaperones were met by a special bus that went to three different Kansas City BBQ restaurants.  We learned some history about the growth and rivalry of the business, and had three separate dinners consisting of a mixture of ribs, sausage, turkey, coleslaw, French fries and beans. There was agreement that all of it was all really good with nuanced interpretations of why one was superior to another.  As a thank you to our guide Stephanie, the boys sang Uptown Girl that brought her to tears.  She informed them that she had never been serenaded before.  Having simply not had enough we asked the BBQ bus driver to drop us off at an ice cream shop where the boys gorged themselves on a variety of flavors. By now it was dark.  We walked a few blocks to one of the fountains and sat around it enjoying the water lit by colored lights waiting for Joe to pick us up and bring us back to the hotel.  Sleep came quickly and easily.

KC Tour Day 2

We were up early for a very full day.  After passing through security the boys started off with staggered tours at the Federal Reserve.  We often do staggered tours because 70 boys on one museum tour makes it hard to gather around and listen to the tour guide and see the exhibits.  The Money Museum was full of money.  Millions of dollars stacked higher than most of the boys.  Between tours the boys sang for other museum goers and employees of the Federal Reserve.  As the boys began to sing people came out of their offices and cubicles and were enchanted by the sounds.  Some of the boys left with shredded bags of $125.  A few boys may spend the rest of the summer trying to assemble the pieces.

Next up Jimmy John’s in a park across from the Museum while lying in the shade staying cool.  After lunch we were met by two very knowledgeable tour guides, Nancy and Karen who boarded the buses and guided us around Kansas City.

Kansas City has some very interesting architecture and variety.  Art Deco, modern, very old.  It was a transportation hub.  Union Station, were we sang yesterday, had millions of people traveling through it during the WW II years and was the third largest train station in the US.  Kansas City is at the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers where Louis and Clark camped.  The Santa Fe Trail began here.  There is only one city in the world that has more fountains than Kansas City and that is Rome.  Mark guessed that we saw every one of them on the tour today.

We dropped our city tour guides off and visited the Hallmark Visitors Center where we watched a short movie about the history of Hallmark, walked through the museum and a few boys bought souvenirs at the gift shop.

We hurried back to the hotel to change and get to our concert at the Second Presbyterian Church.  A slight delay occurred in the parking lot because someone backed into one of the buses while they were parked.  This is where having two pros like Joe and Roger at the wheel comes in handy.  The parking lot at the hotel is small.  When you pull two tour busses in and then put an ambulance and 4 police cars behind them, getting out can be a challenge.  With some tight, expert maneuvers we were on our way again.

The Second Presbyterian Church is small but has beautiful stained glass windows.  The people at the church had prepared a very warm and tasty welcome for us.  Fruit, homemade cookies of all kinds, and pizza.  No one left hungry and the boys returned the favor by giving them a great concert.  A nice size group showed up and were not disappointed.  Roger, the Bus No. 2 driver, was out front as people came out and said that he did a sidewalk survey of the attendees.  When he asked how the people liked the concert they started clapping again.  That’s what these boys do to people.

We can sleep in tomorrow so the boys get to stay up a little later tonight.  No planned concerts tomorrow but they always find a reason and place to sing.

KC Tour Day 1

On the road again.  There was card playing, sleeping, eating, reading, Sudoku and a Haiku contest.  We stopped for a picnic about half way, then with a little rain and lots of wind we arrived in Kansas City to feel the embrace of 99 degrees.  Fortunately we didn’t have to spend much time outside.

We made it to the hotel first to drop off snacks that were melting in the underbelly of the bus then on to Union Station 45 minutes before concert time.  A grand old building with tall beautiful ceilings, interior hallways the size of a football field and ornate chandeliers.  The boys were able to fill the space with their music as people stood and watched.  A girl, maybe 4, was particularly inspired.  First she began to mimic Marks arm movements while he was directing then turned it into an interpretive dance.  She loved the music as we all did. 

Dinner was at Fritz’s.  Great burgers delivered by model rail road.  The boys really enjoyed calling in their order then waiting as the locomotive traveled along the rail above the tables.  It was programmed to drop off their dinners and lower them to the table.   The boys sang to the restaurant staff and we left for the hotel.

A quick meeting, some snacks and off to bed.  An early start and big day tomorrow.

Kansas City Tour - 2016 

Our Kansas City Tour is about to begin.  We have been busy planning this fun filled adventure.  Look to this location for pictures and updates about our travel starting on June 22.

East Coast Tour Day 9

Our last full day on tour.  A soggy one.  There are rumors of being held over due to popular demand.  We’ll let you know but there have been 2,258 people who have attended Boychoir performances this week and they are spreading the word.  If we are held over, an email will be sent to parents letting you know when your sons will be home.  The first event for the boys was the White House tour.  As with the naval base no pictures were allowed.  Again we successfully passed through security, this time while standing in the rain.  Our apologies to Barack and Michelle for dripping on their carpet.  From the White House we went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.  The boys explored the museum, some of whom would like to be aerospace engineers.  It doesn’t get any better for them.  Next up lunch at the Museum of Natural History.  A little shopping and exhibit review then we were surfing through the flash flooding streets to the National Cathedral.  What an amazing space.  The columns, stained glass, wood and stone carved arcs and its size were awe inspiring.  The boys performed two impromptu songs.  The expressions on the faces of those who didn’t know what was about to happen was jaw dropping.  People streamed into the chapel as they heard the music.  The smiles on the boy’s faces said “This is what we do” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-MWwKwz89I .  We then traveled to the Crossway Community Center, a non-profit dedicated to battered women and children, where the boys inaugurated the old gymnasium that had changed into an arts center. It was a fun concert, the audience had a lot of energy (a few were especially cute).   After the performance the boys expressed their appreciation to Al and Joe, our drivers for their good humor and safe driving.  We went back to the hotel and prepared to leave.  It has been a joy and privilege being with these boys this week.  They know they effect people and they know the Minnesota Boychoir is good.  They probably don’t know the magnitude of their awesomeness as performers and as human beings.  Good job to those who raised them and to Mark and Todd who teach them.  Brenda there was a hole in the choir this week.  You were missed. 

East Coast Tour Day 8

We left Fredericksburg and got to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center with time to spare.  The first thing we saw was a deer peacefully walking the grounds.  The deer was seen again trying to visit patients.  We successfully made it through security and met the Lt Commander in charge of Child Psychology and base entertainment visits.  He made sure we knew what a healing effect music has on patients.  It helps them forget the bad times and remember the good.  The boys sang 10 or so songs.  “Tell My Father” was a particularly beautiful and poignant one and almost impossible to not hold back tears.  There was some excitement as well when we were told to evacuate due to a fire threat and we saw how quickly and professionally the fire crew jumps into action.  Ultimately there was no fire and the first responders packed up as quickly as they came.  We drove to the U.S. Capital building.  The dome is going through the first major restoration of the exterior in over 100 years.  They are removing oxidation and attempting to finish it by the time the 2016 elections get into full swing.  We met our tour guides there and drove around Washington.  We drove along the Mall, stopped at the Lincoln Memorial then Arlington National Cemetery.  There was a lot of traffic due to rush hour so we didn’t get the time we’d hoped to, but we did see the changing of the guard.  Those soldiers are precise in their marching and arms presentation.  You can see and sense the honor they feel being able to march back and forth in front of an unknown fallen comrade.  For Cantabile it was back to the hotel for pizza, cake and ice cream.  Allegro went on to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. They watched a brief concert, played some Frisbee outside, and then went up to the terrace.  On top of the terrace they sang and watched as President Obama returned to the White House on Marine 1 after delivering his eulogy in Charlotte. Allegro can now say they have sung at Kennedy Center. It was Allegro Night Out so they went to the Shake Shack near Dupont Circle.  They gorged themselves on all you can eat food and dessert.  It was a short walk back to the hotel and a rest well deserved.  Tomorrow the White House, the Smithsonian Museums and more.  

East Coast Tour Day 7

The boys were up and ready to go even though it was an early start.  We drove for about 45 minutes and hopped on a trolley for a tour of historic Fredericksburg, VA.  We were shown where George Washington and his family lived when he was 6. Saw numerous homes and buildings of historic significance primarily because of their age, some having been built in the 1720’s.  This was more than a civil war history tour.  Fredericksburg is rich in pre-Revolutionary War history.  Fredericksburg is antique shop heaven and offers a variety of antiquities to choose from.  The boys were able to explore the shops for about 45 minutes in between lunch, battlefield tours and learning about Apothecary.  The Battle of Fredericksburg involved more soldiers than any battle in the Civil War.  There are 18,000 soldiers buried in the National Cemetery there, most with no name.  From a Union perspective this battle was a disaster.  We took a walking tour of the Sunken Road which meandered along a path behind a rock wall the Confederate soldiers laid behind as the Union soldiers tried numerous times, unsuccessfully, to take the high ground.  This was a living history experience that may take the boys awhile to absorb but one they will probably ever forget.  We learned about medical history through the Apothecary presentation where the boys had numerous questions about leaches, how water was filtered through soap stone to produce purity and other methods of healing and treatments.  They were asked the difference between leaches found in a lake and those used in Apothecary.  The answer was the Apothecary leaches are trained.  We left historic Fredericksburg and checked into the hotel with an hour to spare before busing off to the performance at Fredericksburg United Methodist Church.  They rehearsed and were served a Mexican dinner.  The performance in front of about 180 people live and many more through streaming video was great.  We mingled afterward over cookies, water and punch before heading back to the hotel for sleep.  It’s off to Washington DC in the morning where the boys will most certainly rock the nation’s capital.