Solace LIVE Tour Travelogue Four
Dear Friends,
On a balmy, but lovely Sunday afternoon, the Georgia Boy Choir’s chartered motor coach arrived at the beautiful Christ Episcopal Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. The young singers filed off the bus and got right to work unloading the Choir’s blue robes and their garment racks, the equipment for the audio/visual team, and tuning the special glasses needed for their evening performance. Now that they are a little over halfway through with their 17-day tour of the Southeast, the pre-and-post-concert duties have become fairly routine. They are functioning like a well-oiled machine and their camaraderie has grown even stronger. It is marvelous to behold how they support one another in their shared endeavors.
After participating in an evening worship service, the Choir presented a full concert for an extremely grateful audience. The pleasing acoustic of the sanctuary was extremely well-suited to the dulcet tones of the boys’ voices.
On Monday morning, they headed over to the Charlotte Motor Speedway where they received a full tour which included driving the motor coach right on to the track! The boys were thrilled when they got to get out of the bus and walk over the Start/Finish line. They climbed up the steep, 24-degree embankment on the turn, and visited the Winner’s Circle where all the champions celebrate their victories. It was a thrilling morning.
After a brief stop for some delicious Chick-Fil-A, they found themselves in Raleigh, North Carolina at the gorgeous, new Holy Name of Jesus Roman Catholic Cathedral. Only 4 years old, the enormous edifice is stunningly beautiful, and the acoustic is particularly luscious. Several hundred folks had come out on this rainy Monday night to hear the Choir and all of them were so glad they did. When the boys opened their mouths, the magnificent, marble room seemed to amplify their voices as they wafted through the air and landed gently in the listener’s ear in a perfectly blended sonority. Even the most delicate sounds were heard by all.
As the tour continued southward, the intrepid, young singers found themselves checking in to a hotel in Charleston, South Carolina in a building that began as a military fort in the 1820’s, before becoming the original site of the Citadel Military College. Most of the rooms still had gun turrets in their old, brick walls. This, of course, enlivened the imaginations of the boys. Employing this site as home for the next two days, the Choir had a wonderful time in the historic city. They climbed aboard a decommissioned Aircraft Carrier and Battleship, explored the trails at Charlestowne Landing, were awed by the ancient, Spanish Moss-covered Live Oak trees, shopped at the famous Charleston Market, played Frisbee on the former military parade grounds, and performed an exceptionally fine concert in the splendid sanctuary of the great St. Philip’s Church. It was a memorable couple of days.
Finally returning to their home state, the boys cruised into Savannah, Georgia on Thursday afternoon. They enjoyed a delicious barbecue dinner and gave a private concert at Benedictine Military School. Saturday morning, they enjoyed an informative Trolley Tour which took them all throughout the largest designated Historic District in the US. They saw the locations of the founding of the state by William Oglethorpe in 1733, they passed by many beautiful, old churches and homes, they saw the Pirates’ House that inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island, and they were shown the location of the park bench where Forrest Gump ruminated over a box of chocolates.
Before their concert in the historic St. John’s Church, they were served dinner in the church’s ancillary house, which, incidentally, had served as General Sherman’s headquarters during the Civil War. They then proceeded across the courtyard garden and into the church which was full to capacity and presented a wonderful concert to a most appreciative and smartly - dressed audience. Following the concert, the boys were treated to some well-deserved ice cream.
The final stop on the tour was the historic Mulberry Street United Methodist Church in Macon, Georgia. The beautiful sanctuary possesses a splendid acoustic and, once again, the now-seasoned travelers exploited this feature to its extremes. The boys realized that this would be the last time many of them would ever sing some of these songs which they have grown to love, they knew that this concert was the ultimate culmination of the most challenging and unique season in the Choir’s 12-year history, and they sang with an extraordinary level of precision, unanimity, expression, and beauty. When the concert ended, they congratulated one another with high fives and a group embrace reminiscent of any championship team.
The energy level was high on the short bus ride home to Atlanta. Reunions with parents and siblings were sweet. What the boys and young men of the Georgia Boy Choir accomplished together on this tour was nothing short of amazing. For months before, they had travailed under the difficult circumstances of the global pandemic, and now, finally they had brought a cathartic wave of Beauty to the thousands of people lucky enough to have encountered them. They forged friendships that will last a lifetime, and they went home to dream about the next opportunity they will have to Bring Beauty to Life.
Thank you for following the Georgia Boy Choir on this adventure. If you have enjoyed the travelogues and videos, please consider making a financial contribution to enable them to continue fulfilling their mission in the lives of boys and young men for years to come.
Until next time,
The 2021 Georgia Boy Choir Tour Team