Ten Years in the Making
1972 was the year of the Watergate scandal. It was the year when 69,000 American troops were still deployed in Vietnam. It was the year when, on June 1, Dimitri Shostakovich’s 15th Symphony premiered in West Berlin. Hurricane Agnes, which began on June 14, inflicted $45 million of damage in Pittsburgh. Also that year, on May 31, the Chatham and Hamilton College choirs were stalled on the runway of the John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, while “swarms of men and women searched for a bomb that fortunately wasn’t there,” according to Hamilton student, Eric Thorkilsen ’73, in his article in Hamilton’s Winter 1973 Alumni Review. For 1972 was the year that the Chatham-Hamilton choirs embarked on a nearly six-week concert tour of Europe together, performing nineteen concerts in six countries: Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, and France.
The Chatham Choir’s summer tour of Europe was announced by the choir’s vice president, Francine Mehlenbeck ‘73, in the February 18, 1972 edition of The Matrix, Chatham’s student newspaper at the time. The announcement emphasized that the choir’s dream—of ten years in the making—was finally coming true. Embarking on such a trip made them the first concert choir of Pittsburgh to tour Europe.
The Chatham and Hamilton choirs undertook various fundraising activities to support the endeavor. They performed one benefit concert together at Chatham’s Campbell Memorial Chapel on April 30 (image to the right). Students were charged a $1.00 fee to watch the concert, and all others were charged $2.00. According to Mehlenbeck, other fundraising activities included “another dinner, movies, and the Choir Auction." Overall, they were able to raise the considerable sum of $18,000. In the months leading up to the tour, the newspaper showed ads for flights heading to Europe, such as the one pictured in the collage below. The comic, which was drawn by student Christine Tober and featured in the May 12 edition of Matrix, reflects the struggle of funding the choir’s travels.
As seen to the left below, in the article from the September 1969 edition of Matrix, the choirs had initially planned the trip for the summer of 1971, but it had to be postponed a year due to lack of funds. The article reveals a busy schedule that included concerts with Franklin and Marshall College, Princeton, Colgate University, and, finally, Hamilton. Some of the earliest fundraising activities included baking birthday cakes and selling the New York Times!
1970 came and went, but not without further preparation for the tour. As mentioned in the 1969 article, the choirs had planned multiple collaborative concerts. One of them, the highly anticipated April 18, 1970 performance of Brahms' A German Requiem with Princeton, is depicted in the center image.
As detailed in the article in the third image below, some members of the Chatham Choir visited Hamilton College in the interim between the Fall 1970 and Spring 1971 semesters to study John Cage's chance music and prepare for the tour. This gave them the opportunity to sing under the baton of James Fankhauser, the Hamilton College Choir director.
As the tour neared, publicity grew. Six Chatham Choir members were even interviewed for an article written by Carl Apone, music editor for The Pittsurgh Press.
