Week Three: Austria and Germany
Upon leaving Italy and performing their concert in Igls, near Innsbruck, Austria, the tour group discovered that there was a Hamilton alumnus in the audience, to whom the Hamilton choir sang the college song. This was the first time, but not the last, that the choirs would encounter an alum on their trip.
Performing in Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart, was expected to be the high point of the tour. However, the choirs discovered that the priest at St. Blasius Church, where they were to perform, was the only one who knew about their concert. He’d gone on vacation and had neglected to tell anyone that the choir was performing. Thus, in what Thorkilsen called the “fastest publicity campaign ever to sweep Salzburg,” the group made and distributed their own flyers. The picture to the right depicts a Hamilton student holding a handmade sign attached to a broomstick as the nearly 100-member group paraded through the streets to publicize their concert. They even made their way into the world-famous Mozarteum conservatory, where, according to Fankhauser, faculty and students “poured into the main hallway as we began to sing our impromptu noon-hour concert. Afterward, they expressed appreciation and amazement.” Almost 500 people attended the concert that evening!
