The Gift of Song Tour in the summer of 2004 to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile was the third major tour undertaken by the Yale Alumni Chorus. Where China (Tour Alpha) was "the start of something big" and Russia/Wales/England (Tour Beta) was "discovering ourselves and celebrating Yale," the Gift of Song Tour was about really beginning to fulfill the YAC mission "building international understanding through the universal language of music."
The tour included performances at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro with Antonio Nanut and the Brazil Symphony Orchestra, at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic in the VII International Music Festival of Buenos Aires, and at the Iglesia de San Francisco in Santiago with the Clásica Orchestra of Chile.
Mark Dollhopf leads informal singing at top of Rio landmark Pão de Açúcar
As part of that tour, the Chorus established a youth chorus in Cidade de Deus, a Rio de Janeiro shantytown, giving a benefit concert there with local drummers that ended up with everyone—Yalie and shantytown resident alike—dancing to samba rhythms. In La Plata, Argentina, the Chorus sponsored the Regalo de Canción Festival, a choral festival and cultural exchange dinner with eight local choruses that trace their roots to the visit of the 1941 Glee Club—an evening that also ended up with joyous dancing to Latin guitars. In Santiago, Chile, the Chorus performed with choruses of schoolchildren from the public school music program Crecer Cantando and donated music education materials.
Aside from the fact that it was another continent to visit, what inspired YAC to tour in South America? The story is best told by a communication we received just before the tour got underway:
On October 19, 1939, Secretary of State Cordell Hull discussed his hopes for the future of our hemisphere with Yale Glee Club Director Marshall Bartholomew. Secretary Hull envisioned an age in which nations would be guided by mutual respect, cooperation and cultural understanding. To further that vision, he asked the Yale Glee Club to travel more than 13,000 miles throughout the Americas to serve as ambassadors in the cause of hemispheric cooperation, using music as the interpreter of their own culture and those of the many lands they visited.
Sixty-five years later, the Yale Glee Club continues to strengthen the bonds we share with our neighbors in Latin America. It is an honor for me to recognize the important contributions made by the Yale Glee Club and by the Yale Alumni Chorus, whose members include three of the original participants of that first tour of the Western Hemisphere in 1941. I have great admiration for their involvement in the communities of South America, the selflessness with which they share their gift for music, and their commitment to creating new relationships within the community of the Americas. I am grateful to groups like the Yale Alumni Chorus for demonstrating the tremendous impact the arts can have in combating society's ills.
I extend my congratulation to the Yale Alumni Chorus for its outstanding service as cultural ambassadors to the Americas.
Colin L. Powell
The Secretary of State
July 19, 2004
Washington DC
We gave nine formally-arranged concerts during the tour. Listed in sequence, they were at the following locations, with collaborations as indicated.
Teatro Tobias Barreto
Igreja de Candelaria
Pasaje Dardo Rocha
Escuela Francisco Arriarán
Cidade de Deus
Theatro Municipal
Teatro Colon
Iglesia de San Francisco
If you count, in addition, the impromptu outdoor sunset concert on top of Pão de Açúcar in Rio and choral exchanges with other groups at the La Plata Police Club, we managed 11 concerts in three countries over 16 days—not to mention the rehearsals, the airport arrival, the final dinner, and other "breakings forth" not recorded. We may not have lived up to the oft-quoted maxim of legendary Yale Glee Club director Marshall "Barty" Bartholomew—"too much talking, not enough singing"—but we were pretty close.
Because the plan called for both formal and informal a cappella performances as well as collaboration with symphony orchestras, we learned and presented an eclectic mix of pieces in seven languages: Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Yale (e.g., Boola, Boola).
The variety made it possible for us to vary the presentation according to the particular requirements of each concert.
What will be the longer-term effect of the Gift of Song Tour? The answer for most YACsters is easy: continued engagement in YAC affairs and participation in future events and tours.
For those touched by the YAC experience, it is more difficult to say, and it may take years to realize the result. Two of many indications illustrate the positive potential for the longer term.
It took decades for us to measure the eventual outcomes of the 1941 and 1961 visits to South America by the Yale Glee Club. There is every reason to hope that future generations might see a similar effect, when our youngest singer, Julianne Parolisi '02, hopefully has occasion to be the Justus Pearson '40 or a venerable singer in her 80s at a celebratory Choral gathering in 2064 in La Plata.