Past Events > Power of Song Tour 2007

The Yale Alumni Chorus completed its "Power of Song Tour" to South Africa from 20 June through 6 July 2007. In the course of the Tour, the Chorus presented concerts and participated in choral exchanges in Johannesburg, Soweto, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown and Cape Town. And the Chorus’s community outreach programs generated substantial benefits for the Melodia music education program in Soweto, for the All Saints Blind Choir in Pretoria, for the Ubuntu Education Fund and the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra’s music education program for young people in Port Elizabeth, and for the Simon Estes Music High School in Cape Town.

The Tour was a strong musical, intellectual and emotional experience for its 205 participants – 155 singers and 50 accompanying spouses, children and friends.

On 23 June, the Chorus performed Joseph Haydn’s monumental oratorio, The Creation, with the Johannesburg Festival Orchestra and the Symphony Choir of Johannesburg. The Chorus and the Orchestra presented The Creation again on 30 June at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. Audience enthusiasm greeted both performances.

In addition, the Chorus performed frequently for enthusiastic audiences in less formal circumstances, including a public choral exchange at City Hall in Pretoria on 24 June to benefit the All Saints Blind Choir and a concert on 29 June at the Feather Market Centre in Port Elizabeth to benefit the Ubuntu Education Fund. And on the 4th of July, the Chorus presented a gala benefit concert at Artscape in Cape Town to benefit the Simon Estes Music High School and its remarkable Choir.

All of the Chorus’s performances were under the direction of Dr. Jeffrey Douma, who is also the Director of the Yale Glee Club. Internationally acclaimed bass-baritone Simon Estes was a principal soloist in the Creation performances and in the gala benefit concert for his school in Cape Town on the 4th of July.

While the Yale Alumni Chorus is very serious about its music, it is equally committed to a broad program of outreach in the communities it visits.  Given these parallel interests, South Africa proved to be a particularly exciting destination for the Power of Song Tour. Choral music, in great variety, is an integral part of South African society. Singing played an absolutely essential role in the struggle that led to the end of apartheid and the birth of the modern South African democracy. And the country offers an abundance of important community outreach opportunities.

In the course of the 16-day Tour, the Chorus shared the power of song onstage with well over 750 South African musicians. And beyond the stage, Chorus members were able to spend substantial time informally with these and many other South Africans – talking, singing, dancing, eating, drinking – learning about shared hopes and ambitions for our children, our families and our countries. And, because of the more formal outreach undertaken by the Power of Song Tour, the Chorus leaves behind some very tangible benefits for the Melodia Music Project in Soweto, for the All Saints Blind Choir in Pretoria, for the Ubuntu Education Fund and the Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestra’s instrumental education program in Port Elizabeth, and for the Simon Estes Music High School in Cape Town.

As a result of the Power of Song Tour, some 200 Americans now have an informed view of one of the most interesting evolving democracies in the world. A large number of South Africans have an experience-based view of what Americans can be like. Chorus members and the South Africans with whom they came in contact share an exciting understanding of each other’s music and of each other’s hopes and dreams. And many of these people will maintain contact with one another.

From the perspective of the Yale Alumni Chorus, it is exciting and fulfilling to have served once again as effective Ambassadors of Song … ambassadors from the world of western music, from the United States, and from Yale.