After a late arrival at Villa Sassa, the Singers were grateful for an opportunity to sleep in and have some morning free time in Lugano, Switzerland. The hotel was quite large and had a lovely spa that some people took advantage of. Others took walks to the coast and explored the town or took a nap.
At 1pm, the hotel provided us with a lunch of sandwiches and focaccia. Most people ate quickly and then ran off again to enjoy more free time before departing for the concert at 4pm. Since we were to rehearse with another choir, we all wore our BYU Singers jackets again.
The drive to the concert venue (a small church) was about an hour, and we had a bit of time to ourselves before we needed to rehearse. We enjoyed the sun in the church courtyard and grabbed some snacks in the grocery store across the street. We enjoyed the luxury of delicious Swiss cheese and chocolate for cheap!
After a brief rehearsal with Dr. Crane, we rehearsed Every Child Has Known God by Ivo Antognini with an Italian Swiss Children’s Choir. We became very excited to perform with these talented young singers!
After rehearsal, we enjoyed a meal together in the church courtyard and then changed into our uniforms. We sat in the audience for the first portion and enjoyed the children's choir program, which included pieces by Palestrina and Ivo Antognini. We were absolutely blown away by the talent and hard work of these young people and were honored to sing with them! Many of our Singers became emotional while singing Every Child Has Known God. What a powerful experience!
After the concert, we enjoyed some quick treats and went back to the hotel to rest up for another travel day tomorrow.