Fellow musicians who may have been nameless for the first part of the year suddenly become our bus companions or fellow work crewmates for ten days. But the music is what creates the opportunity for touring. After a month of eight hours of rehearsal a week, we take our music and simply perform it night after night, always improving, always discovering new aspects to the pieces, always making it more a part of ourselves. We experience how music can change the performer, and often the listener, again and again. By the time we arrive back on the St. Olaf campus for the home concert, we are ready to give the music a performance that is distinctly our own, because it is familiar enough for us to give both an individual and a collective interpretation.
Tour is quite the memorable time in so many ways.
Joined with the experiences of the rest of the year, it leaves a lifelong mark on each member of the ensemble.