NETHERLANDS 2011

Concerts in VLISSINGEN, KAMPEN, AMERSFOORT and NIJMEGEN

After an early departure from Cambridge we arrived in Amsterdam in time to meet Henk our bus driver and drive to Vlissingen. With a quick turn around we rehearsed, ate and gave our first concert next to the spectacular Christmas tree in Sint. Jacobskerk. The repertoire for the concerts was fairly similar to that which we’d sung in our concerts in Cambridge and London at the end of term. Music for Advent was interspersed with traditional carols and framed by the appropriate ‘O’ Antiphon for the days in the week preceding Christmas. After one night in a beautiful hotel in Westkapelle we moved onto Kampen where we had a tour of the city before we sang a concert with the Kavoca Chamber Choir in a church with an enormous acoustic. We moved to our new base in Vierhouten surrounded by a forest where we were grateful to hear that the bar stayed open late. The next day brought us free time to explore Amersfoort before another evening concert which featured the now characteristic Clare Choir processions in and out of the Church. Our final concert was in the magnificent Stevenskerk in Nijmegen where the acoustic was once again enormous. After a free afternoon to explore the city we were treated to a two-course meal consisting of traditional pea soup, tomato soup, smoked sausage, and beef stew. With our stomachs full we moved back to the Church to give our final performance of 2011. The concert was incredibly well received and gave us our fourth standing ovation in four concerts. All of that and we were home in time for Christmas.