Author: Adrian Ruckhofer (CHOIR REPORTER), Singakademie Graz, Austria
Translated from German to English

After a 24 hour-long trip home we reached our home town Graz extremely tired, but safely and healthy. We’re looking back on the last 15 days. What did we see, experience, taste, feel and marvel at!?

Let’s start with the country. Ancient culture meets latest technologies. In the streets there are bikes being completely overloaded with all sorts of things, the bicycle frame is hardly to be seen. But there are also leading edge mopeds, our politicians in Graz can only dream about. There’s an amazing ancient wooden pagoda next to a skyscraper made of glass, steel and concrete. We visited both (for example the world’s second highest building).

There are the Chinese people. A friendly, cordial, communicative nation! We’ve been welcome dialogue partners and a coveted subject for photos and videos all the time. The meticulous security and the police were often difficult to deal with. Due to the fact that we participated in the Games in Graz, too, and thus we know that choir singers are peaceful, open minded and orderly people, sometimes we despaired of the strict security checks and long waiting periods coming along with that.

Then the climate: Circulatory problems bothered us, especially the younger, by reason of great temperature variations. The buildings had pleasant, but sometimes even too cold temperatures for us. Going outside we had to deal with the heat and the high humidity. Those of us who wear glasses lost their “sight” each time, because the fogged glass lenses cleared only after a while.

Now let’s talk about food. Ordering on the (only) basis of pictures on the menu was not always crowned with success. Mountains of indefinable food were piling up on the rotary table. At times we were bold and tasted everything, at other times we lost our appetite just by the smell and sight of the food. And mostly we found something corresponding to our European taste buds, but the bowls with rice and noodles have always been empty to the very last bit.

And…

…there was music. It was a happy, colourful crowd of singing, dancing, cheering, clapping, stomping, waving people of all races and nations, whose focus is on sounds and rhythms. Their songs reflect their enjoyment of life, their culture, their feelings and their home. We all wanted to sing old songs and be open to anything new. Individual choirs or several of them singing together brought the house down and created a unique global cloud of sounds. The big love of music unified all of us!!!

And certainly, what would such a meeting be without the (peaceful) competition? It’s an excellent opportunity to gain musical as well as personal experiences. Obviously you’re proud to get a medal or to become even a Champion. It was an outstanding success for us to compete directly in the Champions Competition and to reach 3 silver medals in 3 categories. We’re holding 43% of all Austrian medals and thus we’re the most successful choir in Austria!!! Besides us only about 17 other choirs worldwide dared to prepare a competitive programme in three categories on this level. Furthermore it was our first time to compete in the mixed choirs competitions as a choir of youth aged 10 to 18. Our thank goes to the international top-class jury. The ranking of so many different interpretations was definitely not easy.

In this context we thank INTERKULTUR and their Chinese partners for turning these 6th World Choir Games into a most memorable experience for us. Everything was perfectly organized and we would have been well advised to let plan our whole stay by INTERKULTUR or by the partner travel agencies. As our choir conductor said: “It’s a pity that our travel agency from Graz didn’t take much ‘time for travelling’! Much agitation, trouble and money could have been saved! Next time we just trust in INTERKULTUR!”

We look forward to meeting some of the choirs again at the 1st World Choir Championships for Youth and Young Adults taking place in Graz in July 2011. We’d like to welcome them in our home city. Probably we’ll meet most of them again in Cincinnati in 2012, provided that sponsors and benefactors are willing to support us! And perhaps we meet a fairy godmother or somebody even gives us a cash cow!!!

One thing is certain: we’ll meet again, somewhere, sometime!!!

Best regards
Adrian