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OurSong and canta:re in Germany 2018

When OurSong performed at Various Voices in Dublin in 2014, it was like a dream come true. Some of our singers had never traveled outside the U.S. before that event. For others it was a fun time to see a part of the world they hadn’t explored yet. For each of us, it was a stunning experience to be so warmly received, both on and off stage.

Our set was an eclectic mix of music, as usual. We delivered everything from Katy Perry’s “Firework” (with our home-grown non-flammable fireworks choreography), to a glorious four-hand piano accompanied arrangement of “Shenandoah,” an a cappella arrangement of Leonard Cohen’s “Halleluiah,” and several other pieces in between.

By now our home audiences are used to our mix, and have come to expect the unexpected within our concerts and cabarets. With a new audience and such a wild mix of genres and delivery, you never quite know how you will be received. This says nothing of the fact that we were plunged into an audience with many varied cultures represented. Suffice to say the audience’s response was overwhelming. It was such a joy to perform for the Various Voices crowd. We receieved so much feedback after our set, also, and one group that was particularly complimentary was a group from Berlin called canta:re.

Here is an inside joke of the musical variety, which I will now attempt to translate in case it flew over your head. Cantare means “to sing” in Italian. Canta would be a conjugation of that verb (“lui canta bene” would translate to “he sings well”). “Re” is the second degree of a scale in typical solmization in which one learns to sight-ting by assigning syllables to a musical scale. You may remember  the iconic song “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music. So, cantare, “to sing,” or canta:re “sing: ‘re’” = musical humor.

Ah, you music groups and hair salons, always with the pithy names.

Thank you for allowing that brief foray into the pedantic. Now back to our story.

Going to Dublin was an experiment of sorts, having only ever traveled as far as Canada, but never to the other side of the pond. And once we had experienced the magic of it, we realized there was no option but to commit to going back to Various Voices in 2018. This festival will be in Munich, and OurSong is going to do a mini-tour before the festival, performing in Berlin and Prague. Enter canta:re, who heard us in Dublin and invited us to perform with them in Berlin, which we will be doing in May 2018 at Emmaus Church. You can read more about this collaboration at the blog that canta:re published about us.

Our globe-trotting Artistic Director, Robert, attended a canta:re rehearsal in Berlin, and had some social time with the members of canta:re.

In advance, we are grateful to be so highly regarded that this group would wish to sing with us, thereby opening the opportunity for us to travel to other points in Germany, not solely Munich. We are absolutely delighted that we will be able to perform with canta:re, and it promises to be another stellar experience for you and for Mi, a name I call myself. (Couldn’t resist.)

Learn more about canta:re here, and for more information about the Various Voices festival, click here.