Drury Singers 
Journey to Europe

By Rebecca Norris, University Communications

“Music touches people in a way nothing else can,” Dr. Allin Sorenson says. It is a simple way of explaining the Drury Singers recent trip to Europe. The group of around 30 students went to Germany to sing.

As for performing, the Singers were very well received. The group performed seven concerts, three of which were done with other choral groups: West&Voices Gospel Singers, d’aChor a Cappella Choir, and a church choir. There were good audiences at all of the concerts, and the group wasted no time in connecting as a unit, Sorenson says.

Heather Russell, a Drury sophomore, recalls, “Something Dr. Sorenson tried to drill into us a little bit before we left was why we were taking this trip in the first place. To sing!”

“They were very committed the entire trip,” Sorenson says. “At the end of one concert, we had done a couple of encores. We went off stage and the applause was so unrelenting—we had to go back on stage again.”

During the second concert of the trip, the Singers had the opportunity to sing with St. Afra’s Parrish Choir. The choir is under the direction of Manfred Gemkow, of St. Afra’s Church, which is located in Betzigau, Germany. The two choral groups merged with the Singers under the direction of Sorenson. A man in the audience became overwhelmed with emotion and shared his gratefulness, Sorenson says. More than sixty years ago, during the era of the German Third Reich, Germans and Americans couldn’t stand each other. Yet there stood Sorenson and the other director, mixing voices and heritage.

“I was completely unprepared for the emotion in that moment,” Dr. Sorenson says.

“The places we sang in on our trip will forever be a reminder to me of how much music means to me and to the world,” says Rachel Morse, a sophomore at Drury.

The group also toured the remains of two concentration camps. In order to find Gunskirchen-Lager, one of the concentration camps, the group was put in touch with the mayor. Shortly thereafter, Mayor Friedrich Nagl of Gunskirchen and his wife showed up, where they directed the Singers to a small area in the woods. The couple shared a song with the Singers in the clearing.

“The concentration camp was surreal for most students,” Sorenson says. “It was obviously a sacred place. We spent about thirty minutes standing in the wooded area. You could almost relive what happened. I remember my father talking about the site. If you watch the sunlight filter in through the trees, you suddenly think you see something moving. ‘What is that?’, you wonder. You can almost see an emaciated person stumbling through the trees.”

At the concentration camp, there were several church-like places to meditate, pray, and remember. The Singers had the opportunity to sing at one of these places, The Church of Reconciliation. They sang for the service, and although the numbers of attendance were low, Sorenson says, “It was a very moving and powerful service.”

Rachel Morse was touched by the second concentration camp visit to Dachau.

“I would have to say that the part of the trip that made the biggest impact on me,” she says. “It was so heart-wrenching to walk through the museum, watch the film, and then walk down the long barrack lane to the crematorium. It just amazes me how humans could do such inhumane things to others. I have never heard the members of the Drury Singers as quiet as we were walking to the crematorium. There was just something in the air that reminded me of all the suffering that had taken place.”

After touring the camps, the group headed to Austria, where they were greeted with an unexpected surprise. In Austria, it was Corpus Christi Day. The Singers stopped in Mondsee, where the entire town shut down in honor of the holiday. There were parades all day long. Catholic children who had received their First Communion were out in their white dresses and suits. Widows were identified by all-black attire. The atmosphere was light-hearted and cheerful, an unusual follow up to the concentration camp.

“The best parts of the trip were the musical experiences. They tied it all together,” Sorenson says. “And the worst part of the trip had to be the flights. We had a student lose a ticket. Then the student found it on the plane he had just been on. We had lost luggage. And going through customs was trying. I actually missed my flight because I couldn’t get through customs fast enough. But fortunately, we had some parents on the trip, and they were able to see the students made it to the destination.”

The group will definitely be traveling again, Sorenson says. As of a destination, he isn’t sure. He doubts the group will return to the same part of Germany. He is interested in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. He also would like to go to western Austria, Innsbruck, Austria, or Switzerland.

The next Drury Singers trip will be in two to three years.

“It takes a year or two to do research and finalize plans for a trip like this,” Sorenson says.

“One thing I would love to do on the next trip,” Sorenson states, “is to go back to Prague (in the Czech Republic) and sing. We never performed in Prague, but we would like to.”

During the upcoming academic year, the Drury Singers will shift their focus to the Regional American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conference, which will take place in March. On top of that, the Singers will be touring regionally. They hope to extend their previous boundaries and travel east of Missouri. The Singers will follow their normal concert routine with performances in fall and spring, and the ever-popular Christmas Vespers concert.

Click here to read about the 2007 Europe Tour
Click here to read about the 2003 Europe Tour