By Lexie Blakeman
Staff Writer
The Costa Festival Choir will host an all-day, on-campus retreat tomorrow to prepare for its European tour this spring.
The Festival Choir will learn and rehearse new music for Holy Week, the week of festivities leading up to Easter, which it will perform during its upcoming tour of Italy over Spring Break. The group attending this trip consists of 17 students ranging from sophomores to seniors.
“We are going to be practicing at Mira Costa all day for our upcoming European tour over Spring Break during our choir retreat,” alto and sophomore Sierra Howard said.
Costa Choir students will land in Milan, Italy on April 10 to start their trip. On their first day, they will board a high-speed train to Rome where they will begin their trip and have the opportunity to meet music directors from all around the country.
“I am excited to sing in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for Holy Week on Holy Monday, and St. Marks Cathedral on Easter Sunday,” Howard said. “There is going to be a large audience, and it will be very interesting for me to experience as a Catholic.”
They will also perform in St. Marks Cathedral in Venice on Easter Sunday and St. Agnes of Agony in Rome.
“We have spent so much time perfecting our pieces, so I am just really excited to perform and also to travel to a new place I haven’t been and experience the culture there will be really cool,” sophomore soprano Gigi Panzarella said.
The choir’s first performance starts on the second day of the Italy tour, where it plans to perform some uplifting pieces, then some more serious songs in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during the Holy Week celebrations.
“We have spent a lot of Saturdays at school preparing for the tour, and the retreat will be our final practice outside of class before we leave for Italy, so I am excited to perfect the pieces,” Panzarella said.
Let the festivities begin: Sophomore through senior choir members rehearse for their upcoming event. Photo by Drew Rohm
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