NAU Shrine of the Ages Blog: Adventures in Argentina

 Hola! Mi nombre Bailey White! It’s now the 5th day of Shrine of The Ages International Tour and what a day it was. After an eventful night of tango lessons and a brilliant Tango performance at Madero Tango, I basically died in my bed and resurrected 7 hours later to the alarms I set when I was much more motivated to explore the city. After snoozing until 8:30 my roomie, Mia, and I woke up and got ready for a day of guided tours through Teatro Colón, a trip to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), and the famous El Alteño Grand Splendid, which had me the most excited. Our First stop for the day was the Teatro Colón, one of the world’s most opulent and grandiose opera/performance venues, and most certainly in Argentina. With influences from many different cultures and countries and the funding of local wealthy families, Teatro Colóns creation was motivated by a pride and love for Argentina and her people. Pictures could not do the theatre justice, because around...

Hello there! My name is Noah and I am a semi-proud member of our Tenor section! Today has been one of my favorites so far, and the absolute highlight has to be our tour of Teatro Colón! I am ashamed to admit that I had completely forgotten at this point what Teatro Colón even was. I knew it was a place important to Argentina's history and culture, but I had no clue what I was going into on the walk there. However, that mistake actually made the moment stepping into the building and seeing it even more special! Teatro Colón is an Opera house in Buenos Aires and is widely regarded as one of the best opera houses in the world. In fact, the famous Pavarotti himself once said that the only flaw in Teatro Colón is that the acoustics are so perfect, you can't make any mistakes. Throughout the tour, I was in awe of the building's beauty. Every single pillar and painting and chandelier were perfectly placed to craft a magical experience. The combination of Italian and Fr...

 ¡Hola! Me llamo Hope y canto como soprano dos en Shrine.  This post is the result of a sudden burst of energy at 2 a.m. after the tango show (of course, lol). It's long, but it's worth it! 💃💃🕺🕺🇦🇷🇦🇷💙💙🎶🎶 The day began with a brisk walk at 7:15am to the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral and Plaza de Mayo. The sky was a rich idigo hue which highlighted the intricate white architecture beautifully. A phrase I consistently say during this trip is, "woooah that railings, pillars, terrace, etc. is gorgeous...". Additionally, Buenos Aires smells even more like metallic sea air at dawn than midday which was lovely. The city reminds me of Seattle, WA from the misty sea aesthetic and the trees. Fun Fact: the really cool building is the home church of late Pope Francis! It is very elegant and breathtaking. After my morning adventure, I joined more friends to eat an early breakfast at a Cafe. I ordered Cafe de la Leche (coffee) with this coffee cake/pastry-thing that...

 Today was one of the most fun days I’ve had on this trip so far! Starting out the morning right, I went to a café with some friends and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee and some pastries. Afterwards I gathered up the guys and we went out to start our market trip! We first went to the  first market called San Telmo. It was pretty close by and was absolutely beautiful inside. The stores were awesome to look through and I bought some really neat stuff! Practicing my Spanish has been fun for me especially making conversation to purchase an item. When we got through the entire market, we took an uber to the Feria de Mataderos. This was a larger market about 30 minutes from the first. Our uber driver didn’t speak any English which was another great opportunity to attempt to speak in Spanish. We successfully had a conversation and were able to communicate with him throughout the ride. The Feria de Mataderos was amazing. There was live group dancing in the center and a whole array of sho...

I started out this morning with exploring Plaza de Mayo, listening to the morning bells chime and watching the sun come up. After this, I headed back to the hotel to meet up with a small group to get breakfast - most of the group got cafe con leche or espressos with pasteles or a savory meal of huevos, jamon, y tostada. This fueled us for a long day of exploring a weekly Sunday market: Ferrio de Mataderos. Here, we saw group dancing, live music, and many leather, jewelry, and food goodies! After adventuring around the market we took the Subte back to the hotel to get ready for a Tango dance lesson. Here, we learned lots about the basics of Tango: feeling a ‘oneness’ to your partner as your two beings form into one, trusting each other, and being open to the process (after all, I don’t think any of us really mastered the dance quite yet). I think these same skills can be applied to our ensemble too, and just had a fun time dancing with my lovely partner Sarah. To end the night, we celeb...

 ¡Hola! I am a first year graduate student in composition, and this is my fourth international choir tour. In between all the fun we’ve been having, Shrine gave our first Argentina concert last night with a local group called Cámara XXI. This was such an enriching experience, and it was personally enhanced for me because a friend of mine from high school was able to attend the concert! Kiara and I were in our school’s chamber choir for two years, and we also toured internationally together. She is now in law school and is living in Buenos Aires this summer for an internship through Indiana University. It was so wonderful to catch up with her and recount memories of our own tour, as well as reiterate what choir has meant for us in our lives. I will likely see other friends from high school at the San Juan Canta festival, as the BYU Concert Choir will be there. It’s been so fun to remember how small the world truly can seem, especially in the choral field. I am looking forward to hop...

 Hi all, my name is Mia Murray, and I am one of Shrine's sopranos. I am so proud and excited to have served as this choir's president during an international travel year, and oh boy, have we made the most of every day here so far!  After the first sleep in a bed after my first EVER flight, it's no surprise that me and my accountabilibuddy, Bailey, slept in a little bit before our 9am call in the lobby for breakfast. We grabbed some traditional Argentinian snacks and some jugo to sip on our way out for our NAU-only rehearsal.  Shrine Subway Alert! We are navigating our way through the public transportation one trip at a time. Every stop we got off on today had a unique aesthetic, and we even got to experience some subway performers, both on the cabs and while waiting.  Once off the subway, we took a beautiful walk through the city to get to and from the gorgeous dance studio we rehearsed in. For two hours, we got to sing in a wonderful studio space in the heart of Bue...