After eating our typical hotel breakfast, we embarked on a 45-minute bus ride to Einsiedeln Abbey, a famous pilgrimage site for Swiss Catholics.

 The Benedictine monks greeted the group, welcoming us to their monastery. We were then given a choice to either tour the library or the church. The architecture of the baroque-style Abbey was astonishing. We gazed up at the spires and statues plated in gold and lifted our heads to the top of the Cathedral, where we saw beautiful murals on the ceilings.

We were lucky enough to get a small tour of the library. The library, though smaller than the one in St. Gallen, is a lovely space, filled with old manuscripts.

When the tours ended, we prepared to sing for the daily Mass. Our repertoire consisted of classic BC High church songs like “Crucem Tuam” and “A New Commandment.” During the Homily, we were led into a room behind the altar to escape the chilling bite of the air that seeped in from the outside. We were then led out to sing the closing hymn, and then guided to Einsiedeln’s theater.

Einsiedeln’s monastery is also connected to a school. We sang for the students with our classic BC High Concert Choir repertoire such as “Danny Boy” and “Hallelujah,” with some new additions like “Transylvania Mania” from Young Frankenstein and “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables.

Getting the last round of applause by the students concluded our final concert of the trip. We then gathered for a meet-and-greet with them to discuss similarities and differences between our two schools.

The unfortunate goodbyes of the students led us to our next part of the trip, which was our free-time in Einsiedeln. Many students climbed up a hill to take many pictures of the scenic views of Switzerland, while others opted to go souvenir hunting for their family members.

Our final activity of our trip was back at our hotel in Dietikon. We were led by two great instructors in our yodeling workshop. We were all thrown for a loop because their vocal technique was vastly different than ours. Luckily, we managed to manipulate our voices to do some incredible things. Many people ended up singing higher in their range than they anticipated, which shocked not only the people in the choir, but themselves (and perhaps the neighbors and other hotel guests who heard the yodeling).

We concluded the night by having an outstanding dinner. We indulged in soup, pasta and flan, but before we had dessert, we asked one of the waitresses to decorate Doctor’s desert with a candle, since we always celebrate her birthday on last day of the trip. The seniors shared stories about their times being inspired  by Doctor. Written by Christian Archibald, Class of 2019

Today, April 14th, we woke up to see snow. Though it has been the coldest day on the trip thus far, the snow— which covered the Alps— created a beautiful landscape.  We traveled back to St. Gallen to sing for Palm Sunday Mass. Before Mass, we rehearsed in the cathedral’s choral room. Instead of palms, the people of the cathedral used olive tree branches, and the mass was spoken in both Italian and German. Our performance was very well received; both the priest, who studied with the Jesuits, and the attendants spoke highly of our music.

After Mass and lunch, we checked if the Swiss tales about delicious chocolate held when we visited the Maestrani Chocolarium. On top of the generous samples, we also bought more chocolate than we could eat for our families. We heard all about how the different kinds of Swiss chocolate were made and toured a chocolate factory, though the machines were at rest due to it being the weekend.  It was a fun and delicious experience, and I’m sure our families will enjoy the treats we bring back. – Written by Quentin McCarron and Scott Czerwinski

Saturday, April 13th, was one of our longest days in Switzerland. Our wake-up call today was quite jostling, especially after such a long day of rehearsal and touring yesterday. Despite this, we left the warmth of the hotel already dressed in our choir attire (for the most part) a little before 8:00 after a light breakfast of more croissants and extra strong coffee.

The ride to Lucerne, as told by our tour guide, takes about an hour, but we made good time and arrived around around 8:45. Lucerne is located in the heart of Switzerland and is situated on a lake with an extremely long German name: “Vierwaldstätter See.” When we began our tour, temperatures were near freezing, but it was nice to get a taste of the city before the tourism that this particular city is so well known for began to pick up. Some of the tour highlights include a huge cliff façade with a large lion carved into it that symbolized the Swiss soldiers that died during the French Revolution, as well as a large farmer’s market that was going on. Not only was this particularly neat to see what how the average people who lived around the area went about their days, but also because it made for some cool photos.

After a two-hour guided tour that took us around the city, over several beautiful bridges, and a gorgeous Baroque-style, Jesuit Cathedral, we were given a little bit of free time to grab a bite to eat before our next plan on the itinerary: the Rosengart Museum.  Containing work from some of the most influential artists of the impressionist and pre-modern era, this collection allowed us to see beautiful paintings and sketches from Paul Klee, Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, and even Pablo Picasso. The stunning, blurry abstractions of landscapes from Monet were hung in the direct vicinity of the chaotic, cubist portraits that Picasso was so well-known for. The museum was beautifully curated.

The collection is owned by Angela Rosengart, a prolific art collector who knew many artists of the contemporary age personally. Not only did she meet and talk with artists like the aforementioned few, but she also served as one of Picasso’s muses whom he often enjoyed painting. Picasso’s portraits of Rosengart are in her museum; she was wearing the same necklace as she did in the portrait.  Fortunately for us, Frau Rosengart was present at the museum today and we were able to sing a hymn for her. A few of us even talked with her briefly about how she came about these many fine works which she displays today. When speaking of Picasso’s persona, she said that “Picasso was not just a person, he was more like ten of them.” I personally was really inspired by her life and mission, and I’m so grateful that we were able to show her our gratitude with a song.

After seeing the collection, we were given about an hour of free time before our rehearsal for Palm Sunday mass at St. Leodegar Cathedral. We muscled through some last minute to our changes to our repertoire as we prepared to share our talents with a new group of people. The mass was entirely in German, but a couple of other kids and I had fun trying to guess which part of the mass we were listening to purely from the extremely little German we know and the inflection of the priests voice. We got lost somewhere during the Passion of Christ. After a successful service and a long day, we boarded the bus to head home from Lucerne at around 6:30. Today was certainly a long day, and a long night’s rest will certainly be needed to compensate this. However, we hope for another successful performance tomorrow. –Luc Grenier, Class of 2019

On Wednesday, April 11, a group of thirty-six BC High choir students left Boston for Switzerland. After a red-eye flight, the group wasted no time and started to explore this beautiful country

We started our trip after lunch with a brief bus tour, followed by a walking tour of Zurich. We met up with our tour guide, Heidi, after lunch and took a bus ride through the city, stopping at different places to take pictures. After our bus ride we took a walking tour of the city and got to do some sight seeing. We saw Saint Peter’s Church, which has the largest clock face in Europe, as well as many of the statues and fountains around the city. We finished our tour at Fraumünster, the oldest religious building in Zürich, where we toured the building, saw the excavated crypt beneath it, and performed an informal concert. Though the church traces its roots to the 9th century, it is home to five contemporary stained glass works by Mark Chagall.  After this, we said goodbye to our guide, leaving her with gifts to remember us, as we headed off to our next stop, the FIFA Museum. – Written by Chris Keith, Class of 2019

To finalize our first official day in Zurich before returning to the hotel for dinner, we had the pleasure of touring the FIFA World Football Museum. The museum is comprised of four floors, including the lobby floor, a basement, a second floor, and a third floor. The experience initially begins in the lobby, where there is a central display of every national team football (soccer) jersey, arranged in colored, order according to the rainbow. In addition, the walls are aligned with various medals and trophies, collected over many years during the tournament. It then continues in the basement, which is filled with informational displays and games as well as a large movie theatre where the tour progresses. Following the movie, we then moved to the second floor, which contained many football (soccer) mini games, purely for our enjoyment. Afterwards, the tour ended on the third floor, with a final gift shop and stairs back to the first floor. – Written by Jay Noonan, Class of 2019