The Notre Dame Chorale went on an eight-day domestic tour over winter break, performing seven concerts throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Of the club’s 65 members, 52 singers went on the tour, senior and tour commissioner Jennifer Richardson said. She also said the concerts featured a wide range of musical genres — from renaissance to Christmas carols to folk music — and the tour served as an important opportunity for members of the club to get to know each other.
“We make sure they stay with different people every night, so you’re not with the same people all week,” Richardson said. “That’s how you meet all the people in the club when you have such a big club of 50 people.”
The club organized sleeping arrangements for each night with local families, many of which were families of Chorale alumni, Richardson said.
“This year was special because at one of the stops, one of the former chorale members who’s now an alumni planned the whole thing,” she said. “She was super excited and told us all her stories from when she was a member of the club, and she gave us all these laminated copies of a song they used to sing to each other.”
Junior and tour commissioner Jarissa Sabal said the club raised around $12,500 from the tour through donations and merchandise sales.
“We do a domestic tour every winter as a way to raise money for chorale,” she said. “We’re doing an international tour to Ireland at the end of the year, so most of the money is going to subsidize that.”
The club, which only goes on international tours every four years, has previously visited Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic, according to its website. This year’s Ireland trip is planned for May 18 — the day after Commencement.
Overall, Sabal described the tour as a “very positive experience.”
“I think it’s the best way that we get to know each other and that people mix with other students who they might not sit by or talk to normally,” she said. “And obviously, it makes a lot of money for us. It’s a really weird, but fun, way to meet alumni because we stay with local families every night.”
Richardson said the club, which welcomes Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross students in addition to Notre Dame students, is a unique program at the University.
“We’re the only mixed singing ensemble that doesn’t sing at Mass — we only sing at concerts,” Richardson said. “So we’re kind of like the glee club, but we also have girls.”
