Sarah,

I enjoyed reading about the adventure of the Choir in Africa. I had been a member of the Tech Glee Club for four years in the late 50s and early 60s under the leadership of B. Franz Schubert, an impressive name for anyone in the music business. Our touring was limited pretty much to the immediate Midwest area and travel was by the school bus. The quartet I was in made a presentation in one of the high schools in Milwaukee, which was very well received, at least by the young ladies in the audience, and they were hanging out of the windows yelling as we made our way back to the bus. I may have even signed an autograph or two. We had our 15 minutes of fame right there and then the Beatles had to show up and spoil everything and we went back to being engineers.

I had the privilege of singing with the Orpheus Male Chorus of Phoenix, AZ for 17 years and we too did concert tours overseas with comparable experiences as those enjoyed by Tech’s Concert Choir. I’m sorry that I was born too soon to participate with that group. Our first trip took us to Australia in 1987, which was the first time either my wife or I had been out of the Country. It was a 14 hour flight from Phoenix to Sidney, with a stop to refuel in Honolulu. Of course, with New Zealand so near by we spent a week or so in that place also. Both countries are marvelous to visit and the people are great.

We next went, in 1990 to  Germany, Austria and Switzerland, with a side trip into Hungary, which was still Communist controlled at that time. Soldiers with machine guns boarded the train at the border with Austria and checked our visas and passports. They did not look happy. As we walked through the shopping district of Budapest, someone smashed the window of a store right behind us, presumably to steal something, although we didn’t actually see anything.

In 1992 we were scheduled to go to Japan, but the trip there fell through, for unknown reasons, so we wound up going to Russia instead. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, their doors were suddenly open to travel, which provided a great opportunity as far as we were concerned, although we had already started classes on learning some Japanese phrases. It was fascinating to see what 80-90 years of Communism had done to their country and what it didn’t do. The hotel we stayed at in Moscow was quite new and had been designed by a Swedish firm. Since freedom was also quite new, the hotel was being operated the same way it had been before. There were guards at the entrances to keep the prostitutes out. Each floor had a key lady, whose job was to collect your room key when you left and issue a card, to be shown at the entrance, when coming and going. When you came back to the room you turned over the card to the key lady and she handed out your room key. The lights in the lobby were very dim and few were actually lit. The escalator from the lobby up to the mezzanine only operated about two hours a day and there was no fixed schedule for that. Riding about town on our tour buses we saw many buildings with scaffolding in front of them, but no evidence that anything was actually happening. The scaffolds were rusty and looked permanent. There were few vehicles on the streets and, of those we did see, a large percentage were being pushed to the nearest gas station, where they could look forward to a long wait in line at the few that were open. Surprisingly the churches had not really been taken over or modified, for the most part. They had been largely maintained in their original condition, except for needing cleaning and refurbishing. Whether or not they had been active up until our visit was not clear, but they were certainly busy in the monasteries we saw. There is so much to say about Russia that it could fill many pages, but I will fight the urge to continue on that subject.

In 1995 Orpheus visited France, England, Scotland, Belgium and Holland. This was the year of the 50th anniversary of the end of WW II. We had several veterans who participated in a ceremony at the memorial at Omaha Beach where the graves of some 10,000 American soldiers are located. When you see the what the soldiers faced it is a wonder that anyone survived. We rode up the Eiffel Tower elevator half way, which was far enough to suit me and my fear of heights. We still got a good view of the city of Paris. We were scheduled to sing at a church one night that was located near the seaside where the allies landed in 1944. Our bus driver got lost and we spent quite some time circling through the French countryside and the road kept getting narrower until, at one point it was little more than a trail. We finally got to the church about 10 p.m. and everyone had waited patiently so we got up and started the program at that late hour and all of us had an enjoyable evening, but a little difficulty getting up the next morning. We rode the canals in Amsterdam and saw Ann Frank’s house, watched diamonds being cut and flowers being auctioned off in huge arenas in a warehouse covering many acres. We found that the only thing dangerous about Amsterdam was stepping out in front of a bunch of bicycles, which seemed more numerous than cars. We were invited to a reception in Glasgow with a number of local dignitaries in what I suppose is the city council, or its equivalent. Beautiful old building with lots of character. There were a few gentlemen in kilts, probably to entertain the visitors. In front of the building a commercial of some sort was being filmed with a lovely young woman in a ball gown interacting with someone in an orange ball. After our concert that evening we had a party, hosted by the Orpheus Chorus of Glasgow, with much drinking and dancing. The Scots really let their hair down at party time!

In 1993 Orpheus was invited to an international music festival in Missoula, Montana. There were quite a few foreign countries involved, but the most impressive were those from Africa. They were so uninhibited and joyful you just wanted to join them in whatever they were doing. I’m sure that’s the same feeling that the Tech Choir members experienced in Africa. I guess that is ultimately what I wanted to say after interjecting all of the other background commentary. I have shared the Choir’s experience many times and know how they were affected by it. As a result of these excursions my wife and I took several other trips overseas on our own, including three to Ireland. We never regretted the expenditure of time or money and have great memories from each trip.

David Elack, P.E. ’60