As a part of the University of Notre Dame’s 175th anniversary Notre Dame Trail Celebration, a small group of undergraduate singers presented a special concert in New York City on March 11 at St. Peter’s Church on Barclay Street. The program featured music by James MacMillan, Eriks Esenvalds, and the world premiere of a new piece by Caleb Wenzel. Katie and I were able to join some fabulous talent to represent our university. We took some really excellent photos as a group before we left for our adventure in New York. Here’s one of them:
Katie: Our adventure began on Friday morning when we left campus at 2 AM to catch a 6 AM flight from Chicago-Midway to NYC. Several of us decided to pull an all-nighter and hang out together before leaving campus (in a 24-hour space of course). It was super fun at the time, with Netflix, snacks, and bonding. However, I barely stayed awake on the ride to the airport; I was even excited at the prospect of complimentary airplane tea just to give me something to do other than sleep! I’ve had to travel early in the morning before, but I’ve never pulled an all-nighter to do it. I was drifting pretty badly on the taxi ride to the hotel, and once we got into our hotel rooms, I was OUT! Thank goodness rehearsal wasn’t until the afternoon!
Madelyn: If you ever need a place to stay in the Financial District, I definitely recommend our hotel: the Residence Inn located at 170 Broadway in downtown Manhattan. The rooms were spacious and chic. The staff was friendly and inviting. Three words: free breakfast bar. I only wish we had a better view outside of our window of the city. It was lacking in the grandeur of location, but the pros outweighed the cons.
Katie: On Friday, we had our final rehearsal before concert night! This was the first time we got to practice in the concert space: St. Peter’s Catholic Church on Barclay Street. It’s the oldest Catholic church in NYC, about 230 years old, and the first church in which Father Sorin celebrated Mass upon arriving in the United States! The church is stunning, complete with marble sculpture, stained glass windows, and even a monument dedicated to Father Sorin’s historic visit to the church. The acoustics were perfect for a choral concert, making it a really enjoyable experience to practice and perform there!
After the rehearsal, we were free to make our own dinner plans and explore NYC. Madelyn and I, along with several other members of the group, opted to go see Mozart’s Idomeneo at The Metropolitan Opera! I had a frustrating time with the NYC Subway, as well as being sleep-deprived, but the opera totally lifted my spirits. I got to watch some of my favorite singers (I follow the lead soprano and tenor on Instagram!) perform an opera by my favorite composer in my favorite operatic language (Italian) in one of the greatest opera houses on the planet; I was fangirling pretty hard!!!!! Since the opera was nearly four hours long, most of the group left early to catch up on some zzz’s. Despite my previous all-nighter, I couldn’t help but stay for the entire show- it was a dream come true! The next day, we had plenty of time to sleep in and check out other cool places in NYC!
Madelyn: If you want to explore the artistic and culinary heritage of Italy without leaving the U.S., Eataly is the place to be. This precious eatery is located in downtown NYC and offers a huge variety of pasta, sandwiches, meats… anything you can imagine! The layout of the market is very clean and bright. It is fast-paced and crowded at all times, but who doesn’t love that NYC atmosphere? It was really difficult to find an open table. I tried to snag one but then a woman and baby with gelato walked by and my heart melted – I had to give it up. A perk? I was still able to sample cheeses and bread with a smile. Win-win situation.
I’m a firm believer in the power of everything women can do. While I was in New York, I was lucky enough to see the statue of the defiant girl in front of the Wall Street bull. I was nearly moved to tears at the significance. If you haven’t heard of the statue and would like to read about the story, see the link here. The bull is such an iconic image and having the idea of a small female standing in front of it to symbolize a challenge of the status quo really speaks to me. As a woman who dreams of working in the business world as an adult, I was beyond inspired by the symbolism. I hope that this opens many companies’ eyes to the need of fixing the gender gap and hiring more female board members.
Although the trip was very short, we had some time to peruse the shopping scene in the Financial District. Just a heads up: not many independent stores there for our major fashionistas. I had to settle on Urban Outfitters and ALDO, although the Urban is MUCH bigger than ours in South Bend! If you consider food shopping (which I totally do), I went to a fabulous Irish pub. I wish I could remember the name for you, but I only remember good times with good friends and ND playing basketball while we were there. Oops.
Katie: Finally, it was time to get ready for the Notre Dame Trail Concert. After everyone put on their black dresses and tuxes, we walked over to St. Peter’s and received blue and white flowers (as a nod to Our Lady) for our hair/lapels. The concert went really well and was pretty well attended, no doubt with ND Basketball fans in town for the big game that night in NYC! Attached is a link to a live stream of the entire performance on Facebook; if you have time, I highly recommend watching it, or at least parts of it. Plus, the concert ends with our beloved Alma Mater! The concert made my dad cry; it might just make you cry. Or not. That’s cool too. Nevertheless, Madelyn and I had a fantastic time singing with such esteemed peers and getting to tour in New York City over the break!
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Images provided by the authors