For three weeks in November I was very lucky to travel across South America with the Monteverdi Choir, the English Baroque Soloists and John Eliot Gardiner, assisting on a fantastic programme of Monteverdi, Scarlatti, Carissimi and Purcell.
Going to several different cities in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, we ended our tour in Curitiba, where we had the chance to visit one of the ALEGRO centres for music education. Here, this fantastic project works in partnership with the Dorcas Association, to teach music to children from incredibly deprived backgrounds. After hearing them perform to us, we invited them to come to our rehearsal the next day, where they ended up joining the choir on stage for the Monteverdi Mass. The children’s response during the rehearsal and their love for music was very moving and we couldn’t have asked for a more fitting end to a wonderful tour.
