Our second concert day was in the amazing Burgos cathedral. We originally were supposed to perform in a smaller chapel but amazingly got upgraded to sing the main chapel. Throughout the entire day I was ecstatic that we were going to be singing in the third largest cathedral in Spain. Not only was it such an amazing venue from an aesthetic perspective, but I just felt so honored that we could share our love of music with the people of Burgos.

Backing up in the day we had a full day of free time. I went to a convent on the outskirts of the city with a group of other Glee Club members. It was such an amazing experience to learn about the history of the convent, and especially to see the mixing of cultures that exists in Spain. Even though the convent is thoroughly Catholic, the highlight of the decorations were the Moorish wall and ceiling designs. It was so interesting to see this blend of cultures that couldn’t really exist anywhere else in the world.

Another amazing aspect of the day was that we had so much time to get to know some of the members of Glee that we normally don’t interact with much. As a tenor I don’t see much of the altos and sopranos so it was wonderful sharing a long Spanish lunch with some of my fellow glee clubbers Sophie and Matre.

After lunch I was hoping to check out the Human Evolution Museum, but was confronted with the infamous Siesta and realized that the museum was closed for several hours and instead went back to my room to memorize music.

Moving forward to the actual concert, I was so moved when I got to see the concert attendees just loving our performance. Music is an amazing art, a language of emotion almost, and seeing its effects on people from a completely different culture was just pure bliss.

- Mark Martinez GS

Images courtesy of Mark Martinez GS, Catherine Sweeney '20, Anna Dong '20