Students studying in Florence last semester, united over their love for music, formed a student-directed choir.
“We realized at our introduction meetings that many of us who were studying in Florence were interested in continuing with music while over there,” Paul Clark said. “Alicia Brozovich wanted to continue her work with her music degree, so she formed us into a choir with the intent of singing a few songs as a thank you to the staff of Villa Morghen at the end of the semester”.
The original goal of the choir was to form unity with those traveling to Florence for the semester, but it quickly became much more.
Brozovich is the director, and the choir became Allison Thornton’s Discovery Day project on the experiences that they had singing.
They began singing all over Florence, first at Santa Maria del Fiore.
The choir also preformed for a Mass with the St. Thomas Moore Society at St. Paul’s basilica on the outskirts of Rome.
The choir also performed in front of the tombs of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica.
They performed a farewell concert at Castelo de Poggio (Castle of the Hill) for the Villa Morghen staff and friends they had met during their semester.
Students enjoyed singing at all of the places they visited.
Their favorite place to perform was the Monte Cassino, which is where the tombs of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica are located.
“It was one of the last places we sang together,” Dave Sullivan said. “We were able to give a completely unique gift to the memory of our college’s names Saints, and one of the men that saved Western civilization by answering the call of Christ. It was like going back to the roots of our faith life here at Benedictine and singing a love song.”
In Florence, they practiced two to four times a week.
In addition, the students attended private lessons with Brozovich.
The choir is planning to make a CD of the pieces they studied to add to their portfolios.
In the near future, they plan on performing for Thornton’s Discovery Day project, and plan to sing at Masses at St. Benedict’s parish.
According to Brozovich the goal of the choir continues to be the same, “to promote community through music.”
“The choir completely transformed and enriched my experience of Italy,” Brozovich said. “I was able to continue working on music in my first directing experience, and together, we were able to touch the lives of hundreds of people in Italy. It was incredible, and I could never thank the choir and our supporters enough.”
