During April break, over 100 Lexington High School chorus students traveled across Spain on a ten-day choral tour. Conducted by Chorus Director Jason Iannuzzi, several LHS choruses performed in historic cathedrals and city churches spread across Madrid, Seville, Cordoba, and Granada. The trip allowed the Chamber Singers, Madrigal Singers, Concert Choir, and Honors Chorus students to share their music on an international stage.
Behind the scenes, the Spain tour was the culmination of two years of planning and preparation. The idea began to take shape in 2022, incited by a past interdisciplinary performance during which the Chorus worked with musician and visual artist Tassos Strikos. Strikos had designed watercolors inspired by 20th-century Spanish poet Federico García Lorca to go along with the choral pieces.
“I thought it might be a fascinating experience to bring the Lorca choral pieces and the artwork to Spain, with Mr. Strikos as our tour courier,” Iannuzzi said.
Detailed planning for the trip was already underway by the summer of 2023, and fundraising efforts began during the 2024-2025 school year. The LHS Chorus Department raised over $30,000 through a wide range of student-led fundraisers.
“The Madrigal Singers accepted donations while caroling at Seasons Four,” Nyneishia Schneider, a sophomore and member of Concert Choir, said. “We also had a karaoke coffee house competition, where people bought tickets to watch students compete.”
Other fundraising efforts included a mattress sale and ticketed performances.
The preparation for the trip began with summer assignments and continued through multiple school performances. Students started learning their music well before the school year started and spent months refining their technique, language, and expression. The repertoire was selected to reflect Spanish cultural and religious traditions, with some pieces explicitly tied to the cities where they would be performed.
“We were able to interplay Spanish-language music of the Americas. We sang Spanish folk song arrangements using Castilian Spanish, a piece from the Northeastern Basque region, and an Argentinian folk mass using Rioplatense Spanish,” Iannuzzi said.
The students on the trip had a memorable experience. Andrea Le, a junior and a member of the Chamber Singers, commented on what made it special for her.
“It is a really good opportunity to see music from a different angle, in an entirely different environment, whether that be somewhere in the country or somewhere in a totally different country,” Le said. “I think we really touched the audience there. I think they really enjoyed seeing an American chorus come to Spain and sing pieces that they know about Spain or their religion… Especially after the death of Pope Francis, I think people were really touched.”
The trip did have some challenges, one being that many singers experienced fatigue after performing for ten days straight in a new environment.
“As the trip went on, we got more and more tired… I know some students did end up getting sick or not being able to perform certain concerts, which was challenging,” Le said. “It is a lot harder to live for a few days in a totally different environment, [since] your lifestyle basically changes for ten days.”
Additionally, on the final day, there was a nationwide power outage that forced the choruses to cancel their last performances. They made the best of the situation, however, by singing at their hotel rather than at their performance venue. The performance was a bittersweet last moment together, as senior members would soon be leaving the group.
“It was such an emotional moment for all of us to sit together, especially since it would be the seniors’ last trip and everyone was singing together one final time,” Schneider said.