Stockholm: “Welcome Home” as the Music Goes On Forever

—dispatch from Duncan Matthews ’19, music major and G Choir president

Being in Stockholm, Sweden, has been an extraordinary experience for the Gustavus Choir. We have been told “welcome home” multiple times and it still gives me goosebumps. Members of the Royal Court greeted us in the palace and we had the opportunity to sing for them. I cannot get over how amazing of an experience that was: singing in a space so deeply rooted in the history of our college.

This trip has been going on now for 15 days. Each day I found myself thinking, “It can’t get better than this,” and I have been proved wrong every single day. I am currently sitting in a coffee shop pondering how I am feeling with my last tour concert fast approaching as a senior. The only word that I can muster is thankful. A tour like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The collaborative efforts of the college, Dr. Aune, and the choir in all aspects made this trip as phenomenal as it has been. Vienna, Bratislava, Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Wittenberg, Berlin, and Stockholm—no other choir could have done a tour that covers this much ground with this music as our own.

With this much-anticipated tour coming to an end, myself and 20 other individuals have a little extra to process. As seniors graduating, what do we do after G Choir? Will we ever sing in a group this high quality and close ever again? Every year I have been sad when the seniors ride the roller coaster of their final year through all of those “last times” they must endure. I have always been woeful to see them leave, and have also thought, “Thank goodness it’s not me.” Now we graduating seniors are in that boat, and it is nerve-wracking to think of life after graduation. G Choir has been a stable presence in our lives for a long time, and it is comforting to know that we always have a home within the choir long after our time at Gustavus.

This tour has connected the choir with the countless alumni and companions who have enlightened us with stories from their lives and travels. Those singing in the choir have taught all of the choir members, especially seniors, that there is music after Gustavus. We need to apply all we have learned at Gustavus in those musical endeavors and our own lives.

I am sad to see this tour come to an end, but this experience has, hands down, been the best of my life to date. Music is a gift in all shapes and forms. To everyone that helped organize and contributed the trip: THANK YOU SO MUCH. To Dr. Aune: Thank you for everything you have taught all of us and for making this the greatest experience ever. We all love you. Every single member of the choir expresses their wholehearted gratitude for you and everyone involved in the tour.

We are all ecstatic for the rest of the year, and for concerts to come. In the words of Greg Aune: “Music is like heaven. It goes on and on forever.”