La Belle France #1

KU European Organ Study Tour VI:

The South of France Bonjour!

Welcome to KU European Organ Study Tour VI: The South of France!

I don’t know how the weather has been where you live, but where I live it has been downright cold lately. The South of France sure does sound good right about now.

This is the first in a series of newsletters that you will receive this spring entitled La Belle France (“Beautiful France”). This phrase sums up my expectations about the places we will see, the churches we will visit, and the organs we will play and hear.

Each newsletter will progressively give you new details about our time together this spring. Every edition will feature some business items, things to think about as we prepare for the trip, profiles of tour members, and fun facts about the different places we will be going. These newsletters will be posted on our tour page on the KU organ and church music web site. The address of this site is www.organ.ku.edu. Look under the European tours icon. We will use this site to post tour pictures, the itinerary, newsletters, etc. As I have worked with these tours over the years, I have come to think of each trip in three phases: the preparation phase, the trip itself, and reflection time after the trip. I believe that preparing well and learning about

what we will be seeing adds to the experience itself. In addition to the trip itself, I hope that you will enjoy this time of preparation and anticipation as well as the post-trip experience that will culminate in a tour party including projecting pictures from the tour and sharing a meal together this coming fall. Business

(1) Dave Rhodes Many of you know Dave Rhodes, our travel agent, from past tours. For those who do not, you are in for a treat. Dave has been organizing and leading European tours for decades. When he is not traveling the world, he lives in Hesston, Kansas, a small town north of Wichita. He has been our travel agent for the past five tours. I cannot imagine doing a tour without him. Dave is both an invaluable resource and a wonderfully congenial travel companion. You will all get to know him personally, as he will travel with us throughout the tour. Feel free to address travel questions to either of us at any time. To contact Dave by phone, call 620-327-4995. His email address is rrtravel@juno.com. (2) Passport If you have not already done so, you should begin the process of obtaining or updating your passport as needed. Simply visit your local post office or go online to http://travel.state.gov/passport. Let me know if you have any difficulties with this. There are services that you can use to expedite this process, but I would recommend taking action early so that this is not necessary. (3) Payments By now all of you should have paid $1000 (two payments of $500 each). If you have not, please send Dave a check for the remaining $500 as soon as possible. The final payment is due March 15. The total cost for the three different categories of tour members is as follows: Friends: $3100 Alumni: $2500 Students: $1560 (4) Tour Members I am publishing a list of the tour members below. There will be 32 tour members total, plus Dave Rhodes and myself.

Tour Director

Michael Bauer*

Tour Consultant Carolyn Shuster-Fourier* Travel Agent

David Rhodes*

KU Organ and Church Music Students Katie Burchfield Shirley Cheng Filippa Duke* Michael Emmerich Chris Gage Nicholas Good* Jo Kraus* Alex Meszler Andrés Mojica Laura Rau* Mark Stotler* Sean Thomas KU Organ and Church Music Alumni Stacie Lightner* Claudette Schiratti* Mary Ellen Sutton* Friends of KU Cynthia Althauser* Chase Becker Catherine Bull* Carl Edwards Jean Henssler John Hess* Valerie Hess* Michelle Klima Andrew Lang* Mayumi Namura

Nancy Owens Daniel Pyle (former KU organ faculty)* Dean Schoenfeld Orene Schoenfeld John Schroeder* Margaret Schroeder* Francis Stracensky A few statistics abut the tour members. There are 24 organists and 8 auditors on the tour. 16 people – exactly half the tour – are veterans of earlier KU organ study tours. I‘ve marked the tour alumni with an asterisk. For those who are returning tour members - welcome back! I really love the fact that so many of those who have been on our earlier tours want to return again. We have done this enough now that there is a real sense of community that develops based on shared memories from experiences with different organs and cultures. For those of you who are new – we’re also thrilled that you are on board. I hope that you will have a great time and that some of you will likewise find your way back for future tours. As you can see, our breakdown is 12 organ and church music students, 3 alumni of our organ and church music program, and 17 friends of KU, including Daniel Pyle, who served on the organ faculty with me for one semester during my first year at the University. (5) Flights If you have not already done so, now would be a good time to book your flights. Ideally, we would like to have everyone arrive in Lyon sometime during the first half of the morning on May 21st and either depart from Paris on May 31st or continue with your tour on your own. We realize that some of you are planning excursions in Europe either before or after the tour. This is, of course entirely up to you. Eventually we would like to receive all of your itineraries, but there is no rush on this. For those who arrive at the airport in Lyon on the morning of the 21st, we will pick you up with our bus. If you are coming early, as I know is the case for some of you, you should meet us at the hotel that morning. Our itinerary will begin with a brief welcome and orientation meeting after lunch followed by sight-seeing in Lyon that afternoon.

(6) Roommates I know the various couples who are on the tour together. If you are traveling by yourself and have a preference in regard to your roommate, please let me know. If you don’t care, I’ll simply assign you a roommate. I’d like to finalize the roommate list within the next month if at all possible. (7) Hotels Enclosed is the list of the hotels where we will be staying during the tour. Note particularly L'Hôtel Méditerranée, which sits right on the beach in Narbonne. Also note that we will staying in Grenoble with a view of a wonderful mountain landscape. (8) Practical Matters In subsequent editions of La Belle France I will discuss other practical matters – clothing, money, packing, organ repertoire and registration, language, photography, recording, etc. I will also be sending you a release form to sign and return to me indicating that KU is not responsible for your injuries if you fall off an organ balcony or step in front of a bus. We will, however, pray for you – in our own secular way. Traveling Companions I continue to believe that one of the great things about tours is the opportunity to learn in the context of community. In order to help us get to know one another, I’d like to publish some information about each of the tour members in subsequent newsletters. It would be helpful if you could email me some pertinent and/or interesting facts about your life. I’d love to know things like where you live, your personal/professional background, your history of European travel and, perhaps experience with these specific sites, your French language skills, and any interesting anecdotes like favorite hobbies etc. Pictures of yourself are also welcome if you’d like to include one. This process can help us get to know one another more quickly. Featured Tour Members of the Day In the absence of information from anyone else, I’ll start with myself.

This is a picture of me on our last tour to Italy – riding in a boat around Venice. I’m originally from the Midwest and Northeast, having grown up in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Upstate New York. My father and mother were both university professors (education and music respectively). As they say, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Since leaving home I’ve lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Cincinnati, Ohio; Geneva, Switzerland; Dallas, Texas; and now, a combination of Lawrence, KS and Omaha, NE. I’m now finishing my 28th year on the faculty at the University of Kansas. (I started teaching there when I was about six, give or take…). Besides organ and church music I enjoy following sports – especially KU basketball – going to museums, concerts, and movies. In addition to two years spent living in Switzerland, I’ve been to Europe many other times, the first of which was on an organ study tour led by my own teacher, Warren Hutton. Sharing a small part of his legacy by leading these tours gives me a real sense of fulfillment. I hope that spurs some efforts from some of you. Please write me with anything you’d like to share about yourself. .

Carolyn Shuster-Fournier

Those tour members who were on last tour to France or students who were at KU last year, will remember Carolyn Shuster-Founier, the choir organist at La Trinité (Olivier Messiaen’s church) in Paris. Carolyn has assisted me in designing and setting up the tour. She has been a good friend for many years (dating back to high school), a wonderful colleague, and a tremendous help in the planning and execution of this tour. Walking One practical matter that you could begin soon is walking. I can’t stress this enough. On past tours we have discovered that buses can’t go everywhere we need to go, especially in the setting of old towns. Walking is simply unavoidable on occasion and, in truth, it is also a wonderful way to see the cities and villages where we will be traveling. We have an active schedule on the tour and you will feel better throughout the tour if you are in better shape. You should plan to be able to walk at a good pace for two miles. Thus, I would recommend that, if you don’t already do so, please begin a regular program of walking so that you are comfortable with the walking that you will want to do on the tour, as well as the pace of the tour schedule. French word or phrase of the day: Les cadeaux - "the gifts" - otherwise known as budget busters Featured Web Sites of the Day In this space, I will list one or more web sites that you can visit to give you more information about what we will be seeing on the tour. Here are some sites to whet your appetite:

(1) See the youtube video of Diego Innocenzi playing our very first organ, the Cavaillé-Coll at St.François-de Sales in Lyon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_44rk0687M

(2) See http://pleasuresofthepipes.info/Lyon-StFrancois-de-Sales.html This website allows you to see and hear a variety of performances on this organ as well as telling you a bit about the organ and the church

(3) This youtube video will give you a nice taste of some of the sights around Lyon, including the two major churches, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mjPAHfyh78

(4) http://wikitravel.org/en/Lyon - gives a nice overview of the city including its geography and history

Happy viewing. Days Until We Depart: 110 Until next time… Au revoir, Michael Bauer