Choir of Joy (Joqat al Farah) US Tour

My name is Hadi Yaziji. I live in Miami, FL. I am writing this post a few days after the marvelous performance of the choir in Jacksonville, which I had the honor of attending in person. Even though I’ve known the choir for decades and I’m well aware of their very high level of sophistication, this live performance took my feelings to a whole different level. That was one of the most memorable nights in my entire life. It is difficult for words to describe the feeling of joy, pride and excitement that I had during and after the show. You can also sense it on the faces of these innocent kids who gave it their best despite their exhaustion–as if they knew they were up to something big– planting the seeds for the future. This performance was above and beyond a marvelous performance. It indeed took us all by surprise, and kind of reminded us that this unbelievable group is ‘imposing’ a deep message of peace, power and respect to that part of the world. I have no doubt that this trip has already done a great job in building a solid bridge between Syria and the US, both culturally and politically. They earned the respect of their viewers, with all the national news coverage they received. It’s indeed a blessing.

I would be honored to participate in some sort of foundation that will facilitate bringing the choir back to the US for more performances, hopefully each year, to spread the word of peace and respect through music.

See you in Miami in 2010 or 2011.

Firas sent us a short video he captured during Sunday’s performance… Thank you Firas!

it is short but is 22 Megs in size - might take a while to download. Make sure you have a good internet connection.

a short clip from Sunday 22 February (22MB)

I have also the original longer version (220 Megs) online but it takes forever to download. If anyone is more technical than I am and can tell me how to stream it, please let me know @ nabilbeit(at)gmail.com

First of all I want to apologize for my delay in writing but there were plenty of things to do in the past couple of days. I will keep you all posted as often as I can (but definitely not more than once a day).

As for now, and just like Lin said a couple of hours ago, the second group arrived safe and sound yesterday and all the choir members are doing good, busy all the time but healthy and having a great time.

They had a mass in the National Shrine Church and it was absolutely great.
After that there was a half an hour reception during which we had the time to meet some American and non American people, who have attended the mass and were fascinated by the Choir in general and the idea of having kids in this age performing abroad. God bless them all, everybody’s working so hard to make this trip as successful as possible and so far i guess we’re succeeding.

On our way back we passed by the white house and some of the monuments in Washington DC then came back to the hotel for a break. now the kids are going for a rehearsal at the Kennedy center and after that hopefully they will come back to rest and be ready for tomorrow.

I just remembered that some parents left some hellos on the blog, I will try to print them out and have the kids read them.

As for yesterday, we went with the first group to Lincoln Memorial. Here are some photos

I hope I gave you all a good idea of what was going on here and as I said I will keep you posted.

I have a little update. First I want to assure all the parents that the second group has arrived safe and sound yesterday night. (thank God)

Today as we all know they had a Mass in the morning, and I wasn’t able to get in touch with anyone, till this minute; I got a very brief word from Mays, that they preformed beautifully, and things are going just as they wish them too.

She promised that within the coming 2 hours, she will have on this blog much more details, and hopefully some photos.

Thank you Parents for your patience!

Please, be assured all kids and adults are well, but, they are really working extremely hard (all the group).

God bless them all!

Good news! The first group has arrived to D.C. with Abouna.

Though exhausted, after the long trip and some unexpected obstacles, but very enthusiastic, and getting ready for a new start today

Tonight, God willing, the second group will arrive safe and sound. We’ll keep you posted!