With a box half-filled with CDs, almost a dozen Celtic crosses and a Trinity Knot hanging above his computer, Daniel Craig looked the part of a music professor with an Irish favoring.
As the Chamber Choir director, Craig took the choir for its fifth Ireland tour.
With help from the university and grants, each of the 50 Chamber Choir students paid $1,100 for the entire trip, which included flight, housing and meals.
The tour lasted nine days with three major concerts as well as several impromptu concerts around the country, Craig said.
In the itinerary, Craig listed sheet music as a carry-on requirement.
“Travelers love it when we sing at the gate,” it read.
Unlike Indiana, Ireland is filled with green, “so green,” Craig said.
Craig said he loves when he sees the students taking it all in and asking all the right questions about the area.
“My favorite is when students step in a professional setting and succeed,” he said. “That’s golden.”
On the third day of the trip, the Chamber Choir and Craig bumped into some unexpected surprises.
“Our bus was backing up and backed into a building,” Craig said.
Craig and the students were not on the bus at the time, but Craig did watch the incident.
“It just backed up, and the Hostel (the people allowing the Chamber Choir a place to live) asked if I was going out to help him, and I was like ‘No, I’ll let him cool off for a bit,'” he said.
The driver called a carpenter and prepared a makeshift window.
“We rolled with it,” Craig said. “I asked the students if they were OK with it, and they were.”
The last concert was held in St. Patrick’s Cathedral where USI’s Chamber Choir has an open invitation to perform.
Sophomore theatre major Samuel Wentzel said he went to Ireland because it is a different experience.
“You know here, there are so many opportunities, and over there is a totally different experience,” he said. “We went on this walk to an ocean side, and we stayed there until really late to where you couldn’t see anything. It was really cool because it can’t (be seen) like that anywhere here.”
Wentzel said many students from the tour plan on going back for individual tours.
Sophomore theatre major Daniel Harris said he wants to live in Ireland after his experience.
Harris said the music aspects are what drew him in to the tour.
“I have a real theoretical head about the music and stuff, and I just love all the roots and history about music, too,” Harris said. “I just wanted to see how real it was over there.”
Photos provided by Daniel Craig.
The following are Chamber Choir members who went on the fifth Ireland tour: Anna-Maria Babcock, Brooke Biddle, Kayla Black, Catherine Boeringa, John Brothers, Melissa Brown, Chase Bryant, Breally Bunch, Reid Chancellor, Kasey Conkling, Morgan Cox, Jacquelyn Craig, Jennifer Craig, Joshua Dillard, Emily Durchholz, Liesl Eck, Hanna Friz, Shawnte Gaston, Dewann Gibson, Casey Gillingham, Lance Grubb, Patrick Hansen, Ashley Harris, Daniel Harris, Bridgette Hoover, Chase Hunt, Chase Johnston, Michael Kay, Tyler McClure, Daniel Kopp, Ryan Leibering, John Litwiler, Jordan Mason, Lee Poag, Anna Riebel, Cory Ritter, Meredith Salley, Danielle Scott, Caleb Slatter, Adrian Small, Gwendolyn Snow, Brian Sonderman, Jessica Spears, Caleb Starr, Robbillie Stevenson, Chanel Tobin, Lindsey Tudor, Kaci Turner, Samuel Wentzel and Samantha Williams.
