JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – The Minnesota Orchestra had wrapped up its encores Saturday night at Johannesburg City Hall. The conductor had left the stage.
But the two choirs from Minnesota and South Africa, who met just a week ago, weren't done making music together.
As the orchestra filed offstage and concertgoers headed to the exits, the bass singers in the Minnesota Chorale and Johannesburg's Gauteng Choristers started stepping, then singing. Audience members paused, turning toward the stage. Musicians, too, watched, instruments in hand. They hugged one another. A few cried.
It was the final concert of the Minnesota Orchestra's history-making tour of South Africa. But it seemed too soon to go.
"Just to think about what this country's been through — all that conflict and strife," violinist Susie Park said moments afterward. "That people can stand up there and still give love like that is really powerful."
She hadn't been sure what to expect from this tour. "But it kind of shook me, all this energy and the audiences," said Park, the orchestra's first associate concertmaster.
Tears streaming down her cheeks, she said the experience reminded the orchestra of music's pure power.
"It's bigger than ourselves and it's bigger than our own perspectives. We have to share it with the world. And that's what we did here."