The seven-second echo in the cavernous Ely Cathedral lived up to its reputation for the Union College Chamber Singers during their spring break trip to England.
“It lived up to it's name, but we were well prepared,” said director Dianne McMullen, noting that pieces had be performed at a slower tempo to avoid sounding muddled.
The singers performed four concerts in and around London between March 24 and 31.
The trip also included tours of Stratford-Upon-Avon, Shakespeare's birthplace, Bath, Stonehenge and Cambridge, where one student made a sighting of Prince Charles.
The group of 37 included Twitty Styles, professor emeritus of biology, and his wife, Connie. Several students who were not singing accompanied the group as tour managers.
Besides the Lady Chapel of the Ely Cathedral (where the renowned Cambridge Singers do their recordings) the singers performed at Salisbury Cathedral, Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon (where Shakespeare was baptized and buried), and St. Luke's in London.
The centerpiece of the concert program was W.A. Mozart's Regina Coeli. Also featured was sacred music by Mendelssohn and J.M. Haydn, and secular music from the Renaissance to the present.