MUSIC TO THE ‘SOLE’
Joseph Morris treks to Europe for summer internship with Berlin Opera Academy
Morris backpacked across Pyrenean mountains and through the Basque, Meseta and Galicia regions of Spain westward to Santiago de Compostela and the Atlantic.
Joseph Morris’ 500-mile, monthlong hike through France and Spain this summer ended with a seven-week internship at the Berlin Opera Academy.
Morris, a senior music performance-voice major in the School of Music at East Carolina University, started his European journey on May 23 at the beginning of the Camino de Santiago route, in the small town of St. Jean-Pied-de-Port in France. He backpacked across Pyrenean mountains and through the Basque, Meseta and Galicia regions of Spain westward to Santiago de Compostela and the Atlantic, where he arrived near the end of June.
Random acts of kindness from strangers, who offered Morris wine and figs in the heat of siesta hours, miles away from the closest village, are things he will remember.
Morris, who grew up in Black Mountain, said years of hiking in western North Carolina helped prepare him for the trip.
A close colleague told Morris about the opportunity with the Berlin Opera Academy after she was forced to forfeit her internship there due to a conflict.
He served as assistant director for the academy’s production of “Die Fledermaus,” an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II. He also filled in as general production assistant on other shows as needed.
“This internship has given me better insight into what I would like my career to look like and what I will need to do to achieve my goals,” Morris said. “I’ll remember the good times spent putting in long hours with driven, hardworking people to make sure that art could be created at the highest level possible.”
Morris attributes his successful internship to ECU School of Music and German department faculty members and mentors.
“Under their tutelage, I have been able to grow as a well-rounded musician and have been able to go out into the working world and achieve my goals,” Morris said. “While I only took two semesters of German at ECU, it gave me a great head start with the language and ease in communicating in German and navigating my way around a giant city like Berlin.”
The backpacking trip and the internship tested his mental and physical endurance, he said.
“I have gained much greater insight into human kind, how we’re all so differently unique yet share so many things in common as well,” Morris said.
After graduation, Morris plans to pursue a master’s degree in voice.
Morris said the internship provided him with better insight as to what he would like his career to be.