BLOGS: Day 4 -6

We will try and be more concerned with setup when we reach a good connection tomorrow. All well apart from colds and sore throats. Hope all is well back home.

Day 4- Saturday 4^th July 2009 Contd.

Sam Cutcher

Everyone woke up and stalked the freaky corridors of our accommodation and met a meal most like to call breakfast. I grabbed like every other morning about 5 little nutella tubs and a couple of croissants. We had a rehearsal which was our second and last. After all that business we went on a mystic journey, departing in our lustrously furnished “Blaguss” (bus). We floated over Vienna’s slight contours in beautiful blue seats before arriving at what seemed to be Austria’s equivalent of George Street. Flooded with emos, Goths etc, this street would hold in store many wild adventures, but not really. I bought a pizza for lunch and a t-shirt, in between taking some cheeky photos. We roamed down through some old buildings to the big gothic church that was home to the “Summa Cum Laude opening ceremony. The church was fancy. We then bailed and floated back to the mental asylum that we were living in at the time. We had a budget dinner and legged it playing soccer before going to bed. Goodnight.

Day 5 - Sunday 5^th July 2009

Thomas Avgenicos

Today was to be the most important day of our tour; of course, today was the Summa Cum Laude festival. We woke up at the daunting hour of 6.30. We raced down to breakfast to have the first croissants with nutella. After breakfast we loaded the truck and anxiously waited in the bus. Thee were many interesting conversations in the bus. As we arrived at the Musikverein, the first thing I noticed was the amazing architecture of the building. The bleep, bleep duty group D did hardly any unpacking and the rest of us had to help. We walked up and down the stairs because Miss Jones the genius couldn’t find it! (Teacher: Who said geniuses were perfect?) When we walked onto the stage I immediately looked up to see a gold plated ceiling with ornate paintings. As I played middle ‘c’ on my trumpet I noticed the beautiful echo; it was amazing. The band played magnificently and in fact played so well that we were called back to play in the gala performance Tuesday night.

We then made our way to an awesome Austrian pub/barn place. The trip was pretty cool with wheat fields and sunflowers. When we arrived we saw some crazy dude in weird clothes and a sexy feather hat. It was hard to breathe there, as all you could smell was cigarettes. When the stage band played it was as if they’d rediscovered jazz…they really enjoyed it. When we finished a few of us went to a nearby soccer field. I was quite glad that Michael was on their team because he was pretty unco. The rain started and we had to stop. We had dinner at a guesthouse.

When we arrived back at the Peace Village we went straight to the soccer field, big people against little people. Little people were owning thanks to Ben Herbert, but then he went to the dark side. Obviously we won anyway. We probably won by such a large margin because Paveley was so bad. Thanks Paveley!

Sofie Kristensen

Today we woke up early and after breakfast we went on our coach and headed into the city to the same place we saw the Mozart concert. The view was great from the stage, most things coated with gold. The sound was great. After our very good performance we watched our competition. They were good, but a bit over enthusiastic, Some swaying to the music and swinging their instruments. After their performance we went to our coach and drove for about 2 hours through really pretty countryside. The fields of sunflowers and poppies were so colourful. When we arrived at Grobschonau we followed the sound of the Radetzky March to a small pub, with lots of people drinking from large cups filled with beer. We played a few songs in a more relaxed environment than this morning. Around 5.30 we were fed, it was quite nice. When we were back home we had the rest of the evening to relax until tomorrow.

Nicole Fehlner

Today we performed for the Summa Cum Laude Festival and then we watched the other competing concert band from Slovenia. We played our best but the Slovenian band unfortunately played better. After our performance we drove for 2 hours to the Austrian village of Grobschonau. All of us were very hungry. The Austrian village band were dressed up in traditional Austrian clothes and played the Radetsky March. We then performed and the Austrians were cheering us on and clapping enthusiastically, The Stage band then performed and after a while we were served dinner and dessert at a hotel in the village then we got in the bus and drove back to our accommodation. When we were back everyone played soccer and some of us played basketball until we had to go to sleep.

Ben Herbert

Today the band would play in the festival we had been working towards for 18 months; the Summa Cum Laude. This is an annual festival held for youth bands all around the world held in Austria. The festival has an amazing venue called the Musikverein. Much of it was made of gold on the statues, the ceiling and the walls. The ceiling had many renaissance style paintings and it was said to have on of the best acoustics in the world. This venue spurred the band to greater heights. Rather than cracking under pressure the band played some of the best music it’s ever played. Because of the acoustics we could hear other parts much better and there was a fantastic ring after each pause. The band played Orient Express, the set piece, Sheperds Hey, the Australian piece, Danza Syntonica and the 3^rd movement of Patza. After playing we sat in the audience to listen to the other concert band. The band was fairly similar in standard, perhaps a little better but they were an all adults band.

We then packed up and travelled for 2 hours on the coach (stopping at a service station to break the budget on the way) and paly at the village Grobschonau. It was a very cut village. The Concert Band, Stage Band and Jazz Combo all played and we were provided with a nice meal afterward. Back at our accommodation half the band played soccer in bare feet. Sore and grubby we were inwardly thankful for our beds after a very tiring day.

Teacher Highlight

An awesome performance in the competition by our students. Chatswood should be proud.

Gavin Staines

The day of the competition. We performed at 9.35am to a small but appreciative audience. What an experience to be able to perform in the Musikverein- the home of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra!! The acoustics were amazing- when we finished our opening piece- "Orient Express"- the sound kept ringing- something we won’t forget for some time. I was very pleased with our performance- parents and supporters all commented on the high standard of our playing. We received a ‘good’ ranking.

Later in the day we made our way to Grobschonau- approximately 2 hours from Vienna. This was the same village the Band visited in 2004. They were holding a Music Festival, and we were their guests. We arrived in time to hear another band perform ( they had travelled some 5hours to attend). This was to be an opportunity for both our Concert and Stage Bands to play. Both Bands performed well. Special mention must be made of the performances of vocalist Roxy Cooper and the Jazz Combo – both were very well received.

Day 6 - Monday 6^th July 2009

Tessa

Today we woke at 7am to the sound of the church bells ringing, soon after we went back to sleep. What was once an amazing phenomenon is now an irritation that yells at us to get up. At 8 o’clock we went down to breakfast. To our disappointment the croissants and nutellas were all gone and we decided to go back to our room. After breakfast we had the whole morning off. We decided to spend our free time walking through the streets of Vienna and when it became too hot we went back to our accommodation. At about 11 we drove into town. When we arrived at about 12 we went to the University of Music to do workshops with successful musicians. The first workshop was a workshop with a guy on his French Horn, the second was one with a composer who wrote music for movies. He showed us many examples of his work and they all sounded really cool. The last workshop was one with a guy who spoke very little English. We sight read a song that sounded awesome. After this (about 2 o’clock) we went back on the bus to drive to a school that we were going to play at. The drive was about an hour and a half and everyone was really hungry because we were given the wrong information about available food stops. At 4.30 the local village fed us for free and then we played to a crowd of Austrians that enjoyed our music a lot, it was fun. Finally after that we enjoyed a dinner of Schnitzel chips, Austrian food that was much better than the glop that they are trying to feed us at our accommodation. After this we celebrated Staines’ birthday with cake and a song and thanked him for all his hard work. Finally it was time to load the truck and take the long journey back to Vienna.

Carmen Leung

Today, after breakfast, we headed off on the coach and went to the University of Music to attend 3 workshops held by professionals in the field of music. The 1^st workshop was held by a man who played the French Horn extremely well and who told of music’s flexibility to fly with dynamics and altering speed. He told us the techniques to bring out the best in music. He was accompanied by a lady on the piano when he played pieces by Beethoven and Strauss. It was very beautifully played because his use of dynamics and his way of ‘music appreciation’ made us think of how small things would change music so dramatically.


After that, the 2^nd workshop was conducted by a man named Otto M Schwartz. He played us a collection of his composed pieces that included funk, pop, orchestral & jazz. My favourite piece was Bonaparte, which was a very long piece for a brass/ orchestral/ symphonic band bout the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte’s reign. He was awesome. Lastly a man named Herbert came and decided to try and conduct a piece, native to Vienna, to us. It sounded alright towards the few bars at the end.

After the workshops, we took another 2 hour drive to a country town, Irnfriz. The gig was alright but the crowd wasn’t as enthusiastic as the previous country town. The atmosphere was definitely different. After all the performances from the concert band/ stage band/ and jazz combo we had delicious meal of schnitzel, fries etc (buffet style).

Oh, and for the most important announcement ever posted, it was Gavin’s birthday!! Happy 52^nd Gav! They brought out Champagne and toasted Gav for a various amount of things including contribution and dedication to the school and the band. We made a book of signed and written notes to him from the whole band. It was a really good day. 13 days left!

Gavin Staines

As part of the Festival we participated in three workshops at the University of Music. AFrench Horn player in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra spoke about the composers who had grown up in Vienna, and how the traditions of Viennese music was passed down from one generation to the next. He demonstrated this through his performances.

Otto Schwarz, a composer, spoke to us about his music. A relatively young composer he played three compositions he had written for Concert Band - Sax Pack, Bonaparte and Funky Music. Many of our students really enjoyed his music and commented that they would like to play his music.

The final workshop was led by Herbert, the conductor of the Vienna Police Band. Herbert conducted a medley of songs from Strauss's De Fliedermaus.

Following the rehearsal, we travelled to Irnfritz where we performed an evening concert to the local people. Concert Band, Stage Band and Jazz Combo all performed - vocalist Liam Burrows was a huge hit with the audience.

Isabelle

Today started like every other day here. The sun rose at about four in the morning. Three hours later I made my way down to breakfast. After breakfast the majority of the band went to explore the town and to have something decent to eat. Shortly after we returned to the hotel we set out for the day to the University of Music in Vienna.

We had three sessions each 45 minutes long, the first and second were lectures and the third was practical. In the first lecture we were addressed by a pro French Horn player, during the second, by a composer who was part of the jury yesterday. During the practical we were conducted by another of yesterday’s judges. Straight after the University we moved onto Infiriz where we had a concert. It was a two hour bus ride and as we had not eaten since breakfast, it is needless to say everybody was complaining about empty stomaches when we reached our destination We were saved by the staff there who gave us some food before we played. Now with our stomachs full we could play. The concert started with Concert Band followed by Stage Band and finally Jazz combo. After the concert we were given dinner where we celebrated Mr Staines’ and Patch’s birthdays. Following dinner we went back on the bus for our drive home. When we reached the hotel it was 10 so that meant lights out and the end of another day on tour.

Happy Birthday Mr Staines and Patch!

Teacher Highlight

All the town turned up at the performance and generously gave us a late lunch as well as dinner. Travelling with 64 hungry students is not advised!