Salzburg Music Trip 2011
At quarter past six on the morning of Sunday the 19th of June, forty-four students and teachers boarded a coach headed for Austria, with nothing to accompany them but a rucksack, blankets, and a trailer full of musical instruments. Although we were rather tired by the early start, there was an unmistakable air of excitement and apprehension as we waved goodbye to our families and began the thirty hour trip that would take us through England, France, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany before finally bringing us to our destination – Salzburg.
One sleepless night on the coach later, we found ourselves in the scenic village of Golling, nestled in amongst a vista of mountains and valleys, a feature prevalent in much of Austria. Despite our exhaustion, we had just enough energy to perform a rehearsal for the week’s upcoming concerts – a remarkable show of stoicism from pupils and teachers alike!
On Tuesday morning, we had a walking tour of Salzburg town centre, and saw a number of the sites where the musical “Sound of Music” was filmed, including the convent and the magnificent Mirabell Gardens, where we performed later in the week. In the afternoon, we had our first performance, in a care home for the elderly. The concert went according to plan and was very well-received. We were even told someone had taped the concert to send a copy to Canada! In the evening, we went to a concert in the Mirabell Palace, featuring work by Mozart, Schubert and Brahms. We were all very much impressed by the performance, especially since the musicians didn’t use music.
Our next performance took place at the lakeside town of St Gilgen, the home of the St Gilgen International School. There, we were happily welcomed by the members of the school, and given the rare opportunity to play in the house of Mozart’s mother (more specifically her attic). After a quick dip in the water, also enjoyed by our teachers Mrs Scott-Brown and Mr Armstrong, we visited another nearby community by the name of Mondsee, where we enjoyed the various sights, including the church in which the wedding scene from “The Sound of Music” took place. Not content with playing just one concert that day, however, we returned to St Gilgen one last time to perform at the town’s bandstand. Luckily, we completed the show with only seconds to spare before torrential rain and storms swooped in over the valleys. Later that day, we participated in a slightly unorthodox bowling session which was enjoyed by everyone.
On the Thursday, we saw more rain, Austrian style! When we visited the amazing Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s home, we were unable to see much because of huge amounts of cloud on the mountain. Sadly, our concert in the Mirabell Gardens had to be called off, though luckily we were able to re-arrange the event for the Friday afternoon. That night, a ceilidh and disco took place at the café across the road from the hotel, hosted by an impromptu band of pupils and Miss Simpson.
Our last full day in Salzburg saw us travelling to a nearby salt mine, where we were awestruck by underground lakes and foreboding tunnels that surrounded us, before returning to the city to watch an hilarious adaptation of “The Sound of Music”, puppet style! Sadly, the show marked the beginning of the end of our time in Austria – after a couple of hours enjoying the town once more, it was time to return to the coach and repeat the lengthy journey back to Dundee.
We would all like to acknowledge the fantastic work put into this trip by all the teachers that made it perhaps one of the best musical experiences we have had to date. Although Austria is now a far-off memory, the exceptional times we had will remain with us forever. Many thanks to Mrs Melville and all the teachers who accompanied us on the trip!
Lewis Davie (Form 4) and Andrew Kelly (Form 3)