The Vienna Trip - 2018
Our Journey To Vienna
We started our journey by leaving Tokyo only hours before a typhoon was about to hit! We traveled from Narita Airport to the very hot but interesting city of Doha.
Meeting in the Music room
At Narita Airport
We only had one small issue at check in...but luckily his parents drove his other passport to Narita!
Getting on the plane!
Composing some music on the way to Doha
Seeing what movies they have
another composer on the plane
Flying toward Doha, sand as far as the eye can see
Arrived in Doha and had a 5 hour layover before heading out to Vienna!
way too long of a layover!
It was a cool 40 (104) degrees in Doha when we arrived. It was a comfortable 45 (115) when we boarded the plane!
He basically ate the entire plane stock of these little pizza snacks. I don't blame him though, they were sooooo good.
Student enjoying playing some games on the last leg of our flight.
We finally landed in Sunny Vienna around lunch time. We had no problems going through security and quickly found our bus which was going to take us around for our first days journey!
Day 1 - Arrival
Our first day in Vienna was already a big one! After traveling over 20+ hours we were off and running once we landed! Our first stop was to practice for our concert at the beautiful campus of The American School of VIenna.
Arriving at the American School of Vienna
Even though we were severely jet-lagged we got in some practice time
Practice, practice, practice.
After practicing we had a mock concert
We then made our way to our hotel, got changed, ate some food quickly and then headed off to the beautiful Schoenbrunn Palace.
After a long day, we headed back to our hostile to get a good nights sleep and prepare for the next days journey to.....
Day 1 complete!
Day 2 Salzburg!
After a busy first day in Vienna we were off to see the sleepy small town of Salzburg. The birthplace of Mozart, Salzburg is nestled in between beautiful rolling mountains resting on ether side of the Salzach river.
Took a long but scenic bus ride.
The journey took around 3 hours of driving through the bavarian countryside.
Most of the students caught up on much needed sleep
We were stunned by the amazing architecture when we arrived.
Mozart Birthplace
Our first stop of the day was Mozart's birthplace. One of the most influential composers in the history of wester classical music, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born at No. 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria. The Mozart family resided on the third floor from 1747 to 1773. Mozart himself was born here on 27 January 1756. Inside you can get a glimpse of what life was like living in the 1700's. The museum was filled with authentic artifacts of Mozart's such as letters and original compositions. The highlight was definitely Mozarts own violin and clavichord that were on display.
Out and about in Salzburg
After spending time at Mozarts birthplace we had some free time to wander the small side streets of the Residenzplatz & Residenzbrunnen area. Students, and teachers, grabbed a much needed bit to eat and had a leisurely stroll through this small but ornate town.
Residenzplatz & Residenzbrunnen area
The Hohensalzburg Fortress that overlooks the city of old city of Sazlburg.
One of the many statues of Mozart
Wondering the streets of Salzburg
Mozart's Residence in SaLzburg
Soon the Mozart family out grew the small 3rd floor apartment and moved across the river to a new and bigger residence. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived here up until he moved to Vienna. The museum was very interesting and was again filled with authentic artifacts of Mozarts. More interestingly though, it dived into some of the darker side of Mozart personality including his humor and consumption habits.
Day 2 completed!
After getting our fill of Mozart's life in Salzburg and enjoy all that this beautiful city had to offer, we boarded the bus and enjoyed a rainy bus ride back to our hostel in Vienna.
Day 3 - The busiest day of theIr lives!
Hold on, as day 3 was definitely the busiest day of our short and jam packed Vienna Trip schedule. After another breakfast of deli-meats, bread, and cereal with warm milk (can you tell that the students missed a home cooked breakfast?) we rushed off to drop our instruments off at our performance venue: The Votive Church.
As you can imagine, dropping off the instruments took longer than expected.
We then headed to the Vienna Opera House to pick up our tickets for the performance that night.
Before heading off to our next destination we stopped by one of the many statues of famous composers throughout the city. This one is a personal favorite of one of our music teachers here at Saint Maur, a great statue of Ludwig Van Beethoven.
The House of Music
After doing a lot of walking around we finally landed at the extremely interesting museum. Called "Haus der Musik" in German, the House of Music is an interactive sound museum which has both historical as well as scientific exhibitions all about sound and music. The students had a great time and it is definitely recommend to anyone stopping through Vienna.
Getting a great introduction from the very helpful staff.
Create your own composition by rolling dice! A game that Mozart actually used to play, though this version was upgraded a bit from the 1700's
In this exhibition, students are encouraged to lay down and experience the first sounds that humans hear inside the womb.
One of our music teachers testing her vocal abilities. I think she did quite well!
This area had live sounds from around the world. From the jungles of Brazil to the busy streets of our home back in Tokyo, students listened in to the "music" of the world around them.
Ludwig Van Beethoven Exhibition had a lot of highlights. One great example was an interactive listening area where you could experience his hearing loss and subsequent deafness with headphones. Each headphone had an increasing white noise sound that soon overtook the music that was being played in the background.
Back then people thought it was a good idea to make a mold of your face after your death and Beethoven, being a trendy guy, followed suit. Obviously some of our students were less impressed with this tradition and glad that it is no longer something we practice.
There were so many interesting exhibitions in the House of Music. Many of the major composers had individual exhibitions ranging from Mahler to Mozart to Beethoven. There was interactive areas where our students could dance and the music would react to your movements. One of the big highlights was an interactive conduction area where you could conduct the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, which students learned was tougher than they thought! If you did not conduct well, the orchestra members would stop and yell at you to get off the stage! Obviously the students challenged the Senior Band Conductor to test his merit on the stage, and much to their dismay he complete the challenged and was applauded by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Obviously it was a highlight of his musical career.
Lunch, then Off to perform!
After the House of Music, we picked up some lunch and had a nice picnic in the Vienna's Heldenplatz which is set at the entrance of the Hofburg Palace. We enjoyed our lunch surrounded by historical statues and architecture.
Performance Time!
With lunch out of the way it was time to have some warmup time and get ready for our concert at the Votive Church. There were some nerves as the students had never played in such an historic or beautiful venue but the teacher were confident that they would have a very successful concert.
Soloist & Chamber Ensemlbe Concert
2018 Vienna Trip
MVI_0162.MOVSyrinx
Claude Debussy
MVI_0163.MOVturkish march
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
MVI_0164.MOVTrio for Woodwinds
Carroll Butts
MVI_0165.MOVelegey for mippy 2
Leonard Bernstein
MVI_0166.MOVlegende
Carl Hillmann
MVI_0167.MOVflamenco
Schubert Arr. Vizzutti
MVI_0168.MOVwaltz no. 2
Shostakovich Arr.Tominaga
MVI_0169.MOVfantasie no. 2 in
A minor
George Philip Telemann
MVI_0170.MOVchanson napolitaine
Tchaikovsky
MVI_0171.MOVfugue in d minor
Désirée Manns
MVI_0172.MOVshiru goukikou
R.Yoshimata Arr. Imamura
MVI_0173.MOVbadinerie, orchestral suite no. 2
JS.Bach
MVI_0174.MOVprelude from cello suite no. 1
J.S Bach
MVI_0175.MOVconfirmation
Charlie Parker
MVI_0176.MOVflute sonata in
a minor
CPE Bach
The concert was a great success and we were very luck to have a sizable crowed of tourist and people passing by. We also were especially lucky to have some Saint Maur families that were in the are who also attended. It was a great concert and the music teachers could not of been prouder of our young musicians. We quickly packed up and thanked the Votive church for the hospitality and rushed back to the hostile to get a quick dinner and then change for the opera performance.
A night at the opera:
puccini's Tosca
Tosca, a quick synopsis:
Set in the 1800' Rome we are introduced to Scarpia, general of the secret police, is committed to sending all opposition to the king to prison. Angelotti, a rebel, succeeds in breaking out of prison, and rushes into the church of Sant' Andrea della Valle. In the church, he meets up with another rebel, Cavaradossi who harbors Angelotti in his secret hideout.
Looking for the rebel runaway, Scarpia finds the girlfriend of Cavaradossi and a professional singer, Tosca. Scarpia convinces her into going to her boyfriends house (Cavaradossi’s) as he believes that the runaway rebel is hiding there.
Unable to find the rebel runaway Scarpia has Tosca's boyfriend, Cavaradossi, arrested. Scarpia tortures Cavaradossi, but Cavaradossi doesn’t confess Angelotti’s whereabouts. Scarpia calls Tosca, and shows her her lover’s tortured state. Tosca gives up the route to the secret hideout to Scarpia. He then condemns Tosca's boyfriend to death. Tosca begs to save her lover and Scarpia agrees only if Tosca marries Scarpia and Cavaradossi leave the area.
Scarpia sets a plan that Cavardossi fake his death when he faces the firing line as the guns will be secretly filled with blanks. As Scarpia goes to kiss Tosca, she stabs him to death with a knife from the table.
Tosca runs to Cavaradossi who is confined to the prison at the castle of Sant'Angelo. But, the firing squad carry out their orders to shoot Cavaradossi and Scapria had lied about the blank bullets. When Scarpia’s secret policemen rush to arrest Tosca for Scarpia's murder, she kills herself by leaping from the castle.
All the students, and teachers, got dressed up for a nice night out at the Vienna Opera House. We were amazed at how powerful the orchestra and singers were without the need of microphones!
Although the opera was in Italian, each seat had subtitles that were synced to the singing on stage. It was really helpful and kept all of use engaged in what was clearly a complicated tragic story.
The opera was fantastic and even though we had some sleepy students in the second act, everyone left impressed and amazed at the performance. We boarded the train and fell into our beds after and exhausting but very memorable day.
Day 4 : a relaxed day, well..kind of.
After getting a bit of sleep we were off again and back to the Opera house. There we had a very informative tour with a great guide. Even though we had been there the night before it was a treat to see behind the scenes of the opera house.
The famous "Tea Salon" in the opera house is where the noble family would rest during intermission. Our guide informed us that we could rent it for one of the intermission for only 70,000 yen! ($700)
We were lucky to see some of the local Ballerinas taking a promotional photo shoot for their upcoming season.
Beethoven's Grave
After a great tour of the the Vienna Opera house we were off to the Central Cemetery. Inside the Cemetery houses the graves of some of the most important composers in western classical music. Our highlight was definitely buying flowers and placing them on Beethoven's grave as wells as the graves of composers who inspired our students.
Walking Tour Of Vienna
After dinner we had a great walking tour of Vienna. Even though we had walked much of it already, it was nice to have our guide explain culturally important places that we otherwise would of walked by! Was very informative and fun day.
Day 5 - Back home to Yokohama!
The last day was spent wandering the streets of Vienna again, purchasing last minute souvenirs, and saying goodbye to the Votive Church one last time. We boarded the flight back home exhausted from the jam-packed trip but all left with a shared appreciation and deepend passion for Music and for the Vienna.