What an incredible experience this has been for us all. When planning this trip almost 2 years ago, it was my hope that we would get a keen group of singers who were willing to work hard to create a beautiful sound, learn an extensive list of repertoire and who were open minded about the adventures of traveling this beautiful part of the world. I can honestly say, that as with all of my experiences in music at CGGS to date, that my expectations have again been seriously exceeded. Traveling with this group of young musicians has been a highlight of my time at the school. It’s not always easy living in each other’s pockets for 2 weeks adding in the pressure that comes with performing at a high level, being away from home and dealing with jet lag but all of the girls showed great character, resilience and care for one another in the way they carried themselves and represented our school and country on tour. 

Musically, it was quite a challenge for a small and relatively young and inexperienced group of singers to pull together the music for a tour of this nature. But yet again, they rose to our expectations and achieved what many of them thought we couldn’t at the beginning of this journey. To stand and sing in some of the most iconic performance venues in the world for complete strangers and bring them to tears is something truly special and I hope it is these moments that stay with the girls for many years to come. To achieve 2 silver awards in the competition in Bratislava was a well deserved (albeit unexpected) reward for their hard work and dedication to achieving our collective goals! I haven’t been more proud than at that moment on stage when they read out our schools name! 

We have all learnt a lot about each other and ourselves on this trip. The idea of teamwork is at its strongest when performing in a choir/music ensemble, however, the most special moments for me were seeing some of the older students looking after the younger girls. We have such a flourishing community at CGGS and especially amongst our music family and it filled me with absolute joy to see our girls caring for each other, and the staff each and every day we were away. To our girls – congratulations and thank you! Thank you for the care you took of each other, thank you for your hard work and persistence during rehearsals and performances but most of all thank you for sharing your love of music and singing with me and each and every member of our audiences in Europe! 

Thank you also to our wonderful parents and families for giving your daughters this opportunity. It was touch and go for numbers at the start but we were so thrilled to be able to get together a group of young girls who could sing beautifully together for the tour.

The trip wouldn’t have been possible without our wonderful staff and helpers Jenny, Phil and Sue who were amazing on the tour. Big thanks also to Lisa Christie for the huge amount of admin support that was required to get the trip off the ground.

I hope the excitement from this trip will find its way back into our other Music Academy ensembles and that we have even more interest in our next international music tour in a couple of years time.

STUDENT THOUGHTS

Emma McMaster – Year 10

The best experience of the trip for me was actually singing; our first performance in Budapest was amazing. The acoustic in the church was astonishing! It really helped me understand the importance of projection when it comes to singing – especially solos. 

I enjoyed seeing the artwork and the landscapes of the environment. I bought a painting of the city every place I went to. It was such great experience to see how other civilisations function; if we were in Australia, you would not see one artist sitting in the road drawing the beautiful city. 

Lize Van der Walt – Year 9

The Chorale Europe tour – where to begin? For some this was an opportunity to see a different part of the world, to eat some magnificent food, or to learn more about  European culture. However, the most important part of this tour for all of us was the opportunity to explore Europe while performing and making music with old and new friends along the way. 

One of the highlights of the trip was quite early – our second day in Europe, Budapest. It was in  the afternoon, we had changed into our performance uniform, and entered the magnificent church where we were singing. While standing there preparing for our first performance and then subsequently performing it dawned on us that we were actually doing this. We were in  Europe … Doing what we love – singing … All our hard work was starting to pay off. 

Two days later we started to pick the fruit produced by our hard work. We had won two silver awards in the competition at the Bratislava music festival. We were so surprised but also very, very happy – exalted! This can definitely be described as one of the highlights of the trip.

Another highlight of the trip – we can all agree – was participating in the Summa Cum Laude music festival. During this festival we had the opportunity to sing in the amazing Golden Hall of the Musikverein and meet musicians from around the world. Some of the friends we made were from Australia, South Africa and Spain (just to mention a few). Having like-minded young people around us and just socialising and enjoying music with them was one of the most amazing experiences on tour!

This was only three of the many highlights of this wonderful trip. As you can see the Chorale Europe tour accomplished everything we came to Europe to do and more. We saw an amazing part of the world, ate some amazing food and learnt more about European culture and architecture. Most importantly we performed in some the most  amazing venues in the world, making new friends and strengthening old bonds.

Ella Borgo – Year 10

The Chorale European trip was by far one of the best experiences I’ve ever been a part of. Being part of such an amazing group of girls and performing in world renowned halls and churches was incredible! It was especially exciting to go to so many countries in one trip and be part of a completely new culture. Bella, Marie and myself made it out mission to find the best croissant out of all the places and after eating about 50 each we decided that the best was by far the chocolate croissants from the hotel in Budapest. Other than this, there are a few moments of the trip that stood out:

1. My favourite place was Bratislava, in Slovakia, a place that is not very well heard of and very under rated. We especially loved the croissants, buffet breakfast, countless gelato places and not to mention the fact that we received 2 silver awards in the international music festival- an incredible achievement.
2. Performing in so many famous places was also a definite highlight of the trip. Especially the golden hall in the Musikverein in Vienna, at mass in an amazing church outside of Vienna and also numerous impromptu concerts on the side of the street (a little bit embarrassing).
3. The fun times we had were also definitely something that made the trip so amazing. These include, lots of karaoke and singing in the bus, trying all the types of food Europe has to offer and of course looking around all of the amazing cities we were so lucky to visit!

Overall, I am so grateful that I have had this opportunity to travel overseas especially with such a good group of girls in some of the most beautiful places in the world. 

Our final day in Europe has arrived! First up for the day was a walking tour of the city.  It was great exploring the city and seeing the most famous monuments including the Dom, Festival Hall, the Abbey and graveyards. We then explored Mozart’s birth place and had some time for lunch in the old town. At lunch time we had a special visitor, ex CGGS student Bernice Chua who would be in Year 11 (2019) but has just been excepted into the bachelor course for piano performance at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. After lunch we jumped on the bus for the much anticipated Sound of Music Tour. The girls sang the tunes from the film with gusto and enjoyed the experience of visiting these iconic locations. Following the tour we were off to dinner. At dinner, we offered our thanks to Oliver and Agnes for looking after us all so well over the past 2 weeks! Oliver is a great driver and got us out of some incredible situations in these tight cities. Agnes is an incredible guide and the girls were all sad to say goodbye. She has really looked after us all and our trip was such a positive and uplifting experience because of her! I’m sure some of the girls will stay in touch! We also said our thanks to Mrs Groom (accompanist extraordinaire and mother hen), Mr Groom (master of photos) and Mrs Borgo (fixer of all ailments). We have been so fortunate to have Jenny, Sue and Phil accompanying the students on this trip – it has been a pleasure working with them on this adventure.  We also had a surprise visitor at dinner on our final night – Ms Lim Hur who is in Salzburg on a PL course. The girls were all very excited to see her and tell her about our tour. Following dinner it was back to the hotel, to pack our bags for the trip home tomorrow morning. An early rise will see us on the coach for 3 hours to Munich to fly onto Dubai, Sydney and then Canberra! So long……farewell! 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

After 5 great days in Vienna it was time to check out of Hotel Jufa and board the coach bound for Salzburg. First stop, Melk. We spent some time exploring this beautiful little town. The Abbey was breathtaking. We then grabbed some lunch and were back on the bus headed for Nussdorf am Attersee. We first had dinner at our restaurant before making our way to the concert venue for our final performance on tour. It was a quaint little church, a beautiful place to sing for our final performance and it was certainly emotionally charged as the culmination of 12 months worth of hard work comes to an end. A rousing rendition of I Am Australian brought our singing on this tour to a close. After the concert we jumped back on the bus and enjoyed a karaoke Sound of Music session (Catherine and Ella were standout performers) in preparation for our day in Salzburg tomorrow. We made our way to Salzburg to check into our hotel and off to bed.

• 

A proper sleep in this morning before boarding the bus and heading into the city for some more site seeing and free time! After lunch we took our place in the Konzerthaus for the final day of the SCL festival and took part in some educational activities and group photos. We had a break before the concert and spent some time in the park across the road. Louisa brought a ball on tour and we had some fun running around and catching. We then went back into the Konzerthaus to listen to the winners concert featuring the top performing ensembles at the festival! Following the concert we made our way to the farewell reception at the Volksgarten. This venue was a club that had been hired out and set up specifically for the SCL Festival.  The girls had a great time dancing (moshing and screaming mostly) with friends from other schools and countries and it was a fantastic way to say goodbye to Vienna and our musical experiences here.  Back to the hotel and off to bed!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

A short sleep in and breakfast before jumping on the bus back into the city centre.  This morning we have a walking tour of the city organised with our local guide Andrea. First stop was Schönbrunn Palace. It was incredible walking around the castle, hearing about the history and seeing the extravagant rooms. The gardens outside were equally as beautiful.  Back into the city centre to drive around the ring road with Andrea pointing out the main sites and history – seeing the sights and learning about the history.  Next was lunch back at the University and then back to the Golden Hall for a performance by the Filasteen Young Musicians Orchestra. This was a special concert with performers of world class standard playing Mozart in the very hall that has played host to the greatest classical composers. Truly moving! Following the performance we had a little free time before walking to our restaurant for dinner. On the way back to the bus we did an impromptu performance in front of the town hall and managed to pull a crowd before the girls had had enough. It was nice to otherwise have a day off singing and to just enjoy this wonderful city! 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We were a little weary at breakfast this morning after the big yesterday but still excited for another day in Vienna. We hoped on the bus and headed into the University of Music for our workshops. Our first workshop was a joint session with the choir from Taiwan and it was a lot of fun singing together and meeting other young musicians. Carolin Nordmeyer (Germany) took the session and was so passionate about music and working with young singers; she brought a lot of joy to the workshop. We then moved into another room to work with Milan Kolena (Slovakia) who we had met in Bratislava at the Music Festival – he was one of the judges at both festivals. He worked with the girls on 2 of our pieces offering his thoughts and advice on our singing and giving some great thoughts on how we could take our performance to the next level. We then had lunch in the garden at the University and were soon back on the bus to head into the city centre to the Haus der Musik where we were performing later that afternoon. We dropped our bags at the venue and spent some free time looking around the main shopping strip (just looking today as the shops were mostly closed). We then met up and had a look around the Haus der Musik museum.

We were then back to the venue to get changed and prepare for our performance. This concert was our second performance of our full concert program (60mins) and it was great to hear the girls performing some of our other repertoire. A great acoustic in this glorious space worked well with our pieces. The girls sang beautifully and are really bringing the emotion and feel to the music. A colleague and good friend of mine (Director of Music Kent College Canterbury UK) made the trip across to hear us sing and was highly impressed with the girls performance!  

Special mention to Louisa and Claudia, Amy & Adrika for their solos in I Am Australian – absolutely beautiful!  After the performance we took a short walk to dinner and had the best schnitzel on tour thus far! Back on the bus headed for the hotel and interestingly, the girls couldn’t stop singing our music – either they enjoying singing that much or they’re asking for some more rehearsal time! A rousing rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody concluded our great day!  

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Up early for breakfast and straight into the rehearsal room at the hotel for some fine tuning before heading into the city to perform.  We were headed back to the Musikverein to perform in the Celebration part of the SCL Festival.  We stopped off at the University of Music where we picked up our lunch and had some free time. We arrived at the Musikverein and were taken into a dressing room at the bottom of the building.  It was an absolute maze down below and we were working hard to stick together. We had a 20min bracket to perform our own choice repertoire which included:  Sihayhumba, Weep No More, Sailing Home, Waltzing Matilda and I Am Australian.  The girls keep stepping up for each performance and were fantastic again today.  Special mention to Ariel for her solo in I Am Australian with Amelia and Sophie also working well together on the fifth verse solo/duet.  Following our performance we went into the audience to see some of the other ensembles perform.  Again, it was so great to hear and see choirs from around the world performing.  We then went to the park across the road for some ice cream and free time! The girls also tracked down a rather large water pipe that they ran through to cool down! They were all soaked head to toe but with the sun beating down to the tune of 35 degrees they dried out fast! We also did a ‘flash mob’ in front of the fountain singing some classics! We then left for our next performance at the Stift Klosterneuburg.  We set up for the performance and ducked into the park to celebrate Amy and Sunny’s birthdays with some cake!  Our performance this evening was in this beautiful church supporting the local mass. A great experience for the girls to sing a mass and to experience a service in Austrian/German.  Special mention to Ella and Bella for their duet in Flying Free – stunning! Following the mass we boarded our coach and headed back to the hotel for a late dinner and off to bed.  Some of the other competing ensembles arrived back to the hotel while we were eating and the hype and excitement they brought with them was exhilarating. So much so, that some of our girls incorrectly thought someone in their group had proposed – it has been a long day! We will all sleep well tonight!

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Another lazy morning and then some more time exploring the city! Agnes took some keen site seers on a walk up to the castle! The girls were keen to sing some more and thought the castle might be a good location for a flash mob! Back to the hotel to check out and we were on the bus headed for Vienna. It wasn’t long before we crossed into Austria. A quick language and history lesson from Agnes and we soon arrived to our next hotel to check in. We were then back on the bus and heading into the Musikverein for the opening ceremony of the Summa Cum Laude Festival. 31 ensembles from 30 countries are participating and the opening ceremony was simple amazing!  A mix of beautiful music, introduction of each of the ensembles and the singing of the SCL Anthem to finish.  This is one of the most significant music venues in the world and the girls had their first look at were we will be standing to sing tomorrow.  After the ceremony the girls and staff took the bus back to the hotel (I stayed for the conductors welcome briefing) and had a rehearsal in the hotel.  I returned later that evening to find that we now have some new choralography for Sihayhumba which I’m looking forward to seeing tomorrow (hopefully before we perform it).  Dinner in the hotel followed and off to bed.  Tomorrow is a big day for the choir and we are excited to perform in some more of these beautiful spaces in the city of music!  

• 

• 

• 

• 

After a nice sleep in and breakfast we were off to meet our local tour guide Milan for a look around Bratislava and to hear about it’s unique history.  Some free time to explore and lunch followed before we returned to the hotel to change into our performance blacks and walked to the venue for our afternoon concert.  It was another good opportunity to hear other choirs perform and we were blown away by some of the incredible ensembles on show.  We finished the concert with Weep No More and I Am Australian – special mention to Lucia and Eloise for really enjoying the acoustic in the church and singing out during their solos.  (to view the performance go to the Music Academy Facebook page where I have shared the link). After the concert we had some more time to explore before heading out for dinner and then into the main square to hear the announcement of the results from the competition on Wednesday.  With an average age of 14, our girls were incredibly brave in competing in both the U21 and U16 sections (and walking on stage completely cold without a warm up).  We are so excited to have received SILVER AWARDS in both sections – a truely remarkable achievement given the calibre of choirs we were competing against.  I can’t express just how proud I am of this group of young women.  Not only is it a joy to work with them day in day out but to take them on this adventure and to see their hard work pay off in this way was really special.  The girls celebrated with a rousing rendition of our school song Jerusalem side of stage in the park (luckily this wasn’t to be judged on choral merit but full marks for enthusiasm and gusto!).   You can see the Music Academy facebook page for a glimpse of the pure euphoria!  We were all on a high and walked back to the hotel for some group photos and off to bed.  Another cracking day on tour and looking forward to some more free time in the city tomorrow before heading off to Vienna!  All in all, Bratislava did not disappoint.  A beautiful place to visit, full of rich history and a vibrant hub for music with our girls enjoying the opportunity to contribute to that culture in a small but meaningful way! 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Down to breakfast, packing up, checking out and on the bus to Bratislava.  Sad to leave Budapest after only a couple of days but excited for the next stage of the tour.  We used a bit of time on the bus to watch a documentary on Hungary’s political history – very thought provoking.   After a 3 hour drive we arrived in Bratislava, changed into our performance blacks and found some lunch. We were taken straight into the venue and to a room side of stage where we waited until our first section of the competition, 21 Years and Under.  It was tough walking straight on stage without a warm up and after hearing the other choirs competing in our section but the girls sang superbly with highlights being Emma’s solo in Waltzing Matilda and our performance of Sihayhumba which the girls are starting to bring to life with some movement and energy.  We didn’t have much time before we were on stage again in the 16 years and under category and with some further confidence the girls nailed performances of Bring Me Little Water, Silvy and sang I Am Australian with great gusto (accompanied by another Aussie choir from the back of the room) – they certainly knew where we had come from! Hoping that a few keen parents might have stayed up late to watch the live stream of our performances! I’m also posting short clips of the choir singing on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themusicacademyCGGS/

We then got to enjoy performances from choirs from around the world and it was good for the girls to hear some other young (and old) choirs perform! The performance venue was a short walk  from the hotel and we checked in and enjoyed some down time before walking to dinner.  Some gelato on the way home from dinner was the perfect end to the day! Looking forward to seeing more of this beautiful city tomorrow! 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•