1976 School Magazine

We were accommodated at the F{illhead F{alls of Residence in the Old University along with the other groups attending the Festival from Canada, Swedei, Sduth Africa,-and Hong Kong. As in {taly, we spent much time rehearsing, but were able to ex- olorb OId Aberdeen and further afield - Crathes lnd Craigievar Castles; whilst these were called cas- tles thev were reallv fortified houses. Not so Dun- nottar iastle - the ruins of this castle were standing on some beautiful cliffs facing the sea' There were concerts each night performed by the other groups which were followed by a disco and a cabaret pui on by the members flom each country. After our concerf in Inverness, we detoured past the Loch Ness. Even though it was Friday, l3th, the monster didn't appeai for us. We also visited Culloden and saw the battlefield where the army of Prince Charles was defeated in 1746, also the Graves of the Clans. After a fortnight in Aberdeen, the whole festival moved to London by train. Our orchestra stayed in the Penta F{otel in Gloucester Road. The lirls were accommodated on the 6th floor of the 17 floor building which was quite high enough the night the fire-alarm went off. Only when we w?re down in the foyer in our pyjamas, did we find out that the smoke from someone's cigarette had activated the alarm. We gave two concerts in I-ondon and also had a full day workshop with Ezra Rachlin and attended the concert in the Royal Albert Hall performed by the Internation Festival Youth Orchestra consisting of members from various orchestras at the Festival. During our time in London we attended a reception at Queensland House lor the orchestra. We boarded the plane with mixed feelings - happy to be going home, yet sad that the tour was atrirbit over."We"changed'planes in Rome and re- fulled at Tel Aviv, Bombay and Singapore before we landed in Brisbane early on Tuesday, 31st August' Barbara Easton 6 E

Q{jEENSX-AND VO{-ru'H OR CE{EST'R-A TOLIR This year, ,h" Qt""iJ;ft Youth Orchestra pgr- ticioateil in the International Festival of Youth Or- chdstras held in Aberdeen and London. The plane, an Alitalia D.C.l0, left-Brisbane air- port sh6rtlv after 5.30 pm on Wednesday, 28th July ' iust three hours late. The 85 members of the or- chestra and the 9 officials occupied one half of the plane and the rest of the passengers were mostly ttalians. It was a long flight Lonsidering 29 of the 32 hours were in darkness and we stopped at Singapore and Bombay before landing in Rome' The weather was hot and dry - a contrast to the warm winter davs at home, which we didn't appreciate, as we were delayed half an hour getting through the pass- oort contiols. Finallv we boarded two coaches to 'Flor"n.., arriving at ihe Residenza de Cristallo late in the afternoon. Despite the long trip, many of us managed to wander round the busy narrow streets to the mlarkets - tiny stalls lining the streets selling leather goods, fashionable clothes, fruit and jewell- erv. '4. *" had rehearsals all day, most of the sight seeing was done on foot between rehearsals and in the eienings before and after tea. My favourite place was the Fdnte Vecchio especially at night when the vouns ltalians were plaving their guitars and singing fuititrT tne others sat n6ar'[he mafs with their hand made goods for sale beside them. The majority of us visited- Fisa one afternoon and all climbed to the verv top of the Leaning Tower. We gave a successful outdoor concert on the Saturday nlght in the Cortile di Falazzo Pitti, which didn't begin until 9.30 pm because it was only just dark then. The following day we drove to Rome,,stopping at Ferugia, and Assissi. We stayed in Residences close to StIFeter's. That night moit of the orchestra went to see the opera "Aida" which was most enjoyable with fantastic costumes, scenery' and a huge cast of over 200, including two live camels and six white horses. Even though the next two days were mainly taken up with rehearsals, we. rnanaged to visit the Colesseum, St. Peter's, Sistine Chapel, and the R.oman Forum. Our final concert in ntaly was held in the tsasitrica di Massenzio and was a tremendous success as the orchestra received 9 standing ova- tions. It was another extremely late night for us because the bus driver, knowing it was our last night in {taly, took us on a tour of Rome, singing farewell songs to us in nulian till after 1 am. We much appreciated it though the thought of having to rise at 5.30 am, in 4'/, Eours time,ln order to catch the plane wasn't too pleasant. The two houn plane trip fnom R'ome !o- I-ondon seemed incredibly short and was followed by a 19ng train journey to Aberdeen, arriving shortly^before midnight to be greeted by a small group of Scottish plpers.

Fage Forty - Three