“Where are you going for spring break?” is a question everyone has been asked in the last month. For 48 Edina High School students, the answer is “Italy.”. EHS’s Orchestra Conductor Sarah Chelgren Duffy said that “international travel is a wonderful way for students to learn more about themselves and the world in which they live.”
Students in EHS’s orchestra have the opportunity to travel to seven different locations in Italy from Thursday, March 29- April 5th on a trip planned by Gateway Music Festivals and Tours.
After flying into Rome and touring the Vatican City, the group will head north through the rolling hills of Tuscany into a town called Montecatini Terme. During their time in Italy they will be playing three times and “performing in beautiful concert halls and historic Tuscan churches that have been converted into performance venues,” according to Mrs. Duffy. They will also participate in a school exchange, which Mrs. Duffy said “is a very unique opportunity because the Italian schools don’t have school music programs like we have here in the U.S.”
After a few days in Montecatini, they will head to Padua to attend the International Music Meeting at Teatro Aldo Rossi in Borgoricco. Then after a day in Venice, they will spend the night in Milan and go back to America.
Mrs. Duffy said that the tour Orchestra “has been rehearsing once a week either before or after school since early January in order to prepare for our performances.” She added that the Orchestra is made up of “students in grades 10-12 who meet during three separate class periods during the school day.”
Sophomore Jenny Sticha who is going on the trip said that “assuming that I’ll find an Italian boy to sing with, I’m most excited about living my dream ever since I saw the ‘Lizzie McGuire Movie’ which includes leaving the school group to tour Rome with a foreign stranger. Also, I’m planning on kissing my crush in front of the Trevi Fountain.”
While most of Sticha’s dream will not come true, the students traveling will have an enriching cultural experience. Mrs. Duffy pointed out that opportunities like this are a wonderful way to support the district mission of “creating lifelong learners who can thrive in our global society.” She expressed confidence that the EHS orchestra students “will represent our district, state and country very well.” Ciao.
