This spring break, while some students were licking whipped cream off strangers or playing Halo for eight consecutive hours, I chose to spend a week in Prague and Budapest singing with the Phillips Academy Cantata Chorus, accompanied by our Chamber Orchestra. I and nearly one hundred other musicians departed for these two magical metropolises on the Friday after winter term assessments ended, spent the entire day traveling and finally arrived in Prague that Saturday afternoon. While the cities were great fun to explore, I can’t forget the main purpose of our trip, which was to perform three concerts: one in Prague, one in Brno (the second largest city in the Czech republic) and one in Budapest. The concert pieces offered a varied pallet to those who attended. The chamber orchestra, conducted by James Orent, opened the concert with three pieces: an rousing Evard Grieg sonata, a Bertold Hummel oratoria and Antonin Dvorak’s famous Suite. James Martino ’09 dazzled audiences abroad with his terrific trumpet playing in the Hummel oratorio, while the entire orchestra left me covered with goosebumps following the final movement of the Dvorak suite. The Fidelio Society, to which I belong, performed three sacred a cappella pieces on the tour. As a member, I also got to experience an impromptu outdoors rehearsal amongst the spires of St. Matthias’ Church overlooking Budapest at sunset, a stunning scene. The Phillips Academy Chorus, led by Christopher Walter, performed with the chamber orchestra the entirety of Franz Joseph Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai, a nearly 30 minute long piece that took all term to polish (and memorize). The people of all three cities welcomed us with open arms, as they were honored and happy to have us perform great music for them (for free, too!). Overall, I noticed an immense appreciation of classical music in Central Europe that I hadn’t seen elsewhere in the world. For instance, a maximum of 100 people (mostly music students obliged to attend) watched our pre-tour concert in the Chapel. However, in Prague over 400 locals flocked to a small church with no heat to hear us sing. On the cultural side of the tour, I loved almost everything about Eastern Europe—unfortunately, I had a slight difficulty stomaching some of the food. In Bratislava, especially, our “three course” dinner consisted of mysterious-looking meat with vile-smelling sauce accompanied with soggy dumplings. I barely touched it. Perhaps I’m just a picky eater, but there is something decidedly dreadful about Eastern European cuisine. On the other hand, Prague, the city of one hundred spires, is one of few cities to have been essentially spared from any destruction during World War II. Consequently, when walking around central Prague, we saw the beautiful architecture the way it was originally built, oftentimes more than five hundred years ago. The heart of Prague is called the Old Town Square and consists of a grand, sprawling plaza. Extending away from the square-like arteries are narrow streets, creating a confusing maze of shops, cafés and apartments. Interestingly, many buildings look the same, providing for a navigational nightmare. The Czech language is unusual, but nothing like Hungarian. In Budapest, we discovered that, strangely, Hungarian is unrelated to any other European language and contains 44 letters, including quirky accents like the double umlaut. However tricky the tongue, Budapest remains my favorite of the two cities we visited. Situated on both sides of the sparkling Danube River, this consummate capital conjoins the two ancient cities of Buda and Pest with a series of long suspension bridges named after Hungarian idols. I found the architecture in Budapest to be unlike anything I could compare it to. The juxtaposition of old and new provides for a wholly unique and independent city. I’d love to revisit Budapest again, and I know many students felt the same, since we certainly had much less time to explore Budapest than Prague. Ultimately, despite the dire dumpling dilemma, this year’s Cantata tour turned out to be an invaluable musical and cultural adventure, on which I will never forget. What other high school do you know that takes their musicians to Eastern Europe for spring break? Only Andover, I’d say. If sleazy Cancun or your sweat-drenched Xbox controller aren’t exactly what you’d like your spring break to consist of, join Cantata for next year—because who knows where you’ll end up.
