This year’s music department’s trip was in the capital cities of Austria and Hungary, Vienna and Budapest. The trip took place during the October half term and welcomed 32 students both musicians and music aficionados. We started off our trip in Vienna with a visit to the house and museum of the father of Classical Music, Joseph Haydn, followed by a fun team building activity at the Fox in a Box Escape Rooms. Our stay in Vienna included a guided city tour where we visited landmarks such as the Belvedere, the Schonbrunn Palace, the old centre of Vienna and the iconic St Stephens Cathedral.

We also paid a visit to music places such as the Mozart House and the House of Music interactive music museum. An essential part of our trip is seeing live concerts in iconic concert venues such as the Vienna State Opera house where we got to watch the opera Rusalka by Czech composer Anton Dvorak and the Musikverein (the venue which hosts the annual New Years concert shown live across the world) where we listened to Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique (an A Level Music set piece) performed by the Borusan Instanbul Philharmonic Orchestra.

A trip to Vienna is always a good opportunity to be paired up with a trip to the neighbouring capital Budapest. Similarly, we had a guided city tour where we visited landmarks such as the Heroes Square, the Castle District and the Statue of Liberty. Our visit also included an evening river cruise on the Danube and a traditional Hungarian evening with dinner and entertainment in a catacomb once used to store wine. During our stay in Budapest we enjoyed a performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor at the modern music venue Mupa.