Enrichment Week - Music Tour

Monday 18 July 2011

This year's music tour was to Tossa de Mar in Spain, a tradition coastal town north of Barcelona. For months before setting off pupils and staff were busy preparing a varied music programme for the 3 concerts they were to play as part of the tour. The groups involved were the samba band, steel band, classical guitar ensemble, jazz band, choir and rock band.

After a long but easy journey the group arrived to glorious sunshine and quickly set off to explore the ancient coastal fort in Tossa de Mar, also giving the group some amazing views of traditional unspoilt Spanish coastline. Due to the hot climate and in keeping with Spanish tradition all our performances were late in the evening, starting at 10pm. This gave us the opportunity to visit the surroundings a little each day. We visited Barcelona and the infamous 'La Sagrada Familia', Gaudi's impressive cathedral. The students learnt how Gaudi related his architectural designs to nature, followed by a picnic in Gaudi's park, Parc Guell, and a stroll along Las Ramblas, the famous pedestrian area in the centre of the city.

Our first concert was in a plaza where it had sea views. The concert was well-received by an enthusiastic audience made up of tourist and locals alike. Our second concert was in a hotel complex in the neighbouring town. Most of the audience were tourists and were very impressed by the quality of all the performances. Our final concert was in a small town, Llagostera, which had a beautiful arts centre leading out to the plaza, where we performed. According to the arts centre most of the town were at the concert and their only suggestion was that they wanted to hear more of the marvellous music! The music reverberated around the square and as an amazing duet was played by Ella and Helen Brown on their guitars you could hear a pin drop- the audience were captivated. The director of music studies at Girona Conservatoire said that she was 'amazed at the quality of the performance'; another onlooker said that they 'couldn't believe the level of professionalism that the guitar group had. It was such a polished performance.' To complete the students' experience of touring the local press and TV crew came to film the concert for news purposes. To see their report see http://www.llagosteratv.cat/

Reflecting on the Music Tour Lucy Stephenson, a performer in guitar group, steel band and choir said: 'It has been a great life experience that I will never forget. It was amazing how many varied activities we managed to packed in to the tour.' Tom Walker, who played in the Jazz Band and Choir said: 'I found it a really good experience playing in Spain and playing outside. I thought it went well and I'd love to do it again. It was well worth all the practising!'

Teacher, Dan Cook, summed up the tour: 'I was very proud of the students and the way they represented the school in every respect. We had so many compliments about how well-mannered they were and throughout the week they were a credit to the school.'

Related Links:

• Llagostera TV - local TV network - piece on the start of the XIV Festival d’Estiu del Casino
• El Poll de Llagostera - local news site - article on the start of the XIV Festical D'Estiu del Casino with photos
• Casino Llangosterenc
• Time Out - Barcelona
• Tossa de Mar - from Wikipedia