As soon as I touched down back in the United States, the thing that I heard most from people was the question, “What was your favorite moment from the trip?” However, I could never pick just one day to talk about, so I started listing my three favorites. And, while I was in Austria specifically to learn about music history, I was also there to learn about the culture. These three moments show how well-blended the class structure was in terms of combining the music and the culture throughout the three weeks.

1. Vienna Central Cemetery

I am fully aware of how dismal this first experience sounds, but I promise it wasn’t! The Vienna Central Cemetery is actually where a lot of famous composers are buried, such as Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and many more. Some of the graves are very ornate, and Brahms’ even has a bust of him standing atop his grave looking a tad crotchety. After talking about the histories and lives of some of the composers there, we walked to the church in the center of the cemetery and found the chapel. Throughout the trip, we had learned and practiced a variety of historic, liturgical chants and, upon entering this chapel, we decided to try singing a chant and realized that it sounded fantastic. The connection that you feel to the other people in a group while singing such a simple chant is something that isn’t easy to replicate. 

Visiting Beethoven’s house in the countryside of Vienna, which had numerous interactive exhibits detailing Beethoven’s life while adjusting to his increasing deafness.

2. Trick Fountains at Hellbrunn

This was perhaps one of the most entertaining experiences that I had while abroad, simply for the fact that there were so many gags and jokes throughout Hellbrunn gardens that I was forced to laugh for a majority of the tour. For this activity, we were given audio guides that led us through the trick fountains, and would often give a slight warning of possible water ahead, but wouldn’t specifically say where the water would come from. This became a very fun game of figuring out where the fountains were and whether or not we could time it to get out of an area dry. And while the fountains were extremely fun, I also really enjoyed learning about how deep the connection is between Roman mythology and Austrian culture. Since the country is centered mostly around Catholicism, I had assumed that there would be no mention of other religions or mythologies, but I was proven wrong very quickly by this excursion. At almost every turn there was a new representation of Roman mythology in the garden, and I got to learn more about a topic that I really like through the lens of another culture.

A Heuriger, which is a special Austrian tradition that translates to “wine tavern”, where people gather to eat food together and drink this year’s wine.

3. Final Night Workshop and Jam Session

This was maybe one of the most life-changing experiences of the trip. Earlier in the class, we had been informed that Europeans think of music differently than Americans do; the notes on the page are not nearly as important as the expression and the meaning that you’re trying to convey through the music. As such, every music performance we had seen in this class left everyone in the group awestruck and walking out of the venue with our mouths hanging down towards our feet. Fast forward to the end of the three weeks, and we were given the opportunity to do a dance workshop with a group of blind students who were very lovely people to meet. The dance workshop went by quickly with lots of laughter, but the impressionable part was the jam session with them afterwards. They all sang with such emotion and such heart that seems to get lost in translation in a lot of music students, including myself, over here in the United States. It was a completely eye-opening experience about musicality that I hope to hold on to forever.