Month: January 2016

  • A Thousand Words

    It is wonderful to read the insights from the members of the 2016 Gustavus Department of Music concert tour. They see and hear so much more than I do at the same event. While there is so much to say about the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra and Gustavus Jazz Lab Band’s international concert tour in Greece…

  • Two Cups of Coffee

    Blog by Joey Wiley ’16 Waking up at 5:30AM is definitely not ideal when home, but on tour, and specifically in Greece, the reward of this early wake up time is much greater than the cost of a couple cups of Greek coffee. As we started our journey from Patras to Volos, I was eager…

  • Tiny Huge Concert

    By Kendra Frey Our second concert, at the Patras Music School on Monday, was a tiny, huge event. The space was tiny. The crowd was huge. After setting up the stage and all of our equipment, we all settled down into our seats and realized that while we all had very little room, there was…

  • What a Site!

    Written by Elena Gottlick The morning after our concert at the Athens School of Music, two buses filled with sleepy but excited Gusties (accompanied by their trusty tour guides, Alexandra and Maria) headed to two of the famous nine hills of Greece, the Areopagus Hill and the Acropolis. Students learned that the Areopagus Hill is…

  • Our First Concert

      Written by Nate Long After arriving at our hotel on Thursday afternoon, we had been on the road or in the air for over 20 hours, and everybody was eager for a long-overdue full night’s sleep. Few of us were truly ready for our 6:30am wake up calls, yet we dragged ourselves out of…

  • How We Got to Greece

    Written by John Baron I have to admit, when my alarm went off at 3am Wednesday morning I wasn’t exactly jumping out of bed. We all arrived at the fine arts building at 4:15 with common questions being “How much sleep did you get?” And “Aren’t you excited?!” Once the buses arrived we quickly loaded…

  • Music, Greece, and Macedonia

    Written by Becca Ihnen The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of intensive rehearsals, invaluable lectures, and engaging guest speakers. The Gustavus Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Lab Band returned to campus on January 4th and immediately began preparations for our concert tour in Greece and Macedonia. Our daily schedule started with an orchestra rehearsal…