It was a memorable trip on several levels as far as Rebecca Foord saw it.
A journey through several European communities that most tourists and travellers would never include on a vacation schedule delighted the 85 members of the University of Saskatchewan Winds Orchestra and the Greystone Singers this summer.
In fact, Foord, a clarinetist with the orchestra, was one of three former Estevan students on the tour. Jan Michael Bourgeois is a percussionist with the orchestra, while Aubree Bangsund is a member of the Greystone Singers.
The 10-day whirlwind tour saw the troupe leave Saskatoon for Toronto and on to Zurich, Switzerland on July 7 and 8.
The first stop on the musical junket was the Jungfrau concert where the orchestra and choir got together for a pretty strong performance in spite of some significant jet lag, Foord said.
"We played in an old cathedral theatre that was just fabulous. The acoustics were amazing, so much better than the university's rehearsal hall we're used to," she said.
The festival attracts a lot of people even though it's staged in a relatively small community. She said the audience was very attentive and knowledgeable and the U of S orchestra went on stage later on in the day, but there was still a good number of music lovers in attendance. They were followed by the University of Georgia and then University of Louisville orchestras with Louisville's effort being very impressive, she said.
Foord, who has earned a political science degree from the University after also attending the University of Ottawa for two years, is now pursuing a law degree. She said while in Ottawa she had started working on a degree in music, but the classes didn't mesh very well on the schedule so she dropped music there and only picked it up again as an interest when she returned to Saskatchewan. Most of the students in the orchestra are music majors, so she said she had to work hard to catch up with them. She said she's improved her playing skills substantially since re-dedicating herself to the instrument.
"Our repertoire for competition was mostly Canadian. The audience loved our RCMP March. We also played the Maple Leaf Forever and some Canadian student compositions, she said.
The orchestra, under the direction of Darrin Ohlerking and the choir, directed by Gerald Lagner, held a number of rehearsals before heading overseas and they arranged one concert as a team prior to their departure.
"The choir had a public performance in Switzerland and when we got to Heidelberg in Germany, we played in the city square at suppertime. It was fun, playing for people as they dined in the outdoor restaurants. A quick tour led them on to the Netherlands, where they arrived at NATO headquarters and met many Canadian troops and their families who were stationed there.
"It was one of those amazing things in your life. To play for Canadians doing military service was a privilege. They had a big barbecue set up for us and we joined them and their families. I heard some great stories. Many of them had been deployed to Afghanistan, so we heard about that. I got to meet their children who take a Canadian curriculum in the military school and then share language classes with local kids. It was a small audience, but they were very appreciative and we certainly appreciated them."
In Kerkrade, Netherlands the orchestra and choir were entered in the World Music Contest, an event that is staged only once every four years. They were scheduled late in the program so they managed a quick rehearsal and played just before midnight.
"We don't know what score we got, we don't get that until much later on. There were five orchestras in the competition on that first day when we played. I think there would be 15 to 20 in total."
The touring wrapped up in Belgium, where the troupe got to see the sights and didn't need to arrange for any more concerts.
The only glitch happened near the end when one of their buses was broken into and some electronic equipment was stolen along with a few passports. The orchestra members without passports had to do some scrambling to get temporary papers from Canadian officials so they could return home with the rest of the members.
That was the only negative experience in the whole adventure.
"Learning how others live, learning about the cultures, getting an opportunity to visit with people in the smaller communities was great because when we wandered around the town, everyone would know who we were."
In Belgium, it got a little easier from a language perspective since several orchestra and choir members are comfortable speaking French, including Foord. The orchestra even had a few members who spoke German, so they came in handy and certainly helped the guides doing some translation work.
When they made it to Ath, Belgium, Foord said she had arranged to meet up with a Belgian family she had stayed with while she was a Rotary International exchange student when she was in Grade 11 at ECS.
"We had a good laugh when we got together and they were so surprised to see and hear how my French had improved. They said I was terrible at French when I was there back then, but now it seemed pretty comfortable," she said with a laugh.
The Debraekaleer family had a great reunion experience with Foord.
"It was six years ago or more and you leave the family and you think you'll probably never ever see them again. I had kept in contact with their daughter on Facebook so when we got over to Europe they followed our itinerary and we met up again and it was so nice to see them again. We went to the fair, just like we had done when I was with them back then. Their daughter, who was living in Brussels showed up too. It was really cool. And with my French being so much better, that made it an even better reunion."
Foord said another poignant moment for the Canadian students arrived when they visited the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery while they were in the Netherlands.
A U of S orchestra member played the Last Post and the students observed a minute of silence in tribute. They then visited the gravesites with some quiet reflections.
"Needless to say, there weren't any dry eyes there that day," she said.
The trip back was efficient and quick, leaving the members plenty of time to enjoy the rest of their summer and prepare for another busy year on campus.
