Hi all, Another exceptional day of weather in France! Beautiful blue skies and temperatures in the 60s. We were near the ocean today, so the wind made things quite a bit cooler, but at least it wasnt raining! We left St. Malo at 8 am to head to the American Cemetery for our brass recital, wreath laying ceremony, and a tour of the cemetery. Before any of that, we rode in our buses down to Omaha Beach. It was a moving experience for everyone, and we all marveled at the scope of the operations that occurred there almost 70 years ago. From there, we made our way up to the cemetery and set up for the brass ensemble performance in front of the memorial sculpture. The ensemble played beautifully, and the wreathlaying ceremony was particularly meaningful. Several members of our orchestra with family connections to the D-Day invasion and World War II presented a wreath in front of the sculpture, and Jake Kinney gave an excellent performance of Taps. Many people were very affected by the ceremony, and a few tears were definitely shed at the poignance of the moment. After that, we received a brief tour of the cemetery. Seeing the many rows of marble headstones certainly cemented our sense of the significance of this major world event in 20th-century history. It was an experience that we wont soon forget. Next, we drove to St. Aubin-sur-Mer for our evening concert. It was in a beautiful old church in the heart of town, with still reverberant acoustics, though not as live as our first performance venue. The students performed exceedingly well, and our large audience was very kind and very appreciative. It was nice to hear such prolonged applause in recognition of our hard work! It was time to head to our next hotel, in Caen, where we are now. Tomorrow well receive a tour of Caen and visit a museum about the D-Day landings. In the evening, well head to Paris for our final stretch of touring as well as our final concert. Everyone is healthy, happy, and representing Hochstein, Rochester, and the United States so well. Everyone at home would be incredibly proud of these wonderful young people, not only for their musicianship, but also for their poise and strong sense of responsibility. Thank you for reading, and look for our next update tomorrow! Casey Springstead, HYSO Director
Posted on: Tue, 15 Apr 2014 22:49:58 +0000