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Update from Pécs…
This morning we enjoyed a bus and walking tour of the city, including exploring the 2000 year old underground Roman cemetery beneath St Peter’s Basilica. Then it was off to the Zsolnay porcelain museum and factory, one of the most famous in Europe.
The exhibition was amazing – the porcelain items from the late 19th century could have easily been mistaken for Art Deco. Some of the staff splashed out on some of the more modern pieces at the shop in town later in the day – I doubt many of the students have! We enjoyed both our lunch and dinner in Cellarium, an underground restaurant in the centre of town.
In between, the students enjoyed some free time exploring the old and new parts of Pécs. Once again,we had a full stage set up for the final concert, right in front of the church that has both a cross and a crescent (it was a Catholic church before the Turkish invasion, when all the Catholic churches were turned into mosques), and right in the centre of town.
The concert audience was probably the largest we’ve had so far, with several hundred joining in the anthem at the end of the concert. The lovely people from Filharmonia Hungary were thrilled with the audience response as well as our performance.
Our guide told the students how much she had enjoyed their performances, their openness to learning about new cultures, their discipline and musicianship, and their kindness to one another. At the end of the tour, it was really good to get an endorsement of what we are doing – how it has touched ordinary people in Hungary, how they have enjoyed interacting with a bunch of Kiwi teenagers, and how the variety of the concerts has kept them entertained.
Goulash cooking in Hortobágy, Hungary.
View from the stage in Pécs, before the concert began
Westlake Big Band sound check on the stage at Pécs