Sea Lions & Late Night Tango!

Our first official day in Mar del Plata started off with yet another good breakfast. Although there were not as many choices in the Hotel Riviera than in the Hotel Presidente, my plate of croissants and small bread slices were satisfyingly good with a heavy drizzle of dulce de leche. We departed shortly after to our rehearsal at the Colon Theater. We rehearsed for about two hours in the cozy theater and got acclimated to the relatively dry sound in the hall.

After finishing a fruitful rehearsal, we had time to eat lunch and wander the cities. My friends and I first went to the beach to take a couple of pictures and take in the beautiful seaside scenes. We then went to a very good seafood restaurant—recommended by our tour guide—one block from our hotel. The restaurant was called Cocina Mama, which means mother’s kitchen, and the food there was just splendid. Mae Leigh ordered a seafood rice dish and shared it with Caroline, while Sam ordered a big plate of fried, fresh calamari. Antonia ordered white salmon with French fries and Isabella ordered fried white salmon with whole baked potato. I invited Maynie and Mary to sit with us at lunch, and they ordered chicken with rice and ravioli. I ordered a wonderful seafood dish that came out about 10 minutes after everyone else got their meals. It consisted of 2 huge, fresh prawns, 4 clams covered with mozzarella, and 3 huge fish fillets covered in a shrimp sauce with mini shrimps in it and an avocado-infused mash potato side. It was so delicious and definitely worth the wait.

             

Finishing off our lunch payments, we hurried quickly back to the hotel to go on a Mar del Plata city tour. We drove along the coast, went into neighborhoods with beautiful houses, and even went to the boat pier to see a sea lion! Unfortunately, with all the wild dogs roaming at the pier, the sea lion was scared away. I spent time after the guided tour to buy a cup and straw for mate.

                

We then had about two hours of free time at the hotel after we came back from the tour. I went ahead to practice my WYSO music quietly in my room for the concert in the evening. Sam came back to our room from a candy store nearby the hotel and practiced a bit with me before we had to get dressed up for our 8:30 concert. We arrived there with plenty of time to set up and practice on stage. 

We were all surprised that there was a long line outside the theater, waiting to get in and see our concert. About 20 minutes before the concert, the audience all squeezed into the Colon Theater. The hall ended up being packed full to the limit before we started. We played the usual concert order: Candide, Billy the Kid, Liturgical Scenes, Tchaikovsky, and then Ginastera. The audience seemed very enthusiastic and excited to see us, and after every piece, they cheered and clapped really loudly. They cheered and clapped so loudly after our encore piece Ginastera that we played it again! The audience was so enchanted that they even started clapping along with the music during our second performance of the Malambo. The thing that was really unexpected was that after the concert, there was a group of musicians who came up to congratulate us. They invited us to have dinner with them but since we already planned to go to another restaurant, we invited them to eat with us. It turns out that the group of about 12 musicians were from the youth string orchestra of Mar del Plata.       

We arrived at the restaurant Montecatini three blocks from the Colon Theater. The Argentinian musicians were already there waiting for us and we all went in to have dinner together. All of the musicians were so friendly to us! Mae Leigh, Antonia, Sam, Thea, Caroline, Vivian, and I sat with the musicians to have a great dinner. As a gift, they even offered to play to WYSO some tango pieces in the restaurant. And they performed so well and with great expression! I even got a chance to play Eine Kleine Nachtmusik with them and it was such a fun experience. Before we had to leave, we shared ice cream desserts and exchanged names and Facebook contacts. It was sad to see our Argentinian friends waving at us as we drove away back to our hotel. We ended up arriving at our hotel around 2 in the morning, but it was definitely worth it to stay at that restaurant with our new Mar del Plata friends.

                                                                                                                                               ~David Cao 

              

WYSO Tour Photos

Are you interested in seeing more photos of the Youth Orchestra as they travel throughout Argentina? Follow the link below to see the most recent photos taken by our WYSO parent chaperone, George Cao. We'll post the photos just as soon as we can, but don't forget to check back here to read about what's happening on the tour!

https://wysoargentinatour2014.shutterfly.com/ 

Making friends through music

It was an absolutely amazing night at the Teatre Colon. The buses pulled up to the theatre and we saw hundreds of people standing in line to hear WYSO play their Mar del Plata debut concert. It was SRO by concert time, guessing at 8:50 concert goers. Applause erupted after every movement. The encore was repeated twice as the crowd clapped to the beat and demanded more. We learned the local youth orchestra was there and many of them rushed the stage afterwards to greet the kids. A group of them joined us at the restaurant for dinner following the concert and played chamber music for us during dinner. Co-Concertmaster David Cao joined in as well. The kids exchanged names and Facebook friends were made. People cheered on the street as buses departed back to the hotel. It was a magic evening in every way!

~Bridget Fraser

A chaperone's perspective

It's been a whirlwind few days here in Argentina.  The students' joint concert w/the Argentina National Youth Orchestra was fantastic!  They played so well together, and the concert was enthusiastically received by the audience.  There was even a contingent who gave WYSO a standing ovation!  And judging by the din of voices at the pizza party afterwards, the students have made many new Argentinian friends.

Yesterday was a long bus ride to Mar del Plata.  It's cold here - lows in the 30s last night.  But a warming trend is coming, and by the time we're in Rosario, it should be in the 70s.  The students are off rehearsing this morning, and we chaperones are off to infuse the local economy.  It's our duty after all!

Your students have been amazing - you should be very proud of them.  They're conducting themselve as wonderful ambassadors for WYSO, Wisconsin, and the U.S.

Well, I must run - the stores open in six mintues!

~Ann Groves-Lloyd

Broken elevators and sight seeing

We started this morning with a breakfast of mostly bread and runny eggs. Most of us left the hotel restaurant at about 9 AM, expecting to have plenty of time to pack and return to the lobby by 9:30. We were greatly mistaken. One of the three elevators was out of order, and about eighty people were trying to use the two small remaining elevators to travel up and down fifteen floors. Some decided to take the stairs after waiting too long; others waited more stubbornly. Those who decided to take the stairs had to lug their heavy bags and instruments all the way down to the lobby. I personally had to carry my suitcase down from the 15^th floor. Luckily, I didn’t have to carry an instrument.

We all made it to the bus, albeit not in a timely manner. And so we embarked on our six-hour journey from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata.

There were three things people chose to do on the bus: sleep, talk, and look at the scenery. The terrain was surprisingly flat, making it difficult for me to remember I was in Argentina and not Nebraska. There were some interesting sights, though, such as long rows of billboards and a huge plethora of countless herds of numerous cows.  They were everywhere.  Seriously, there were a lot of cows.

We stopped at the Minotauro Food Court with a variety of options. Some of the things we ate included empanadas, steak sandwiches, and potatoes -- nothing too interesting –and no green vegetables to be seen.

We eventually made it to the Hotel Riviera in Mar del Plata, and we soon left to walk around and see the city.  We ended the night by eating dinner at the hotel restaurant. Chaperones Bill and Lynn ended our blogging session prematurely, thus the abrupt ending.

~Stephanie Van Fossen & Eric Peterson

First Concert

I woke up relatively early for a nice breakfast. It was a peculiar breakfast of mostly sweets—dessert cakes and pies—with fresh-squeezed orange juice and fruits. I wasn’t particularly fond of the Vienna sausage they served at the breakfast; they looked like hot dogs (more like tubular Spam) but didn’t taste anything like them. Although, the highlight of the breakfast was the dulce de leche, a very delectable sweet caramel famous in Argentina. Mae Leigh and Antonia spread this rich sweetness on their morning toast. My breakfast was topped off with a nice cup of tea before we headed out to tour the fun filled city.

                

We hopped onto our tour buses and went around the Buenos Aires city. We first stopped at Plaza de Mayo and took pictures of La Casa Rosada (The Pink House, which is the office and mansion of the President of Argentina), Pirámide de Mayo (The May Statue, which was built on the first anniversary of the May Revolution), and Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires (Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires, a Catholic church that the current Pope Francis lived next to when he was in Argentina). We then made yet another quick stop at La Boca and El Caminito (a small pedestrian street filled with colorful houses—as you can see on the background of the blog page). There were so many street vendors selling many different trinkets—from mate, a special Argentinean drink, to Messi jerseys. Our trip ended with an encounter with a churro merchant on a bicycle. The churros were to die for—crunchy and crispy while oozing with dulce de leche from the center. Our last bus tour stop was at the head of Rio de la Plata (River of Silver), where we went to Puerto Madero and crossed the bridge, Puenta de la Mujer, and returned back to the hotel to have lunch.

               

I went out to the huge shopping mall, Galeria Pacifico, and ate at one of the many shops in the food court. I tried an empanada for the first time—actually 6; I got a chicken, tomato with basil and cheese, spinach and cheese, “spicy meat”, “sliced meat”, and a regular “meat” one for 98 pesos (or about 12 US dollars). I especially liked the chicken and spicy meat because of their rich and savory taste and aroma.

             

After a brief lunch, we had to hurry back to our hotel to dress up for our first concert. We got all our equipment ready and made our way to the Facultad de Derecho, University of Buenos Aires, where we first took a big group photo in front of the magnificent building and then rehearsed with the National Youth Orchestra of Argentina. The resonance of the hall made it hard to hear across the orchestra, but we, thankfully, pulled it off. I learned that the age range of their youth orchestra goes from about 14-15 to 28 years old. In first part of the concert, we intermingled with the National Youth Orchestra musicians to play Overture to Candide and Malambo as a huge ensemble. It was such a fun and new experience and the sound was grand and magnificent. After our joint performance, the Argentina Youth Orchestra played Suite Ecuatoriana by Segundo Moreno and Arturo Marquez’s Danzón No. 2 by themselves and WYSO finished off the huge concert with Tchaikovsky’s 4^th Symphony. The audience was stunned after the concert and gave us a standing ovation and a huge applause.

               

After a long afternoon at the Facultad de Derecho, we had a pizza dinner with the Argentina National Youth Orchestra at La Rey at 9:00. There, the WYSO musicians and Argentinian musicians sat together and we talked and ate mozzarella and olive pizza. Even though there was some sort of language barrier, they were so nice and excited to talk to us. We learned lots about them, such as their musical background, experiences in America, and their lives in college. They helped us with our Spanish, and we even taught them some English! We stayed there until about 11:30 and then we bused back to our hotel, all tired and eager to go to bed.

~David Cao and Thea Valmadrid :))

                      P.S. Having so much fun in Argentina!

Day 1 in Buenos Aires

To commence our journey to South America, members of WYSO bussed down to O’Hare International Airport; however, we did not fly internationally quite yet, and waited 7 hours in New York’s JFK airport until we put our passports to use. During the layover, we played cards and met some unfamiliar musicians of WYSO. Some napped.

The 11-hour plane ride, due to strong opposing winds, extended to almost 12. As I let out an internal groan, I turned on the movie “Divergent” and hoped toddlers and babies would keep silent for the duration of the overnight flight.

On our first day in Buenos Aires, our tour groups trudged through the cold city after cleaning up from the long flight where some of us stayed stationary for more than 10 hours. With my calves sore and my feet as swollen as pomegranates, the short tour and the colder winter climate around the city exhausted me. Thankfully, we returned to the luxurious Hotel Presidente in a timely manner, where my group members and I, despite our physical fatigue, ran up the 12 flights of stairs to our rooms.

Each step pained our thighs and we ended up hyperventilating on our beds with severe lung pain, but waiting for a 6-person-maximum elevator with a group as large as ours would have hurt my mental state more than climbing up the stairs.

Through the city tour, I discovered the need to watch one’s step. Many cracked tiles and concrete obstructed my path and I tripped more than 4 times outside, as well as on the step to the bathroom door in our hotel rooms. Unkempt roads led us from Hotel Presidente to dinner at Restaurante 1234 to the beautiful and intricate Teatro Colon, where we watched an interesting ballet rehearsal. In the preview, dancers illustrated a true story of a sculptor and his feelings towards his art.

Antonia & Mae Leigh

To conclude the long first day, we blogged. Here it is. ¡Disfruta!

~Antonia Rohlfing and Mae Leigh Patchin

Arrived safe and sound!

Arrived safe and sound in BA. Just completed a quick walking tour of the area around our hotel.  We have a group dinner planned tonight. The open dress rehearsal to RODIN the ballet was closed by the maestro yesterday. But the director of the Theatre Colon has invited WYSO to be the only guests allowed. He will also give us a personal tour of the most famous theater in South America.

A tiny 6 hour layover

Here I am, in JFK, watching our students playing cards, reading books, wandering around, and generally having a lot of fun.  The morning ran smoothly, especially if you love people watching and getting to know a lot of new WYSO members.  This is my second time as a chaperone for the international tour, and I absolutely love experiencing all this through our students' eyes.  As is normal, we had many nervous stomachs this morning, but all are gaining confidence and trust with every passing moment.

While things have gone well thus far, I must admit that a six hour layover at JFK with 70 high school students would wear on anyone!  But they're doing great - keeping entertained and taking turns wandering and watching stuff.  The chaperones and staff are coping well, too - a little of our own comraderie is helping the time to pass more quickly.

Just a few hours to go until we board, and then on to Buenos Aires.  Sleep well everyone, and hope we all do, too!

Ann Groves Lloyd, PhD

Up, Up, and Away

Bridget Fraser - ED

The WYSO youth orchestra has safely arrived at O'Hare. The check in process was relatively smooth aside from an overweight percussion case and Mr. Smith's missing reciprocity receipt. Both situations were remedied and we all made our way through security without incident. Our plane to JFK is scheduled to leave on time.   It is a beautiful day to fly!

Farewell Concert

Come watch us perform TODAY at 7:00 at Olbrich Botanical Gardens! It’s our farewell concert before we go off to Argentina. We will be playing Leonard Bernstein’s Overture to Candide, Billy the Kid Suite by Aaron Copland, Dwayne S. Milburn’s Liturgical Scenes, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor, and “Malambo” from Estancia Suite by Alberto Ginastera—all of which we will be playing on the tour. Pictures of the Farewell Concert will be posted on the blog. Hope to see you there!

~David Cao

Excitement at First Rehearsal

My name is George Cao. I am one of the chaperones on the WYSO Argentina tour and also will take photos and videos as a group photographer. Two days ago, Sunday 7/21, our group met at a Pizza party. Chaperones and WYSO members got a chance to greet and know each other better. Also, everybody got a cool tour t-shirt, which will be worn mainly at our departure and return. Our group seems excited about getting ready for the tour. Last night was also the first orchestra rehearsal with conductors Mr. Smith and Mrs. Eckel. Here are some photos at the event.