Thursday, June 2

I cannot believe it is the final day of the program. We have been planning for this for almost two years, and now it is almost finished! I must say that the group of students that came on this Study Abroad program have been nothing short of wonderful. No trouble, no complaints, no problems. I couldn't have asked for a better group of students for my first Study Abroad directorship.

So what did we do on our last day? Something very appropriate. We have been learning about the great composers who called Vienna their home, we have been visiting their lodgings, we have been walking the streets where they walked, and we have been hearing their music in extremely high quality performances. So today we visited their final resting place, the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery).

First we had a short session for both classes, wrapping things up and taking the final exams. Afterwards we got on the Straßenbahn and headed to the cemetery. I think the photos speak for themselves.

So what do do our last evening? What could we possibly do to top off this program and send us all home smiling? Amazingly, almost as if Vienna planned to give us an incredible send-off, the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra gave a free performance on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, for which they performed one of the great orchestral showpieces ever written, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in the arrangement by Maurice Ravel. We went early in order to get seats because we knew there would be a huge crowd. We got there about 5:00, but the concert didn't start until darkness fell at 9:00, because of the light show planned for the concert.

Here are some photos of us before the concert.

Here is what the stage looked like when we arrived at 5:00.

And here is what it looked like during the curtain calls.

The conductor of the concert was the famous Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, currently Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Here he is taking his bow. You can see the massive Neptune Fountain behind the see-through, plastic-sheeting that served as a stage cover.

Although this last photo is a bit blurry, it does give a sense of the pageantry and also the lighting that was displayed throughout the concert.

After the concert, as the crowds of people made their way out of the palace grounds and onto the subway, I said goodbye to the students as all of us are traveling somewhere tomorrow. Some are heading home, some are staying in Vienna, and some are traveling elsewhere in Europe. Several are leaving very early tomorrow. As we said goodbye, we all agreed that this concert was the very best way we could have ended our program.