Peggy Revell
They’re still battling a bit of jet lag, but members of the Fort Frances High School band arrived home early Sunday morning with stories and hundreds of photos from their long-awaited trip to Italy over the March Break.
“It was so good!” FFHS music teacher John Dutton said of the trip that saw 72 students and 23 adults tour the boot-shaped country.
“For starters, the weather was perfect,” he enthused. “We had a little bit of rain on the second last night, but it was about at 11 o’clock at night.
“I had to buy a hat, I got sunburned!
“Everything worked out! ” Dutton added. “Arrangements were good, the tours were great. Our guides were fabulous. They were both Dutch guys, and they were fabulous.
“And the concerts, we couldn’t have asked for more,” he remarked. “We maybe were a little slow off the mark on the first concert because it was the day after we got there.”
Dutton said their first concert was on the island of Venice.
“We took our instruments by boat to the island, and it was quite an adventure. It was very well-received.
“The concert at the school was amazing,” he added. “We had all kinds of school-aged kids there and the audience response was so good.
“They gave us a standing ovation, we had to do an encore.”
The first two concerts the band played were quite large, Dutton noted, while the other ones were both in churches—one that’s currently being used as a church and another that wasn’t.
“It was just almost overwhelming the insides of these churches to start with, but quite beautiful,” Dutton said. “And maybe dealing with a little more echo than we’re used to.”
But even the smaller audiences were a “typical Italian crowd,” added Dutton, who estimated they played for 500-600 people overall.
“They really are appreciative, and show their appreciation with applause and cheering.”
“I found it absolutely amazing,” Grade 10 student Cameo Harrison said about performing in front of the Italian audiences.
“At the high school that we played at, they just got really into it,” she recalled. “When they knew a song, they would sing along in their own language.
“It was a really neat experience, and whenever they recognized a song, they would get all excited. You could see them all moving around and dancing around a little bit in their seats.”
“That was so much fun,” echoed Grade 12 student Britta deGroot. “Especially when we played in front of the school. The kids got so excited and they were singing along and clapping along.
“Even in Venice, when the people would come in and, too,
because the doors were open. They just watched and smiled, and loved it.
“I really liked Venice, it was beautiful, all the water streets and such, and being with all my friends,” enthused deGroot, who said that before this trip, she had never been far outside of Canada.
Venice, and the chance to ride in a gondola, was what Harrison also said was her favourite part of the trip, adding it was neat to see in person what she had only seen in pictures up to that point.
“The colosseum [in Rome] was also really neat, where the gladiators fought,” she said, adding the leaning Tower of Pisa also was a favourite stop.
“It was my first time [to Italy] and I would really enjoy to go there again,” she said. “I’m starting to miss the uniqueness we saw there.”
“I think the highlight was probably Pompeii,” noted Dutton. “They liked Pompeii and then we climbed Vesuvius right up and then we looked in the crater, and saw the steam and smoke, and it was just great.
“Couldn’t have asked for more.”
“I think people would really benefit from experiencing a trip like this just because it opens you up,” Harrison explained.
The opportunity also has brought the whole band together as a group.
“We’ve travelled together now, we’ve gotten to know each other a whole lot better, so I think we can even play better now because we’re more together now,” she reasoned.
Despite some jitters before leaving earlier this month, Dutton said there were “no casualties” on the trip, with nothing or no one lost, and all instruments and equipment making it over and back.
“We had a little trouble convincing [the airlines] that we could take some of the larger stuff, but as soon as I put my credit card on the counter, they accommodated us,” he laughed.
“Got everything there and everything back, and except for the handling of the instruments . . . we’ve had some cases that have seen some better days.
“But that sort of goes with the territory,” Dutton added. “So we had a lot of tape and a lot of repair equipment, and everything worked, the PA worked, and it’s all back here and we were using it today.”
While the trip is over, the band isn’t done yet for the year. They still have to perform in the Rainy River District Festival of the Performing Arts in April, and also will be providing music at an Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association Conference here later in the month, noted Dutton.
He also said many students are participating in Fort High’s musical being staged at the end of April.
Following trips like this, the band also hosts a “show and share” evening with the community.
Although no date has been set yet, Dutton said this probably will be scheduled for sometime in April.
