Scandic Adventure

This tour took us to Sweden and Finland. Once settled in Sweden's capital, Stockholm we had an intensive and very interesting sessions with Piano teachers Ivetta Irkha and Maria Rostotsky, Soprano Alexandra Büchel, Violinist Aleksej Nikolaev and cello guru Erik Williams. We also visited Vaasa Museum and Viking Museum and in the evening we went to Royal Opera House to watch and listen to a Ballet -The Nutckraker!

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Undoubtedly THE day we were waiting for and worked hard to do our best. After a quick rehearsal in St. Jakob's Church in central Stockholm, we performed a concert to a local audience, featuring various repertoire of classical music and finishing with a cheerful Christmas Medley! That evening we also went for a Gala Dinner with our teachers and parents to celebrate our successful performance and get ready to our next adventure - to Finalnd! 

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Like true Scandinavians, we embarked to our journey to Finland by boat, a Cruise Liner mega-ship that is. Silja Serenade was a sailing hotel (with small rooms!), restaurants, cafes and many shops! We all felt a bit dizzy too, since the sea was rough, but hey, isn't that the adventure?! Once in Finland, we went to pay respect to one of the great Finnish composers, Jean Sibelius - visited his monument and later that day went to the "Sibelius Experience" Concert where we learned more about his music and music of Finland in general.

 

We also visited Musikkittalo - a performance arts centre of Finland and were given a unique tour to the backstage of the venue, discovered rehearsal space of various professional orchestras and sneak a peek in Sibelius Academy of Music, one of the leading conservatories in Europe! After all these we were ready to fly to Lapland and meet THE Santa Claus in his official residency in Rovaniemi, right on the edge of the Arctic circle!

 

If everything before this was fun, here where the FUN has really started! In short two days we spent here we went to safaris like reindeer rides, husky rides, Arctic circle crossing ceremony, midnight hunt for Northern Lights and of course visited Santa Claus Himself!