Parkes High School student Gordon Richter is on the trip of a lifetime.
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He left Parkes on Sunday with 87 other talented musicians and singers from rural and remote NSW on The West of the Divide European Performance Tour of Europe.
On the tour, students will perform in iconic venues in some of the music capitals of Europe.
The 88 students chosen for the West of the Divide ensemble earned their place through outstanding performances at choral and concert band programs held for students from local public schools.
Gordon attended a Western Region band camp in February last year.
“Di Hall [musical director from Tamworth] said she was taking people overseas and told us to keep an eye out for an email,” Gordon said.
“When the email came, I was amazed. I didn’t expect it to be me.”
Gordon is the only Bassoonist in the wind ensemble.
He has been playing his main instrument, the clarinet, for nine years and the bassoon for four and a half years.
Highlights of the tour will include:
- masterclasses and workshops with renowned conductors at musical meccas such as Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Vienna’s Wiener Konzerthaus abd the Budapest Operetta and Musical Theatre
- immersing themselves in the amazing acoustics as they perform in Matthias Church, Budapest, performing with Czech student musicians in the 14th Century Church of St Havel, jamming with jazz musicians on one of Prague’s famous River Vltava jazz boats and entertaining with an impromptu recital in the 900-year-old Benedictine Abbey church at Melk.
- enjoying the opera La Traviatta in the ornate Prague National theatre
- paying homage to some of the world’s greatest composers and musicians
- walking in the footsteps of The Sound of Music
Gordon is the son of Melinda and Tim Richter.