Thursday, August 27, 2009

Vianden

My older son Nathan has been in the town of Vianden in Luxembourg for a music festival for the last two weeks. He auditioned to go after his cello teacher was asked to teach there. Among other things, he got to play at Vianden castle, accompanying child prodigy Umi Garret in Beethoven's piano trio #1. Although Luxembourg borders a few different countries, he apparently hasn't done much sightseeing as he is occupied with practice several hours per day.

I must admit it has been strange having him away for almost two weeks, especially as school has started already and he would normally be starting classes and going to cross-country practice. We are hoping that this will be a memorable and significant experience for him, whether he chooses to be a musician or not. He has been to Europe a few times before, but this is his first trip of any distance that he has made by himself. We are looking forward to seeing him this weekend.