Mozart's Gerburstag

Friday was Mozart's 256th birthday! There was no school because Mozart's Gerburstag is a holiday in Vienna. =) A group of us BYU students did a Mozart walking tour around the city on that day (which I joined late after my violin lesson at the University of Music). I happened to have my violin with me when we reached the Burkgarten with a beautiful statue of Mozart and was persuaded to play on the steps of the Mozart pedestal. Priceless memory!

Happy Birthday, dear Mozart!"

This was the saddest angel I have ever seen...

The graveyard where the Mozart's "grave" is located....
twilight-filled and overgrown--romance at its best!

We toured the violin shop of Henriette Lersch this week! She explained how she makes violins and celli, showed us some of the instruments she has restored, and at the end I was able to play one of her violins and a violin from the 1700's! What a treat!



A chair in the Bernthaler's home (our host family) once belonged to Emporer Franz Joseph I's grandson Rudolph , Crown Prince of Austria. And this painting hung in Belvedere palace for some time before the Berthaler family inherited it.

Only half a painting...oops!

And this is me at my first lesson at the University for Music in Vienna wondering what in the world I have gotten myself into (my teacher was on a cig break). We spent an hour on bow hold and 'doing it wrong so that doing it right is easy' exercises, and an hour walking around the room while playing for rhythm internalization. Perhaps its just what I need...perhaps.

;)