Roche Continents 2013

This past week, I had the privilege to be one of 100 young students from across Europe participating in Roche Continents Youth! Arts! Science! conference in Salzburg, Austria. This expenses-paid event is sponsored by the pharmaceutical corporation Roche, and collaborates with the famous Salzburg Music Festival. Participants represented 40 different nations and were challenged to "explore the common ground of creativity and innovation in Arts and Science."

The conference was an enjoyable blend of lectures, concerts, group work and socializing.
Initially, no one quite understood the purpose of the conference, but as time passed it became clear that we were learning not from lectures but from social interaction and observation. I am still processing the experience, but I know I have come away more knowledgeable and that I had a hell of a good time. Over the last two days, we worked in groups to prepare 10 minute presentations which let our creativity shine. Many groups had incredibly inventive ideas, such as marionettes, parodies, installations, bicycle music, shadow puppets in the building's bunker and much more. My group told the story of "Pomme the Traveling Penguin," presented in the style of a pop-up book. As narrator I had to lead over 100 people (all of whom were highly educated) through a hokey-pokey style penguin dance... three times. I think it was one of the bravest things I have ever done!

Since my group's theme was travel, we put up a map to see where everyone else had been around the world.

Of course not everything at Roche Continents was work! The socializing was the best part, especially when assisted by free alcohol. Roche spent a huge amount of money on the event and it really showed. We were never hungry because the catering was fantastic, plus the waiters were always there to refill your glass. As the week progressed, everyone got increasingly tired from the many nights spent lounging outdoors in armchairs.

On our free afternoon, I had signed up with a group to visit an ice cave in the mountains. We spent a hilarious bus ride planning to buy a castle together. Upon arrival we were greeted by a long line up to the tram, estimated to take 1.5 hours. Our guide suggested hiking up to the cave instead, so we started trekking up and up. After my mountainous hike in Spain I was hardly enthusiastic to repeat the process in wimpy sneakers, especially considering the steep, dangerous parts of the trail. Thankfully we all reached the top safely, though we were all heaving and soaked with sweat (not the best idea when you are going into an ice cave). We had started hiking at 1000m elevation, and went up to the cave at 1641m. Inside the cave we hiked up more stairs to 1750m. After all the eating we'd been doing we needed the exercise! Hiking in the mountains is a hard challenge, but always an accomplishment with deserved picturesque rewards.

 See that tiny building? That was where we were going...

 Perhaps one of the less safe places on the hike. I didn't really like the idea of walking across a rock slide.

 But as we got higher, the views made the effort worthwhile.

Congrats! We made it! 

Inside the cave was beautiful and not as cold as I was expecting, since the temperature stays around -1C all year. When the snow melts in the spring water drips through the limestone into the cave to form ice, which then melts over the summer. The ice stalagmites and stalactites form intricate ice sculptures, and in parts the ice is estimated at 80m thick. At the entrance, visitors are given small open flame lamps to amplify the experience (or perhaps make you forget you can't take pictures). What I really wanted to do was slide down the tempting ice slopes, however I postponed the idea due to a lack of efficient braking system.

  

When we exited the cave we were greeted by surprising cloud cover. It was surreal to think that an hour before we could see for miles and now could only see 30 metres!

It was back in May when I found out I was accepted to the conference, and one of the first things I did was research the Salzburg Festival. As a classical violinist I was thrilled to have the opportunity to see a variety of concerts at one of the most prestigious classical music festivals in the world. By some strange miracle I discovered that El Sistema was in residence for the 2013 Festival... and that they were performing the just before my conference began! Sistema is a social movement in Venezuela which provides free musical education to children and I have spent much of my year volunteering for an Irish Sistema program. The opportunity for to see the Venezuelan Children's Orchestra live was phenomenal.

For the concert, the Venezuelan Orchestra consisted of over 250 performers aged 8 to 13. They ensemble had 18 double basses, a number I have never seen before in one ensemble. They performed works by Gershwin, Ginastera and Mahler at a very high standard under conductors Simon Rattle and 18-year-old Venezuelan prodigy Jesús Parra. Their encore piece "Mambo!"included fun choreographed movement on stage and thrilled the already impressed Salzburg audience. Each piece received a standing ovation and the applause did not stop till every child had walked off stage. I found the performance incredibly emotional because I was finally seeing the outcome of a program of which I had learned so much. The children all played with so much skill and passion it would have been impossible not to be moved by the experience. During intermission I was also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu. I think I was as excited as when I saw the Pope. This one man's vision has shown the world how music education should be taught.

 

As part of Roche we were taken to many of Salzburg Festival's contemporary music concerts. It was funny seeing scientists come across new music for the first time. I believe they were a bit confused of what to make of it! For me, the concerts got better and better throughout the week. On Sunday night we saw a chamber music concert of Asian composers (Takemitsu, Hosokawa, Fujikura and Yun) conducted by famous oboist Heinz Hollinger. Monday night brought a performance of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra featuring Mahler Symphony 4 and a Harrison Birtwistle violin concerto performed by Christian Tetzlaff. I greatly enjoyed Wednesday's performance of the Ensemble WienBerlin, a wind quintet made up of musicians from the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. These musicians were incredible performers and I happily watched how they communicated musically. They brought to life the works of Taffanel, Ligeti, Birtwistle, Hosokawa and Nielsen.



The fancy stage of the Mozarteum where the WienBerlin quintet performed.

 



On our final evening, we dressed in our finest attire to attend a performance of Harrison Birtwistle's opera Gawain. Gawain was a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, and his tale is one of humble self-discovery as he travels to his death. Like many of the week's concerts, the opera took place at the Felsenreitschule where once a scene from Sound of Music was filmed. The carved stone arches provided an imposing, earthy backdrop to the dystopian setting of the opera. Instead of being set in medieval times, the opera was set in a future where mankind had destroyed the world and regressed to animalistic behaviour. Many elements were shocking, including scenes of cannibalism, seizure-like dancing, live dogs on stage, and a continuously high level of musical intensity. I have still not decided if I liked the opera, but I do know the artistry and visual impact of the performance was beyond anything I had previously experienced. I have incredible respect for the daring interpretation, much of which can be attributed to the visual artist Joseph Beuys whose former works made subtle appearances throughout the opera. Overall, it was a performance none of the Roche participants will forget.

 The stage for Gawain.

 Dressed up for our final evening.

 With my wonderful roommate Annemiek!

 Hanging out on the arm chairs... with wine of course!

Roche Continents was the perfect way to wrap up my year abroad. Being around so many talented youth from multiple countries reminded me why I love Europe so much. Many amazing people, places, and experiences are a short plane ride away. In addition the conference inspired me to continue being creative, innovative and individual. It strengthened my commitment to lifelong learning, keeping an open-mind and working collaboratively with other disciplines. I hope more than anything that I can revisit and work with these people in the future. It is amazing the friendships you can create in only seven days.

Tomorrow I return to Canada for the first time in 11 months and 20 days. After my Roche experience, I viewed my return as bittersweet since it meant the end of my exciting adventures. However, now that I think it through I realize that I am simply starting a new adventure, one where I will continue to learn interesting things and meet wonderful people. It is simply a new chapter which I am excited to undertake. And besides, someday I will be back to Europe.

As my amazing year ends, there is only one more blog post to be written.
See you then,
Shannon