The musicians left March 4 and returned March 11 on a tour that included performances in St. Petersburg and Pushkin by members of the Medwin String Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Concert Band, Trombone Ensemble, Chamber Orchestra, Stage Band, and Jazz Ensemble.
"Pushkin was especially noteworthy," said Weeks. "It's the sister city of Worcester and our concert on the first day was to an audience with a variety of age groups on the eve of International Women's Day. Later that same day we were hosted to a reception at city hall by the mayor of Pushkin," continued Weeks. "The mayor mentioned that what was amazing about our WPI musicians was that they were all amateur musicians attending a technological university - many aspiring to be engineers."
"I was most impressed by one of the students at the Pushkin Music School who joined us. The seven-year old girl had just won an international competition and was an outstanding musician on the piccolo," Weeks said.
The stage band and jazz ensemble performed at the Pushkin Military High School as part of a joint concert. They later performed at the Cafe Worcester in Pushkin with musicians from that same school. "In St. Petersburg the band and jazz ensemble performed at the Jazz Philharmonic Hall where the audience clapped for encores. They didn't want us to leave," noted Falco.
Other performances took place at the Glinka Cappella and the Mravinski Music School in St. Petersburg. "There was also ample time for sightseeing and meeting with other musicians," said Weeks.
This was the second time that WPI musical groups had toured Russia. However, in 1990 it was still the Soviet Union and Leningrad. "This was one of the smoothest tours I've been on," said Weeks. "We even had a radio interview while in St. Petersburg and several newspaper interviews about WPI and our programs."
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