Music student Candace Gunn shares how an experiential learning opportunity has enhanced her time at BYU
Breathe. It’s ok. There’s no rush. “Vienna waits for you,” as Billy Joel reminded me in his song, Vienna. After a hectic week of finals and hurried packing, I was flying on several jet planes to Vienna, the city of music. Finally, now I could breathe. Now I could relax and live every musician’s dream, to experience the lifestyles of the great composers and to hear and breathe in the most beautiful music in the world — or could I? Did I actually know how to breathe?
I had brought my oboe along with me so that I could learn alongside these amazing musicians and become one of them. Other members of the Vienna study abroad had also brought their instruments with them so that they could learn from the masters. When we gathered as a group each Sunday and reported our favorite experiences from the week, people would talk about their incredible lessons and invariably they would say, “We went back to the basics. Breathing.”READ MORE