This year the Durham University Palatinate Orchestra embarked on an adventure to Paris, France, where they enjoyed performing two well-attended concerts, being typical Paris tourists and spending a magical day at Disneyland! The concerts, performed at the two beautiful and different locations of L’énglish Notre Dame du Raincy and L’église Saint-Roch were well received and featured the amazing Rebecca Howell performing Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor. We all had tremendous fun, even when all trying to watch the football in the small bars of Paris! DUPO performed two concerts whilst on tour, to Paris: 9th – 13th June. The first was held in L’Église du Saint Roch, located near to the Louvre and the second concert in L’Église Notre-Dame du Raincy on the outskirts of Paris. The music DUPO took on tour was Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and Saint Saëns’ Third Violin Concerto with the talented soloist Rebecca Howell. We were also given the opportunity to perform an arrangement by our leader Rachael Steel of Debussy’s ‘Des pars sur le neige’. Tour was a great opportunity for the orchestra to get to know each other better and it included a day trip to Disneyland Paris. There was also an opportunity for people to take the metro out of Paris and visit the Palace of Versailles and to see the sights in...

This year DUOS visited Budapest on their tour with the highlights being described as watching the sunrise over the city on the final day of the tour – as well as the three amazing concerts of course. The first day of the tour was mainly filled with travelling, getting to know the area, and catching up on lost sleep ready for the first concert day. On the first full day of their tour DUOS travelled to the Great Church of Kecskmet for a rehearsal and concert before returning to Budapest for an evening getting to know the local area and relaxing. The second day involved another early start and more travelling, this time to Visegrad near the Slovakian border. This was a very active day for the orchestra including a zip wire trip down a mountain and a visit to a Medieval castle. The group then travelled to Vac to give a concert in the cathedral before returning back to Budapest and exploring ‘ruin bars’ – a feature of local culture. The third day was a rest from the early starts with free time to explore Budapest before giving an evening concert in a small concert hall on the outskirts of the city . The next day, most of the orchestra got up early again to climb the hill above the city and watch the sunrise before a relaxing...

This year from the 6th-9th June the Durham University Brass Band went on their first ever tour. They stayed in Kortrijk in Belgium and had a great time giving well-received concerts and taking in the sights. Their concerts included an afternoon in Ostend Bandstand where they performed to an audience of over 200 bystanders, shoppers and restaurant goers. The final concert of their tour was an open air concert on De Panne beach in the sunshine which was enjoyed by performers and audience alike. Their repertoire was varied including a wide range of traditional brass band classics such as marches and hymns, as well as arrangements of popular and film music written by some of their members. The concerts were conducted jointly by Matthew Ruddock and Abi Groocock, the outgoing and incoming conductors of the band. Although the tour was short, there was plenty of time for sight seeing. The first day was mainly taken up with travel and a short rehearsal before enjoying the selection of Belgian beers in the hotel bar. The next day the band explored Ghent, which included taking a canal cruise around the historic city. The third day the band visited Bruges and were given a demonstration and tasting session in a Belgian chocolate factory before enjoying the afternoon sunshine, shopping, relaxing on the beach and swimming in the sea at De Panne. Later...