THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050095
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
ABOUT TWO DOZEN local high school students won't just be dozing off and eating munchies during spring break next week.
They'll taste tea and crumpets and play Gilbert and Sullivan's music far, far from Hampton Roads.
The musicians - students at the Governor's School for the Arts - will visit England and France for a week, seeing the sights and showing off their skills. They'll perform at St. Gregory's School in Bath, and at London's Imperial War Museum during an Easter egg hunt.
The governor's school - which offers daily half-day programs in music, dance, theater, combined performing arts and visual arts - offers a local showcase for young prodigies. But the students rarely get a chance to shine overseas.
``It's the experience of a lifetime,'' says violinist Thomas Brown, a 15-year-old freshman at Norfolk's Granby High. ``A lot of my family members wish they could have gone on a trip like this.''
Elmer Felton of Portsmouth, the mother of another student, said: ``I'm excited and nervous she'll be so far away from me.'' Her daughter, Courtnee, a 16-year-old junior at Churchland High who plays the oboe, is more low-key.
``I have one of those laid-back children, one of the kind you have to wake up for Christmas,'' Felton said.
Ray Pancarowicz, the school's music chairman, has taken teens on sightseeing trips to Washington and New York in previous years. This time, he wanted something a bit more cosmopolitan.
And thanks to an enterprising travel company, Manhattan Tour and Travel in New York, the students won't be passive tourists. The company lined up two gigs in England.
The students will perform 90-minute concerts featuring a smorgasbord of music - from Vivaldi's ``Mandolin Concerto in C'' to the very British ``Modern Major-General'' song from Gilbert and Sullivan's ``H.M.S. Pinafore.'' They will close with a selection of the in-vogue ``taize'' music, which Pancarowicz describes as ``French chant-like music.''
``They've been practicing really hard, and they're ready,'' Pancarowicz says.
Alison Smith, an 18-year-old flutist who's a senior at Bayside High in Virginia Beach, admits to a touch of nerves. ``The music isn't very hard, but I don't know what the atmosphere will be like. I don't know if everybody over there is going to be a virtuoso.''
Brown, the violinist, is more philosophical. ``If I mess up,'' he says, ``they don't know me.''
The musicians will leave Monday and return April 18. They'll pay for the trip - at about $1,650 a head - through donations, parental largesse and business acumen. Dionne Wright, a 14-year-old cellist and a freshman at Chesapeake's Deep Creek High, has sold $500 worth of candy bars.
These days, they're more eager to talk about the sights than the songs.
Raymond Neal, 16, an 11th-grade viola player from Chesapeake's Western Branch High, can't wait to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the musical ``Les Miserables'' in London.
Smith, the flutist, is awaiting some other royal stops - Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. In Paris, they will visit the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Eiffel Tower.
Wright is wondering what clothes European teens wear. Smith is trying to envision the houses of the St. Gregory's students, where they'll be staying the first two nights: ``I've seen books with pictures of little English cottages, but I don't know what to expect.''
Felton said her daughter was thinking of adopting a British accent to see if she could fit in. Not a great idea, Mom said.
``She said she might try it out on some of the natives,'' Felton said, ``and I told her not to be so insulting.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
BILL TIERNAN/Staff
Western Branch's Raymond Neal, 16, will perform with his viola in
England and France.
by CNB