It's pronounced Pah-VEE-uh...

...and it is beautiful.

 

(Coperto Bridge over the Ticino River, Cathedral of Pavia in the distance)

Pavia, Italy is a small college town in Northern Italy. In the middle of summer it's just the right amount of quiet while still being fun (much like Ann Arbor, or Eau Claire for that matter).

For two weeks, Corey got to stay in a little apartment on campus, take composition seminars, have private lessons with some pretty big names, have a piece performed, take Italian language and cooking lessons, and just chill in this amazing little town. AND he had the pleasure of my company for the first week :)

The down time was a lot of pizza, wine, window-shopping, and walking. LOTS of walking. It was really great to soak up the culture of this off-the-tourist-path town. It was like being part of the community for a little while. A lot of the shops and restaurants we went to had the posters for the festival concerts on display, and the bartender at the Irish Pub in town knew our group by the end of our second day.

(Basilica of St. Peter in Golden Sky, the resting place of St. Augustine, the Lombard King Liutprand, and philospoher Boethius. It is mentioned in Dante's Devine Comedy.)

(The Certosa di Pavia, a country monastery outside Pavia.) 

 (Yummy local wine!)

Even though I was registered with the festival as a guest, all of the classes were open to me as well. I attended the Italian lessons and seminar classes with Corey every morning. The seminars were short presentations by the festival participants about their music. It was really cool to hear bits if pieces by composers of all experience levels, from undergrad to post-doc, and from all over the world. Unfortunately, all of the concerts were scheduled for the second week, so I could not attend any.

For all my composing friends, I highly recommend the highSCORE music festival. The classes, lessons, and concert opportunities were excellent. Corey (and I) made some great professional contacts, and he is feeling really good about his doctoral applications after this experience. Aside from the professional and educational advantages of this program, the setting was amazing. The town is so beautiful and inspiring and just plain fun!

Two of the teachers at the festival are a couple. I've told Corey that after he's found a good teaching job, his next task is to find a sweet summer gig in a similarly gorgeous location as Pavia. I could get used to this :)