Festa Italiana

This past January, GIBS singers joined the stage with Die Große Chance finalist Italian tenor Paolo Scariano and the Bel Canto Orchestra for an unforgettable afternoon and evening of Italian song in two sold out performances in the stunning Minoritensaal.  Under the baton of professional conductor (and GIBS parent) Thomas Platzgummer, GIBS students performed four songs alongside the captivating and charismatic Mr. Scariano: ‘That’s Amore’, ‘Con Te Partiro’ (Time to Say Goodbye), the Neapolitan ‘Funiculi Funicula’, and the classic tenor aria, ‘Nessun Dorma’, from Puccini’s Turandot.  GIBS students went on to sing two songs on their own: the time-honored ‘What a wonderful World’ inspired by jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, as well as ‘Girotondo Intorno al Mondo’, and Italian pop hit from the 1960’s by Sergio Endrigo, with lyrics inspired by the French poet Paul Fort, and adapted in English by retired GIBS staff member Karolin Türk.  GIBS students Jana Tropper 2b, Elisa Nairz 2b, Maria Elena 5a and Anna Linhart Jimenez 6b, Sophie Stangl 7i and former GIBS students Emma Eger, Lina Platzgummer, Valerie Senger were featured as soloists alongside the choir, orchestra and Paolo, as well as GIBS co-teacher and professional singer Katie MaCrae.  It was a long, but very fulfilling day of great music and a once in a lifetime experience of working alongside a professional singer, conductor and orchestra!