Families of BYSO tour musicians can breathe a sigh of relief: BYSO has made it to Leipzig!


Day 1.5 was an exciting whirlwind that had us traveling by car, plane, bus and our own two feet as we finished this 24 hour journey with a walking tour of Leipzig’s city center!
Watch our instagram story here!
We started our tour at the Gewandhaus, inside which we were able to learn more about the history of the hall. Did you know that Boston’s Symphony Hall was partially modeled off of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig? Then we went to visit the St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche) and St. Thomas Church (Tomaskirche) where Bach’s remains are now buried. With every step we took, we were immersed in the city’s rich musical heritage.
Our tour concluded with a visit to the New Town Hall, where we climbed the tower to see beautiful views of the city. After much exercise, we were very happy to meet our homestay families over cake at Kupfersaal, where we will be rehearing the rest of this week. We received a very warm welcome from Leipzig choirs of the Gewandhausorchester and Opera Leipzig, and from the Bachfest Leipzig.
Thank you to all who made our journey pleasant and our welcome warm!
- First leg of the trip: a flight to Frankfurt!
- The Gewandhaus is where we will be performing on Sunday as part of the Bachfest.
- Maestro Nelsons conducts both the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). BYSO is a proud partner of the BSO!
- In the New Town Hall, we got a unique view of the city of Leipzig.
- It was a 250 step climb, but worth the view!
- Learning about the Gewandhaus’ architectural history.
- Inside the New Town Hall
- Tag your selfies with #BYSOTour!
- We could not ship our celli and basses to Germany, so today we were able to try out our borrowed instruments!
- Picking our name tags to meet our homestay families!!
- Homestay family meet and greet
- Meeting our new family and friends.
- Smiles atop the New Town Hall Tower.
- Meeting our homestay siblings!
- Our Executive Director Cathy Weiskel with the Director of the Bach Archive Leipzig, Peter Wollny.
- Cake!
Tomorrow morning, we have our first rehearsal in Kupfersaal. Stay tuned here and on our social media for more tour updates!