The Cardiff and Vale Music Service (CAVMS) in Cardiff, Wales recently visited the Glenbrook schools for the second time in the last eight years.

This Chicago-Cardiff relationship started when Barb Dill-Varga, an administrator in District 225, took a year sabbatical and taught in Wales. “She developed this relationship with the Leaches [CAVMS founders and directors] and became very good friends with them,” said Carl Meyer, director of Glenbrook Symphony Orchestra (GSO).

John Leach ran a music studio, and when Dill-Varga returned to the US, he wanted to set up a visit to the school. Dill-Varga contacted Meyer about the visit and since then CAVMS and GSO have visited each other once every four years. The GSO is preparing to visit Cardiff next spring.

Nearly 90 people from the CAVMS association – orchestra and jazz band members, teachers and directors – came. Members of the GSO opened up their homes. Senior violist Emily Wachowiak hosted two girls. “They’re really nice, and they have really cool accents,” Wachowiak saidd. The only downside to this arrangement is that “there’s only one bathroom, which means one shower in [her] house.”

The nine-day itinerary was packed from morning to night with rehearsals, shopping excursions, sports games, musical performances, and sightseeing.

“I looked forward to making new friends,” said Abbi Welsh, a violinist in CAVMS. Members regularly visited both Glenbrook South and Glenbrook North and met GSO members. Welsh commented that she had also met a lot of new people within CAVMS and felt that she became better friends with other members.

Bethan Smith, flutist, however, summed up her expectations in one word: “Shopping.” The Welsh spent time at local malls such as Woodfield, Northbrook Court, and Old Orchard. Smith said that the exchange rate between pounds and dollars made many items cheaper than they would have been in Wales.

For Hannah Stracy, harpist, it was “the White Sox and Bulls match.” They attended the White Sox game on April 17 and the Bulls game on April 19. Smith described it as “the kind of thing we don’t have in Britian” primarily because of the difference between American spectators and Welsh spectators.

CAVMS members shadowed GSO members at GBS and GBN Friday morning, April 21, and also played a joint concert with the GSO and GBS jazz band that evening. They left the next morning.

Stracy’s last words: “we had a really good time, really enjoyed it, made new friends. An experience we won’t forget.”

Elizabeth Deng, layout editor