Is music important to you, or have you ever played a musical instrument? In my case, my main instrument has been the violin for over a decade. Unfortunately, my violin is currently thousands of miles away in the U.S., so I have been finding other ways to stay connected to music over here!
Last month, I had the chance to see the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the best orchestras in the world, perform at a concert hall called Palau de la Música Catalana (the Palace of Catalonian Music). It was a beautiful venue with lots of colorful, intricate decorations on both the inside and outside of the building. The two places the orchestra performed were Stravinsky's Apollon Musagète and Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony. They played with incredible precision and even did an encore performance of Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms.
A form of music and dance native to Spain is flamenco, and I went to a flamenco show a couple of weeks ago. There were some musicians who sang, played classical guitar, also known as the Spanish guitar, and played traditional forms of percussion. The performers also often clapped along to the music. As for the dancing element, female dancers in flowy dresses and one male dancer in a tuxedo vest danced flamenco.
