We meet early in a private section of the hotel dining room. The energy in the room is quite high, but it's a quiet energy--the mood is a little subdued. Laura and Mark check the tuning of each instrument that will be played in two hours at the Austria Center. Then, since there is not room to set up and play, the group sings through sections of the pieces that are on the program today. It is surprising how well the orchestra members sing. The Barber Adagio, which is full of slow, intense, gradually building tonal shifts, sounds wonderfully ethereal when sung by the group. When the cello part rises out of the vocal range of most of the group there is a moment of levity that breaks the tension slightly. We quietly load up the busses and head to the Austria center

Mark Mulligan tuning

Leah Ardrey

We arrive at the Austria Center

We unpack instruments, tune again, and move to a small warm-up room. We find we have a little extra time to run through the toughest sections of the pieces we will play. About an hour later we move into the main hall and quietly set up. There are five judges, seated about halfway back in the main concert hall at small desks. Much of the rest of the hall is empty, which is common at this kind of juried competition. All the CHS chaperones are present and a handful of parents who have joined us for the first time here in Vienna. From the front row it is clear that each musician on stage is acutely focused. The concert goes well. As Laura Thomas said later: "they couldn't have been more ready to play their absolute best." The judges give no clues about their impressions of the performance. A few of them write a lot, some rarely look up from the music in front of them, some watch Laura almost the whole time. We will have to wait until tomorrow night to receive their reports. We pack up the instruments and go outside for a group photograph. The relief on the faces of the performers is obvious. We take a short bus ride back to the center city and disperse for lunch.

Hannah Garrity, Jamie Gainer, and Lucie Vogel listen to last-minute notes	Megan Lowry rehearses	The warm-up room is a tight fit
The CHS Orchestra takes the stage for the Adjudication Concert	The judges	Laura Reed, Jessica Wilbert, and Anna Plunkett solo in the Vivaldi Concerto in D-minor
Laura Thomas's Father attends the concert and presents her with roses	Pam Marraccini shoots a group photo in front of the Austria Center	Catherine Dowd-Reilly and Lucie Vogel head to lunch

After lunch we head to the Votivkirche for our second concert of the day. The Votivkirche is enormous and dominates all structures in its immediate vicinity. It is impossible to give a sense of the scale of this building in a single picture. I shoot it with multiple exposures and assemble them.

THE VOTIVKIRCHE, INSIDE AND OUT
(Download time approximately 30 seconds at 28.8)

The cathedral is so big the sound of the music has a life of its own. After the music stops it takes a full 7 seconds for the echoes to completely die down. The music is very BIG here, just like the space. After the performance two Russian tourists approach Laura and ask for her autograph. She signs a program, and then has a short conversation with them with the help of her father as translator.

We pack instruments, enjoy a lasagna dinner at a nearby restaurant, and then ride back to the hotel. Some in the group are exhausted and decide to stay at the hotel. A big contingent returns on foot to the park in front of the Votivkirche where an enormous screen is set up for outdoor public viewing of the final game of the World Cup.

Musik aus der Alten und Neuen Welt. (Music of the Old and New World), a concert performed by the CHS Orchestra	The space for performers in the Votivkirche is small in square footage, but rises to great heights over the musician's heads	The audience contains some Charlottesville faces: Lee Marraccini
John Wiggins goes for the Euro look	Tammy Willson and John Boyle on the steps of the cathedral after the concert	The imposing facade of the Votivkirche as we depart for dinner