Introduction by Music student and Brookes Creative Assistant, Katherine Lai
In March 2022, second year Undergraduate Music students and staff had the incredible opportunity to visit Milan, Italy as part of the course syllabus. Students are pictured here at the top of Milan Cathedral / Duomo di Milano.
Organised and led by lecturer Dr Alessandra Palidda, the Music Department at Brookes engaged with music making and musical life, past and present, in a foreign country through many different lenses.
Students and staff visited the Conservatorio di Milano, who were generous enough to open up their incredibly comprehensive historical archive to us and share the rich background of the sources at hand, including a 500 year old handwritten manuscript! We also got to visit the amazing Museo degli Strumenti Musicali (The Museum of Musical Instruments) which exhibited over 800 instruments, a collection that began in 1958.
Several students also conducted independent projects in the shape of sound walks around Milan, both in the busy city centre streets as well as a little further out at the serene Lake Como, recording sounds of life and activity to gain deeper understanding of soundscapes in another country.
The Music International Field trip to Milan was, in just a few words, a once in a lifetime experience. I am so incredibly grateful to have been able to experience this during my time as a Music student at Brookes, and am very grateful for my peers and especially lecturers that facilitated this opportunity to broaden our learning in such a meaningful way.
To reflect on our time in Milan, music students Dan Cockburn, Charlie Wickham and I got together to record a podcast episode where we talk about our favourite moments of the trip, including our soundwalk at Lake Como and our mind-blowing evening at the Teatro alla Scala for an opera performance.
You can listen to the podcast using the player below and feel free to scroll through the accompanying Media Gallery as you listen. You can find the Gallery using this link or by scanning the QR code below. The Gallery is interactive so you can click on each photo and video for the full view.
Please enjoy this chat among friends and the accompanying visuals. I hope it inspires you to travel to Milan and see all of this for yourself!