Twenty-nine students from the DCG joined almost 11.000 other students from about 500 schools from all over Europe to compete for the first time at the international competition The Best in English. The event took place on 30th November 2016, it ran smoothly and suited the needs of students of all years and abilities. At nine o’clock sharp participants’ faces got absorbed by the tasks presented on the screens and all one could hear was keyboard typing and mouse clicking. Laughter provoked by up-to-date videos was occasionally heard and generally, a happy atmosphere was created in the classroom.
The teachers of English as well as students believe that this is a lovely way to compare their language skills with those of their European peers. What is more, the test is free of charge and especially students were satisfied with results that appear right away at the end of the contest. In short The Best in English competition is a great European experience. Presently the results are being calculated and we cannot wait to have them announced! /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir of The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium has been invited to participate in the 11th IFCM /International Federation for Choral Music/ world symposium on choral music, which will take place from 22nd – 29th July, 2017 in Barcelona, Spain. As mentioned on the official website, the event will follow the theme of the Colours of Peace, and bring together the world’s choirs, choral musicians, composers and publishers.
Symposium in brief
The World Choral Symposium is the most esteemed non-competing choral meeting organized by IFCM. Such events have been organised since 1987 every third year in various parts of the world. The upcoming 11th symposium will host 24 selected choirs from Spain, USA, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Germany, South Africa, Argentina, the Netherlands, Denmark, Korea, Ireland, Moldovia, the Philippines, Latvia and Slovenia. Some of them are to sing premieres of sixteen renowned composers such as Ēriks Ešenvalds, Bob Chilcott, Jocelyn Hagen, Hideki Chihara and others.
Who will be there?
The symposium’s organizers expect 3000 conductors, singers, composers and other music experts. The programme consists of concerts in the central auditorium and some other venues of exceptional architectural beauty, such as Palace of Catalan Music and the Sagrada Familia, lectures given by experts from different countries, master classes led by Elisenda Carrasco, Helmuth Rilling, Rollo Dilworth and Simon Halsey and other events. Among others, Choral EXPO needs to be mentioned where music editors, producers, festival organizers, and providers of music business will meet and highlight their services. It is an important platform for promotion of music events and activities and above all for presentation and purchase of music and professional literature.
St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir Cannot Wait to Go
St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir of the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium will perform in the second part of the symposium from 26th – 29th July. The girls under the leadership of the conductor Helena Fojkar Zupančič are looking forward to meeting and listening to some world famous choirs. The preparations are in full swing and they are proud to present Slovenia and St. Stanislav’s Institution with the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium at such a prominent choral event.
The conductor of the choir Helena Fojkar Zupančič commented on the upcoming event with the following words: “A year and a half ago we were invited to apply for the selection of performing choirs. The board of experts have chosen our choir along with 24 others from all over the world on the basis of a weighty programme, video and audio recordings as well as strong references. Now we are happy to embrace this unique possibility and perform in such outstanding music event.”
The first step into an entirely new world, the first immersion into the sea of words, the first melody – everything is music …
The above verses are taken from the hymn written on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of The Music School in St. Stanislav’s Institution by Primož Bratina, pianist and piano teacher.
The Music School was established in 1996 by the then Archbishop of Ljubljana dr. Alojzij Šuštar. The occasion matches the 200th anniversary of the music education in Slovenia, which is being celebrated this year. In the two decades the Music School has left a remarkable trace and offered countless joyous music events of artistic excellence.
Today The Music School employs 25 teachers engaged in teaching and inspiring about 240 students. Apart from musical theory, sight singing, jazz singing and preschool music, 11 instruments are taught, along with music making in chamber and large string orchestra as well as the guitar ensemble. Teachers devote special attention to students’ creativity. A lot of students excel in competitions at different levels from regional to international, some take in music as a professional path in their lives and continue studies at music academies at home and abroad.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Music School several events will unfold. The solemn celebration to honour the patron’s day of St. Stanislav’ was already set up on 15th November by the staff of the music school and understandably music played an important part. If you missed it, another concert will be put on in the Slovenian Philharmonic on 1st December 2016 at 6. p.m. This will offer another opportunity to listen instrumentalists, singers, guitar ensemble and to Bratina’s Hymn accompanied by four choirs and the large string orchestra. What an appropriate was to celebrate the life of a music school – with music touching everybody’s heart! /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
The students of the DCG from the English Drama Club act in William Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. The first night will take place on 28th November 2016 at 7 p.m. in Matija Tomc Hall (St. Stanislav’s Institution), two reprises are to follow on 2nd and 12th December 2016, both starting at 7 p.m. Twenty-seven students, of who nineteen actors, set up the entire play in English language, providing themselves for the scenery, props, lighting and audio-visual media. They rehearsed under the mentorship of Alenka Battelino, teacher of English and mentor of English Drama Club as well as Mojca Lavrič, theatre actress and mentor of the Slovene Drama Club at the DCG.
The comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream has been selected to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and widely performed in theatres. It is set in the woods outside Athens, which are a busy place on this magical night! Four runaway lovers find themselves in the middle of the dispute between the King and Queen of the fairies. What could possible go wrong? Come and see for yourselves! We are looking forward to meeting you in St. Stanislav’s Institution! /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
President of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor and the Minister of Education, Science and Sport dr. Maja Makovec Brenčič received on Saturday, 8th October 2016 the cream of the crop of this year’s high-school Slovene graduates, who attained all possible amount of points at Maturity examination. There are nineteen such graduates in Slovenia, among who also three from the Diocesan Classical Gymnasium: Živa Dolenšek, Eva Gričar and Eva Kržišnik.
The President pointed out on this occasion that it is the young who enter the world with an opportunity to change it. “ Your knowledge offers self-confidence and prevents you from others taking important decisions instead of you. /…/ You shall have this power and I wish you to use it for good and noble goals. It is up to you to improve the society we live in.” We congratulate Živa, and both Evas on their outstanding achievement and wish them all success in their future endeavours. /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
From 26th – 30th September 2016 the traditional international sport event took place in Busto Arsizio, Varese. Apart from the Slovene and Italian teams, there were also high school students from The Check Republic, Germany and the Netherlands. The event was the twelfth in a row, this time dedicated to headball with 21 matches taking place. The Diocesan Classical Gymnasium took the second place, after the match result being a draw (14:14), and the hosting school Liceo Scientifico Statale Arturo Tosi winning the point of a difference after a penalty shoot-out. Beside competitions, teachers took part in the International conference on new teaching methods and proper nutrition for athletes. /Tea Obrč, PE Teacher, exchange coordinator/
26th September 2016 marks the 15th anniversary of the European Day of Languages. The aims of the event as declared by the Council of Europe are to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding, to encourage lifelong language learning and to promote Europe’s rich linguistic and cultural diversity. Thanks to cultural institutes such as the Goethe Institut, the Institut Français and the British Council, the European Day of languages is nowadays widely celebrated especially in schools.
St. Stanislav’s Insitution is no exception. The event took place already for the ninth year in a row. Back then it all started with DCG students presenting basic language skills to pupils of the Alojzij Šuštar Primary School in seven different languages taught at the DCG. This meant using English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Latin and classical Greek. Lately teachers of foreign languages at the DCG devised riddles and other challenging tasks in the above mentioned languages through which students displayed their knowledge of the language as well as culture, history and geography of the respected country. This year students had to define the origin of photographs with various motifs from different European countries. Students with the most correct answers in the shortest amount of time received a practical award. /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
Today, on 25th September at 10.15 you can see in front of St. Stanislav’s Institution a group of pupils wearing blue hoodies, waiting for a drive. Ten students, three teachers and one destination: FRANCE. Last year we hosted pupils from five countries namely Bulgaria, Scotland, France, Germany adn Slovenia as a part of Erasmus + project and this year it is our turn to go somewhere new. This is the one but last exchange to happen as a part of Erasmus + project, that is also why we are all even more excited. With students we are preparing a little show that will take place in the most known part of Paris. But first, we will drive to Venice and from there fly to Paris, where our hosting families will pick us up. Thus, our »bonjour and croissant journey« will begin. /Anika Odar, year 3/
Day one, Monday, 26th September 2016 – The City of Love
Opening meeting
My first day in France began with a song. It must have been love. I woke up and realized it was pretty cold even though I had a really warm pyjama. I hurried and dressed up and went to get some breakfast. After that, Ruby (a friend from Scotland), Claire (my host) and I went to St. Dominique, the school, where we got instructions for the following day. We also got really cute sketch books for drawing as a welcoming present. Then we were divided into three groups that visited the city separately.
Our group went to a very nice house called Lalique. The facade is decorated with spruce trunks and leaves. It looks really odd, but nice. I liked it quite a lot. Then we walked to the Alexander III Bridge that symbolizes peace between Russia and France. We spent a lot of tim e looking at all the elements of the bridge. We walked over the bridge on one side and then back on the other, and stopped at each of the statues on it. After that, we walked to the Grand Palais where we took our first group photo.We also walked over the Elysian field on our way to a park where we had lunch. It was beautiful and the sun came out of the clouds so it was warm too, but we did not know if we could walk on the grass, so we just stayed on the bench and ate our sandwiches.
The Maxim’s was our next stop. It is a private collection of the Art nouveau paintings, furniture, decorations, etc. It has been a great privilege to come and see such a collection, however I did not like the guide, though. The old opera house and Galeries Lafayette were left for the end of the day and it was a perfect ending. The Lafayette is breath-taking and I liked the view from the roof a lot. I fell in love with the ‘city of love’ the first time I visited it and I’m definitely coming back. The city is so lovely and it has really great buildings which I personally love. I will be back on Friday. /Monika Lah, year 3/
Day two, Tuesday, 27th September 2016
Some work for hands and heart
Today was the second day of the Erasmus exchange. After the first day in Paris, which was quite tiring, we started today on much easier feet. It was the first day of workshops. We started at 8:45 in the morning, which was kind of late for us, but quite early for the French. We got separated in 3 groups and each group was doing a different task. The first group was creating movies, the second group was working with clay and the third one, which I was a part of, was making stained glass. Our group was led by a French stain glassmaker. He was a very kind and funny man. He only spoke French so we also had a translator who was even funnier than him. Our work began with a design in our head. Then we had to draw our design on a piece of card board. After doing so, we numbered our stencil, traced our picture twice on a thinner see-through paper and thus our work was done for today. We also learned how to cut glass and how to use it properly. In the afternoon we had a lecture about motion picture and after that we watched the movie called Midnight in Paris. We finished our day with a very French like (rather slow) flashmob rehearsal, which we would dance on Friday in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris. /Jerica Korpnik, year 3/
Day three, Wednesday, 28th September 2016
Most effective – learning on the spot
The third day of Erasmus+ exchange is coming to its finish line but my description of this day is just about to get started. Firstly, I have to say that I am becoming a bigger fan of French breakfast with every following morning. A French baguette with some butter as well as marmalade with chocolate croissants perfectly melt in the mouth. In the school, my team and I continued with creating the movie, which is going to be finished tomorrow. We filmed our story that we had written yesterday and tomorrow we are going to put all the clips together and make the real film. It definitely is an interesting experience; firstly because I work with students from other countries (Germany, Scotland, Romania) and secondly because we had to think about how to shoot the clips to make the best out of it. Our concern was also the fact that we were using costumes. After lunch, I attended another workshop where we were making jewellery. I am the only guy in the Slovenian team at this exchange but that’s OK and I am the only guy at this workshop as well but honestly I have no idea what I’m doing there. We have that workshop tomorrow as well so we can finish our job and I am going to use my necklace as a gift when we get back to Slovenia (if it looks nice of course). At the end, we practised the dance for the Friday’s flash mob and I think we are doing pretty well. Anyhow, I have to say that the day was interesting. We learned a lot of new things and will surely continue with that tomorrow and that’s why I’m really looking forward to the following day. /Tim Gregorčič, year 3/
Day four, Thursday, 29th September 2016
Tinkara absorbed in her craft
The penultimate day of Art Nouveau – art Renouveau exchange in France was meant to finish our weekly work and prepare well for our flash mob, which will take place on Friday in Paris.
After our arrival to school, we were divided into groups for our morning workshops, like on Tuesday and Wednesday. Together with Jerica we were in stain glass workshop. When we arrived to our working place, we were positively surprised, because the background for our stained glass has already been cut and prepared to put the pieces together. With that move, Mr Jean Claude made our work easier, because we were able to start constructing together all the pieces immediately. When Mr Jean Claude was showing us how to work, everything seemed very simple, but we soon discovered it was anything but easy. In fact, putting pieces together was very demanding. As the pieces did not match perfectly, we had to cut them all over again or adjust the edges. That took up a lot of time, so we only partly finished our masterpieces. Luckily, Mr Jean Claude kindly offered his help to finish our work. For the Friday’s exhibition, hopefully the stained glass master will succeed in finishing our work.
After lunch, we got back to school, where we were divided into groups for the afternoon workshops. We took part in glass workshop. We felt overwhelmed, especially Katarina, because we have finally had the opportunity to learn how to create pearls from Murano glass. Glass was in a form of a small stick, so it was easier to deal with the task. We took the glass stick in one hand and the metallic one in the other hand. Under the flame we first warmed up the metallic stick and then we slowly started to smelt the glass. As the glass was smelting, we wrapped it around the metallic stick. When we were happy with our pearl, we took it away from the flame and waited until it cooled down and solidified. With the pearl, we could create a piece of jewellery which was to be exhibited on Friday.
The day ended with our last rehearsal for the flash mob in Paris. This time we all had our “country shirt”- Slovenians the green ones – and we all together, this time almost professionally, rehearsed the entire choreography. Satisfied with our performance we went to our host families. /Katarina Babič and Katja Jenko, year 3/
Flash News: Fancy a Visit Chez Maxim’s?
Two Thrilled DCG Students Chez Maxim’s
Monday, 26th September 2016, brought about many surprises. It was the first time for me to wake up in a French bed, drive around with a Frenchman, look at the Eiffel Tower and visit Maxim’s. Maxim’s is the fanciest restaurant in Paris. In the time of Art Nouveau all the French – young and old – who were ready to dance to a spectacular music and see some friends or courtesans, met there. The film Midnight in Paris (which we watched on Tuesday) showed us what a party at Maxim’s looked like. A lot of elegant dresses, alcohol and some food.
Now in 2016 you can also feel the energy of the early nineties on a tourist visit around the house or at night when this place is a restaurant. For one person it costs 200€ to get “an art nouveau” night. However, it costs you less money if you take a tour during the day. Here is a part of their menu so that you get an impression of how much money we are talking about: Maxim’s Nest Salad 27 €, Poached quail eggs with Baeri caviar (30 gr) 125 €, Duck paté with foie gras and truffles 43 €, Baeri caviar with blinis (50 gr) 197 €, Roasted fillet of beef, reduced sauce with black truffles and puffed potatoes 103 €, Edward VII Lamb chops with artichokes puree and glazed turnips. 78 €, Fresh and ripened cheeses assortment 25 €, Coffee 9 €
So, how does it look like it? Nowadays we would say that it is too much. Too many flowers, too many vases and too many oval sculptures. On the ground floor there is a restaurant, with a bar, many tables and a dance floor and stage. Art nouveau is all about nature, animals and women. Even the lamp is no exception. After that, there is the first floor, there are some rooms, and two of them are decorated with mirrors on the opposite walls, so the room seems bigger. They are for rent if you want to host a party and if you want to make it special. You can also write on the invitation that one time even Mary Antoinette danced in those rooms. The view is very French, too. On the second floor, you can see in one room an exhibition of vases from different countries and furniture of oval shape and with flowers to open the drawer. Pierre Cardin, the owner of the place, had collected the items for 60 years. When you go through different rooms you meet women of art nouveau, one you will definitely recognise is a film actress Sarah Bernhardt during the First World War. She showed commitment to her nation through her participation in performances at the front, appearance in propaganda productions and the campaign suggesting the United States to enter the war. She was also called “The Divine Sarah”. And if you are lucky enough there will be a really into “art nouveau” man, who represents the period as if it was now. If you want to see all this by yourself do it quickly because the owner is an old man and when someone else buys the Maxim’s, it is not sure what he will do with it. It might even become a shop. It is definitely worth going to Paris and see it. /Monika Lah and Anika Odar, year 3/
After the April enjoyable meeting in St. Stanislav’s Institution third year students are off to Senlis, France. The exchange with Lycee Saint-Vincent will take place from 29th September – 4th October 2016 and bears the title »Things seen, things said« /Choses vues, choses dites/.
Senlis is a medieval town with long and rich heritage. The monarchs of the early French dynasties lived here, the place is especially renowned for the gothic cathedral and its vast historical monuments. The planned visits of sights will serve as a starting point for further creative activities within various workshops including literature, theatre, chansons and movie making. The characteristics of French and Slovene culture will be presented through skits, videos and songs. As usual, the aim of the exchange is to discover local ways of life, language, culture and, last but not least, to hang out with French peers and promote friendship among nations. From both parties this includes 50 students and six teachers all together. /Daša Deželak Obrč, mentor of the exchange/
Joie de vivre – joyful students before entering the Louvre Museum in Paris
The DCG fosters visiting foreign countries mainly to discover the regional characteristics, city architecture, history, culture, language, local ways of life and strengthen class ties. Third-year students have just returned from their seven-day trips to France, Greece, Spain,Germany, Austria and Switzerland – depending on which second language they learn. Naturally, there were plenty of opportunities to use the respected language in action with native speakers. Such excursions are a perfect boost also to collective consciousness of belonging to the European cultural space. Now it is time to bring the acquired knowledge into life! /Lily Schweiger Kotar/
