March 2014

Sebastian Davies and William Gardner enjoyed a week in Vienna, preparing for a concert performance of Britten’s Turn of the Screw in the Konzerthaus.

During the week the boys were guests at the Vienna Boys Choir’s performance of Bach’s St John Passion and attended a rehearsal of the Vienna Boys Choir at their home, the Augarten Palace. Sebastian was to perform in the concert but was still not fully recovered from bronchitis so William stepped in. The starry line up singers included Mark Padmore (also Captain Vere in Billy Budd) and the reviews were highly favourable. William was described in the Wiener Zeitung as a ‘sovereign boy soprano’.