Schulgasse 13

This is where I live! The Herkners own this entire building, which is broken up into about five apartments. The house was built in 1898, and Harald was born here. He and his two siblings (one sister, married with three children, and one brother) still live in the building. The location is just perfect: walking distance to school for all three boys, and a block from public transportation. Also, the Volksoper, a smaller opera company in Austria, is just down the street! It only takes me about 15 minutes to get to the city center by tram and subway.

Here's our street, Schulgasse. You can see our building on the left, to the right of the pink house.

This is the Market, called Kutschgermarkt, which is just around the corner from the house. They open at about 8 every morning, and Vinzi and I walk through the market to get to school, so I usually say hello to the vendors about four times a day!

A new discovery...

A friend of mine who spent some time in this area told me that I had to visit a park called the Türkenschanzpark. The weather in Vienna was just gorgeous yesterday, so I thought it would be the perfect day to sit in the park. It was about a mile long walk to get there, through a beautiful, quiet neighborhood. The park is truly breathtaking, and a great place to just sit and think, write, read, meditate, whatever! I think I'll be spending a lot of time in the Türkenshanzpark. Enjoy the photos below!

In other news...

I had a coaching with an assistant conductor and vocal coach from the Staatsoper on Tuesday. His name is David Aronson, and he's good friends with Arthur Fagen, a professor of orchestral conducting and opera conductor from IU. The coaching went very well, and he had encouraging things to say. I look forward to working with David this year, and hope that our relationship leads to some opportunities in Europe.

Fingers crossed...or, "hold the thumbs" as the Austrians do!