Dwight-Englewood musicians will have the opportunity to perform for new audiences and to experience the vibrant history and culture of the United Kingdom on an eight-day tour beginning this Saturday, June 11 through June 18.

The trip includes sightseeing excursions to the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, Bath, and more. The orchestra will perform three concerts while abroad, one of them in Banqueting House, the last surviving building from the Palace of Whitehall.  Concerts will also be performed at St Paul's Covent Garden, and St. Augustine's High School in London.

D-E Orchestral Director and Performing Arts Department Chair John Littlefield explains how students were selected for the trip. “We held auditions in the fall, and 34 students were accepted to what we have titled the Dwight-Englewood Touring Orchestra,” he says. The group will perform a number of pieces on their tour, including Aaron Copland's "HoeDown", Mozart’s “Jupiter Symphony” (first movement), Ravel’s “Pavanne for a Dead Princess,” Dvorak’s “Czech Suite” (last movement), and Gershwin’s “Prelude No. 2.”