06/22/2026
DAAYO had an amazing week in France (6/10-6/17), highlighted by two concerts (1 in Caen, 1 in Paris) led by our outstanding conducting team of Matthew Moreno and Angela Sledge.
A special thank you to our wonderful chaperones - Benjamin Chong, Coral Ip, Jan-Michael Stevenson, Dariya Kazumov, and Amanda Chen. Kind, diligent and detailed – oriented, they contributed greatly to making the trip smooth for our large group.
I also want to thank our travel partner, KI concerts – they did a fantastic job and addressed our every need each step of the way. I give them my highest recommendation.
For our trip, we spent time in both Normandy and Paris (with a stop in Giverny and a side trip to Versailles). These are of course areas with an incredible depth of culture, history and art.
The warmth, enthusiasm and joie de vivre of the French audience (of which there were many), gave our group incredible energy. These were concerts to remember for a lifetime. The L’Orchestre d’Harmonie Universitaire de Caen were incredible hosts – kind, welcoming, and gracious. Our respective repertoires dovetailed nicely with each other – I guess everyone loves Hayao Miyazaki / Joe Hisaishi!
La Madeline church in Paris was a sight to behold – an incredible venue with an amazing organ where local French patrons combined with our DAAYO friends and family to form one of the warmest, most welcoming audience atmospheres I’ve ever experienced.
In Normandy, our trip participants deepened their knowledge of history as we spent time at the American cemetery and Omaha beach. DAAYO had the honor of participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the American cemetery – an emotional experience for our group, as we remembered the sacrifices of young soldiers not much older than some of our students.
We sampled Camembert (a specialty Normandy Cheese), and appreciated Monet’s gardens in Giverny, where the impressionist painter lived for 4 plus decades.
Paris, the city of light, offered us a plethora of interesting locales to explore: the Latin quarter, Montmartre, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and a half day trip to Versailles. I personally really enjoyed visiting the Palais Garnier for its opulence and grandeur, and the Musée de la musique for the fascinating tour through musical history.
Finally, I always love to see friendships form amongst students (and also adults!) over the course of the week. Hopefully we’ve created memories for our participants that will last for many years. 😊
