Author Description

Authors Gary Funk and Donald Carey directed the University of Montana's international, semester-abroad program for a combined 26 years. They determined that because the Vienna Experience was so unique in concept, vision and achievement they ought to chronicle the program in as much detail as possible. This book lays out the foundations of the Vienna Experience, its evolution and the influences it had upon the participants. The book shows that just being in Vienna for three months was a powerful education in and of itself. The authors share how a program that was initially designed to improve students' musicianship became something of more importance and long-term influence upon the participants' lives and their self-confidence. Program participants write about the experience's powerful effect on them. The book describes how participants lived in Vienna but also traveled and performed extensively through eastern Europe, Austria, France and Italy. This publication demonstrates through observations, via over 200 photos and student testimonials how exposure to art and architecture helped to open up the participants' minds. The authors contend that master artists have the ability and discipline to apply the necessary pressure on an idea to form diamonds out of the raw coal of human experience. The Vienna Experience framed such jewels for student perception. Perceiving the beauty of these gems taught the participants to be more aware, sensitive, receptive, more balanced in thinking and openly expressive. Students write about being stunned by the impressions made upon them by the creative works of masters such as Mozart, Michelangelo and Monet. They were disrupted by the intense integrity and honesty of art and amazed by the artists' focus. The directors and students alike recognize that people are what they digest, and we, who were so fortunate to have lived the Vienna Experience seriously, are among a very special group that dined at the banquet table of art in Vienna an