BiLi St. Martin’s 30th Birthday Spectacular

“It was thirty years ago…” 

Pupils, families, friends and alumni of the Bilingual programme were treated to an astounding exhibition of our pupils’ talents on Thursday night, as the BRG St. Martin bilingual programme celebrated its 30th anniversary.  

Our guests of honour were cordially welcomed to the tune of two classic European anthems, ‘Te Deum’ from Eurovision, and ‘An die Freude’. This was played by the IBC orchestra starring pupils from first to eighth grade. The comperes for the night were our Matura students, Ella Phillipp and Amiya Ibranovic, who lent the occasion a distinct sense of grandeur. Few, however, would have expected the variety of acts that followed. 

1A got things off with a bang, drumming their chairs in a percussive piece called ‘Thirty Chairs and Thirty Faces’. The pupils of 6A followed this by showcasing their lyrical dexterity and creativity with a poetry slam. 5A then had the audience roaring with their time capsule sketch before the 3B set the hall ablaze with a rap battle between historical scientists: facial hair and lab coats included. Just when we thought we had seen it all, the 8th graders showed their balletic, acrobatic moves in a breathtaking dance choreography. 6B then presented the changing world of last 30 years with a fashion catwalk, accompanied by music and a revue of positive world events through the years. This succeeded in capturing the spirit of the international era our school embodies and may also have made one or two of us in the audience feel rather old.   

This awesome array of talent was punctuated by messages from our alumni: radio DJs, concert flautists, chemical engineers, researchers and developers… the list goes on! But all of them had their international journey in common, studying and working abroad, taking Villach to the world and bringing the world back to Villach.  

After the on-stage entertainment had culminated in an intoxicatingly catchy cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Happy Birthday’, complete with a birthday cake, our guests were free to wander and peruse a museum’s worth of interactive displays prepared by our bilingual classes. The first graders provided the audience with a 30-day challenge, placed QR codes around the school showing the digital evolutions of the last 30 years and set up a geographical exhibit of 30 European countries. The second year had an art exhibition entitled ‘The Herds’ on rare and endangered animal species and a smorgasbord of 30 international dishes of which mere crumbs remained at the end. These dishes were part of a charity buffet raising funds for the Frauenhaus Villach. As an IT-centric school, we had to have a spot dedicated to the developments of the internet age reflected in the changing face of our school website. The third graders published a special edition online newspaper, ‘The IBC Times’, chronicling the founding years of the International Bilingual Classes, as well as preparing an audiovisual exhibit showing 30 voices of alumni, pupils, parents and teachers from all around the world. The aforementioned rapping scientists then curated an exhibit on 30 Famous Scientists, giving our guests the opportunity to meet the likes of Sir Isaac Newton, Ada Lovelace and Jane Goodall to mention just a few. Our pupils from the fourth and seventh grades donned their lab coats to guide our audience through a set of chemical and physical experiments featuring 30 elements of the periodic table. The wandering exhibit was complete with a poster on mathematical facts about the Number 30, the renowned IBC Movie directed by 7B, a commemorative publication, an alumni area displaying all graduates from the last 30 years and a sign-up form for the upcoming 30km triathlon on the 2nd of July.                

It was a truly spectacular evening, and we are especially grateful for Renate Wurm-Smole and Andrea Foster’s monumental efforts in coordinating a show that we will certainly remember 30 years from now! 

Written by Oliver White, 27th April 2026