Colorado Ambassadors of Music Europe Tour 2018 Reviews
Lake Oswegans participate in biennial Oregon Ambassadors of Music program in Europe
Ten young Lake Oswego performers toured Europe final month through the Oregon Ambassadors of Music program.
The singers and band players, nine from Lakeridge High School and one from Lake Oswego High School, were among a record-breaking 293 OAM performers from throughout Oregon who participated in the European bout. From July 3-18, the students visited London, England; Paris, French republic; Crans-Montana, Switzerland; Liechtenstein, Republic of austria; Venice, Italian republic; and Rothenburg, Federal republic of germany.
"Nosotros had our largest bout this summer, and it was one of the all-time best ones," says Dave Becker, music director of Oregon Ambassadors of Music. "Our staff, many of whom have been on half-dozen to 10 previous tours, agreed that these were the best group of students we have taken to date."
Becker has led more than 2,400 Oregon students on the biennial concert tours since he fired upwards the Oregon branch of the national plan twenty years ago.
Saxophone player and Lakeridge junior Owen Kaufmann says he enjoyed visiting new places and sharing music with other people. The feel also taught him a valuable lesson.
"When things are done differently, information technology doesn't necessarily mean that they're done wrong," Kaufmann says. "Sometimes, information technology means that they can exist done better."
He discovered that Europeans don't employ ice in their drinks and that items are more than expensive there than they are at home, simply he says they are "better quality."
He says he besides grew as a musician while overseas. His group's beginning performance was in London, and information technology didn't start out well, with players unable to hear each other in an outdoor space, he says. They stopped and started over. So, something clicked.
"Nosotros adjusted to non always being able to hear each other, just learned to watch the conductor," Kaufmann says.
Bands and choirs perform separately on tours, except for a few special performances, says Dave Matthys, a retired Lake Oswego High band managing director who has been on four OAM tours. Instrumentalists play in outdoor venues, while singers raise their voices in Old Globe churches, such as Wesley'south Chapel in London.
"Aside from singing, our group was lucky enough to visit Dachau," the site of a former Nazi concentration camp in Germany, says Lakeridge junior Alyssa Rivera, a second soprano. "Those sorts of trips really bring people together, no matter their culture or religion or fifty-fifty race."
Band or choir directors nominate students such as Kaufmann or Rivera to nourish the program based on their character and musicianship, which includes knowledge, skill and artistic sensitivity when performing.
Oregon musicians who keep the tours attach to the itinerary that 36 other states' Ambassador of Music groups employ. Colorado-based Voyageurs International Ltd. organizes the tours, ushering 100,000 participants through like journeys over the past 45 years, Becker says.
Voyageurs International officials contacted Becker in 1994 and asked him to put together a program in Oregon, which he did the following year.
"They had a terrific reputation and later coming together with them, it was an piece of cake decision to bring together their system," says Becker, Lewis & Clark College's director of bands emeritus.
E'er since, Oregon students have been performing, connecting with Europeans and learning about the continent'southward past.
Flutist Nathan Goldsmith, a 2015 Lake Oswego High School graduate, says students delved into the history of places such equally the Tower of London, the Eiffel Tower and a castle in Switzerland. Goldsmith found his favorite audience in Switzerland.
"They love hearing 'The Stars and Stripes Forever,'" by John Philip Sousa, the official march of the United States, Goldsmith says. "They e'er asked for an encore."
He remembers Swiss listeners likewise calling for an encore when he participated in OAM equally a sophomore. Kaufmann says they asked for 3 encores this past trip.
Matthys says Europeans in general seem to beloved a Sousa march.
"Inevitably, the audition will starting time clapping forth," Matthys says. "They honey American music."
Goldsmith says the OAM concerts were well received wherever they were held.
"Everyone just loved it who attended it," he says. "It'south just something that's a lot of fun for everybody — players and attendees."
Lakeridge senior and singer Audrey Easley says she felt appreciated. "I overheard somebody say that they were happy to see so many young people devoted to something then important as music," she says.
Easley, who's been in choir since eighth grade, adds that, "Music is a bridge for the generations and people from all over the earth to come together. Also, it was a beautiful reminder of what the younger generations are capable of. This was our mode of showing people what we can do to inspire and motion the world in a positive direction."
Starting time alto Alev Brigande, a senior at Lakeridge, agrees that OAM casts a positive glow on Americans.
"By sharing their music, behaving respectfully and being open-minded, OAM students create a favorable impression of the ascent generation of young Americans as not only good musicians but also skillful and thoughtful people," Brigande says.
She says she enjoyed singing in "cute and historically rich venues" and now plans to spend time learning "more near other cultures of the world."
OAM has been popular from the become-go. In its inaugural year in 1995, in that location were 160 students from 52 high schools and 20 staff members on the trip. Local students take been part of the group for years.
"We've had many, many Lake Oswego students with us on previous tours," Becker says.
Program participation peaked in 2007 with 284 students from 74 high schools and 34 staff members. It dipped to 168 students in 2013 before returning strong this year with a record 293 students from 104 loftier schools and 35 staff members.
Lakeridge senior Lindsay Wilson says she was thrilled to be a function of the OAM experience.
"The more we learn almost other cultures and the history that created them, the more we understand differing community and traditions," Wilson says. "That understanding can lead to a celebration of those differences and ultimately brand u.s.a. better citizens of the earth."
Didactics and chaperoning staff include music educators and spouses from throughout the state, such as Allison Hedgepeth, the elementary music specialist at Wood Hills Elementary. Hedgepeth, Becker'south girl, participated in OAM when she was a educatee at Tualatin High Schoolhouse in 1995, so equally a instructor, and now as a teacher and parent. Her shy daughter attended this summer equally an eighth-grader, and her conviction soared.
"That would be my (favorite) thing as a parent, getting to see that maturity and conviction, and I think a lot of the kids came home with that same kind of change," Hedgepeth says.
The side by side tour will be held July three-eighteen, 2017, and in January 2016, Oregon Ambassadors of Music volition begin gathering nominations. Students pay their own way.
Brigande says she definitely recommends other students use to OAM.
"It's a wonderful experience if yous love music and are willing to sacrifice a little sleep in exchange for seeing some of Europe'southward greatest cities and sights in just two weeks," she says.
Lakeridge tuba player Thomas Rodenkirch, a junior, says he enjoyed "the company of my new friends while traveling around Europe."
By Jillian Daley
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Source: https://pamplinmedia.com/lor/108-education/268748-143282-the-best-group-of-students