Tuesday, September 10, 2024
By Ben Rodgers
Editor
SUAMICO – After days intensive work, loads of fundraising and thousands of miles traveled, three students from Bay Port High School returned from the trip of a life time.
Emma Fry, Greta Schwandt and Abigal Sawyer, as part of the Wisconsin Ambassadors of Music, sang their way through Europe for three weeks in June and July this past summer.
Schwandt recalls the people in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, who welcomed nearly 300 music students into their quaint village in the Alps.
Little old ladies waved American flags and T-shirts were made to welcome the choral and band students.
“My favorite spot to perform was Switzerland,” she said. “When we got there I felt very welcomed, it was very heartwarming. It was the fourth of July when we got there, and us Americans feel very strong about our Independence Day and they actually set off fireworks for us.”
The students were sent off with a party that lasted nearly 5 hours and included fondue and polka.
Sawyer said Rothenberg, Germany was something to remember.
“It’s an all-enclosed town, there’s a giant wall around it, and I think the coolest part about it was no matter where you went walking, you would just end up in the town square somehow,” she said.
Their favorite meal of the trip was a mistake in Paris.
Some stairs were closed on the Eiffel Tower and the elevators were running slow so the girls had to hustle down the bus where on the way back they spotted a café and order take out sandwiches.
“I’m thankful that the stairs closed on top of the Eiffel Tower, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have experienced the most delicious sandwich I ever had,” Schwandt said.
The group also sang in London, Lichtenstein, Seefeld, Austria, and Venice, Italy.
But the fun came at the price of work, and lots of it.
The girls had to learn 17 pieces of music, ranging from hymns and spirituals to Irving Berlin, in addition to wrapping up their school work and the pieces needed for the Bel Canto choir they sing in at school.
“A lot of the music was newer and not used to what I was singing,” Sawyer said. “I feel it’s easier to learn music then to memorize a textbook, because with all of the actual music and notes it’s easier to relate it back to something so it’s easier to learn the pieces.”
From there the girls went to a three-day boot camp where it was 90 minutes singing in a group and 45 minutes in a sectional, four times a day for three days.
“I remember my dad telling me, he actually wrote me a letter, ‘You deserve this, you worked so hard, you need to go,’” Schwandt said.
Sawyer said the practice paid off by the end of the trip as her mindset completely changed from the beginning.
“At the beginning I kind of felt like a tourist,” Sawyer said. “I felt out of place and that I didn’t belong. But by the time I got to Switzerland, it just changed my whole perception about the whole trip. I felt more so that we earned this. We earned our spot to be here.”
As musical ambassadors, one of the highlights of the trip came after a performance in Germany.
“It was after we performed, we were shopping because we had some free time before dinner, and we were walking around and I heard this little girl singing with her mom and she was singing one of our songs,” Schwandt said. “She was really cute, because she was singing one of our American songs in Germany.”
The three were nominated for the trip by Tami Witter, choir director.
After the nomination, they had one year to raise the funds needed for the trip, which included airfare, lodging, touring Europe in seven coach buses and more.
“I thought these lades were really good representatives,” Witter said. “They have strong music skills, and they’re just good girls.”
