Student musicians take European tour

Nine South Brunswick High School students got a chance to perform music for an audience very different than the usual high school crowd.

By:Nick D’Amore
   Nine South Brunswick High School students got a chance to perform music for an audience very different than the usual high school crowd.
   These nine musicians were part of American Music Abroad and recently had the opportunity to visit and perform in three different European countries. The program, which was started 26 years ago, offers a cultural performance tour of Western Europe for high school and college students.
   The group spent over two weeks in Europe from July 3 to July 20, making stops in Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria.
   Holly Messaro, a clarinet player getting ready to start her senior year, said she and the other eight representatives, were chosen to participate in the program after sending in audition tapes. They practiced for four days at Millersville University, Millersville, Pa., before leaving for Europe.
   The other South Brunswick students who attended are college freshman, Leigh Winik, senior Kim Messina, juniors Kirsten Lepore, Jenny Schulman, Sean Plante and sophomores Lindsay Macik and Jon Limyansky.
   "We played a total of nine concerts that were all open to the public," said Holly about the European tour.
   One concert in Germany offered more than just a musical challenge for the participants.
   "We sold tickets and whatever profits we made went to an orphanage," she said.
   The high school musicians, 191 in total from New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Florida, played at least two concerts in each country, except Switzerland.
   The program enlisted the services of student musicians in concert bands, jazz bands, choirs and color guards.
   Holly, a 10-year veteran of the clarinet, said the program consisted of a variety of music and the end of each performance was capped off by American theme songs, such as "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "America the Beautiful."
   "During ‘America the Beautiful,’ two color guard members would walk down the aisles with an American flag and the flag of whatever country we were in," she said.
   "We got a very good audience for all the shows," she said.
   "We started in ‘Homestay’ in Holland, where we saw windmills and pottery factories," said Holly. Homestay is a program where a family takes in two students, she said.
   "We eat dinner there and sleep at their house. It’s a program that American Music Abroad is involved in with the music program in Holland," said Holly.
   "In Germany, we visited the concentration camp, Dachau, which was very interesting," she said.
   From there, the students took a boat cruise down the Rhine River and saw a glacier up close via cable cars in Austria.
   Then they went to Switzerland, where Holly enjoyed being able to have snowball fights in July.
   The group then traveled to Salzburg, where Mozart was born and where the "Sound of Music" movie was filmed.
   Next, they went to the Eiffel Tower in France and took another boat cruise, this time along the Seine River.
   To be accepted into the program, Holly and the others auditioned two pieces of music and obtained a teacher’s recommendation.
   "Some of the directors came to school and people showed interest, filled out the form and sent the audition tapes in last winter," she said.
   "Everyone got accepted and the tape was used to determine the seating in the band," she said.
   Though the experience has been over for less than a month, the kids are already arranging reunions, said Holly.
   "We formed friendships with the other kids from other schools. We went there for the music and sightseeing, and also to meet people," she said.
   "It is important and a lot of fun meeting people. When you go, you come back a different person because you have the experience of meeting new people, going to Europe and seeing how they react to an American performance," she said.
   Erin Onuschak, a trombone player getting ready to start her junior year, also had a great experience in Europe.
   "It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot about music there," she said.