01/25/08
Kilkenny, Dublin and London are three spots Baker music students can put a check mark by for overseas ventures.
View a slideshow of photos from the trip<a href="http://www.bakeru.edu/orangeline/0708slideshows/eurotrip" target="_blank">View a slideshow of photos from the trip</a> View a slideshow of photos from the trip
After spending five 10-hour days rehearsing at different venues in Baldwin City, members of Baker University’s choir, band and orchestra took off for two weeks beginning Jan. 8, touring and performing in the United Kingdom and Ireland as part of an interterm class that recurs every three years for students in the music department. The Ireland and England Concert Tour 2008 ended when the group returned home Monday.
Freshman Taryn Curry said the work the students did prior to the trip was time well spent.
“It was definitely worth it,” she said. “Everybody was glad we put in the time we did because we didn’t have to stress out about having rehearsals before we had concerts over in Europe.”
She said going to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most photographed places in Ireland, was one of her most memorable moments of the trip.
“It was just a really beautiful day with a lot of people, and there was a castle there,” she said.
Junior John Radenberg said the excitement of taking in historical sites like the Roman Baths overpowered the tiredness brought on by traveling to more than 16 destinations in two different countries. He also said being able to perform in places like Galway, Piltown and Grantham with different architectural buildings was overwhelming.
“The performances were great because here we don’t have the ability to perform in different spaces with such resonate acoustics,” he said.
Sophomore Emily Speicher’s grandparents, Dorma and Ron Sanders, traveled with the group consisting of 40 students, four faculty members and six family members. Dorma said she enjoys listening to Baker’s music students and jumped at the chance of being able to see them perform in foreign countries. Her favorite part was listening to the instrumental and vocal performances in the cathedrals and churches.
“It sounded like there were a lot more in the choir than there really were because of the acoustics in those cathedrals,” she said. “They did a beautiful job anywhere they sang or played. They represented Baker really well.”
John Buehler, chair of the music department, said a company known as Tour Resource Consultants plans the tour and a tour guide remains with the group throughout its overseas stay. Therefore, the group had some guided tours, but many people also had free time to venture out on their own.
He said the trip was successful from both a performance standpoint with the choir, a wind ensemble and string ensemble, as well as from a tourist standpoint with good weather most of the time.
“The students were fantastic travelers and always on time,” he said. “It’s really hard with 50 folks, but everybody was really respectful. It was a very successful trip.”
He said he likes this interterm because students always walk away learning something that can’t be taught in the classroom and are able to brush up on their history and cultural experiences.
“There isn’t any way for us to perform in places like we do there around here, and it gives us a chance to perform other cultures’ music in that culture’s setting.”
Dorma said the highlight of her trip came when the group attended a morning worship service Sunday at the London Wesley Chapel, which was built by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, in 1778.
“I really was excited about that because I am Methodist and I got to see (Wesley’s) tomb behind the church,” she said. “There’s so much history in that church too, and I really enjoyed that.”
She said she and her husband both enjoyed the Imperial War Museum in London featuring exhibits that gave children’s accounts of the war that were separated from their parents, as well as World War II and Holocaust exhibitions.
“It was really interesting,” she said. “We could have spent the whole day there.”
Speicher said she enjoyed the performances as much as attending events like the play “Wicked” in London when the group had free time.
“It was my first time traveling overseas, and I really enjoyed it,” she said. “Toward the end we were all really tired, but it was fun.”