Students touring as Iowa music ambassadors

Fairfield High School musicians Sarah Morgan and Wyatt Andersen are touring Europe with the Iowa Ambassadors of Music.

The local students are part of a select group of 308 student musicians, advisors and parents from across Iowa. The 2012 tour is a 20-day event including four days of rehearsal in Grinnell, with the farewell concert July 2 at Grinnell College. The Ambassadors then have a 16-day concert tour covering England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy and Liechtenstein. The students will perform in each country except Liechtenstein.

Iowa Ambassadors of Music tours Europe on alternate years. To be considered for membership in IAM, students must be recommended by their school music teachers as having superior music skills and possessing high character. After the initial recommendation, the students are contacted about the opportunity to participate in the tour.

Morgan was nominated by Zach Reiter, choir director at FHS.  She is a member of the 112-voice choir. Andersen was nominated by Jim Edgeton, band director at FHS. He is a member of the 190-piece band.

Both students will be seniors next fall at FHS.

Being a member of the Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour means that through performance, the participants experience a sharing of cultures. Most tourists visit and take from their experiences ? the Iowa Ambassadors of Music also give. One of the highlights from past tours has been when the students realize the United States?s national march, the ?Stars and Stripes Forever? by John Philip Sousa, is a well known and popular march in Europe. The choir?s opportunity to perform its selections in settings with more than a 1,000-year heritage gives the students a chance to add a new page in the cultural venue of Europe.

Morgan Jones, professor emeritus from the University of Iowa, conducts the IAM Band, and Paul Torkelson, formerly of Wartburg College, conducts the choir. Thirty-five Iowa music teachers/musicians will assist in the musical preparation of the ensembles. The music teachers instruct the students during the rehearsals in Grinnell, perform in the ensembles next to the students, and serve as advisors on the tour.

The 2012 European tour is IAM?s 13th trip. Since the group was established in 1988, more than 4,500 students musicians have delighted European audiences with their performances as Iowa Ambassadors of Music.