June 4, 2014 at 4:50 p.m.
Six RHS students honored as Wisconsin Ambassadors of Music
Six RHS students honored as Wisconsin Ambassadors of Music
Six Rhinelander High School music students, three vocalists and three instrumentalists, along with RHS band director Connie Piasecki, have been chosen as Wisconsin Ambassadors of Music. The three vocalists are sophomore Marie Sandstrom, freshman Carmen Incha and senior Sam Mueller. The three instrumentalists are sophomore Bailey Nebgen (tenor saxophone), senior John Incha (bass clarinet) and senior Matt Kramer (percussion).
The group will participate in a European concert tour from June 27 through July 12, visiting England, France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy and Germany.
The students will be joining approximately 145 other high school band members, from around the state and 90 vocalists for the tour which will include performances and multiple sightseeing opportunities in each of the countries.
"This is a group that goes to Europe every other year. They take students from all over the state that are nominated by their directors - both chorus and band," Piasecki said. "We have a week-long camp at UW-Whitewater where we'll work on the music and then we'll fly over to Europe to visit seven countries over 16 days."
The ambassadors have already held a few practice sessions meant to help the young musicians get to know each other before the trip. The excitement is building as the departure date approaches, Piasecki said.
"It's really amazing. I'm very excited. We've been working on this since last year and as we get closer it's becoming more real and getting very exciting," Piasecki said. "It's getting closer and closer and closer to the actual departure date and it's really neat. The excitement is really growing both for me and the kids. We've been working on it for so long, but now it's really becoming a reality."
The students share Piasecki's excitement. Each musician is very grateful to have been chosen.
"I'm very honored and I'm very excited to get to experience this trip. It should be fun," John Incha said. "As for what I'm most excited about, I'll go with Paris because that's a fairly influential city."
Kramer echoed his fellow bandmate's sentiments, at least in terms of the honor of being chosen.
"Like John said, I'm completely honored that Mrs. Piasecki picked me. I'm super excited to go," he said. "I'm really excited to be able to play with new players and under a new conductor to get new instruction. It's going to be weird playing in all of these different places."
Mueller said he's still getting over the shock of being chosen for such a special trip.
"I'm very surprised that I was picked. I feel like it's going to be a lot of hard work, especially the camp where we have to memorize so many songs, like 21 songs. It's going to be really fun, though, because we get to go see where 'Harry Potter' was filmed and stuff," he said. "What I'm most looking forward to is actually being in a group of kids that actually know more than I do and are really musically inclined and will be able to easily adapt to what our conductor is doing. It's going to be cool working with people that are really good at what they do."
Carmen Incha is excited to see a musical in London's West End.
"Like all the others, I'm really excited ... because I've had experience singing, but never in as big of a group as we're in this time. It's really different and it's really fun and exciting," she said. "The thing I'm looking forward to most is not only getting to experience all of those different cultures and seeing all these new people, but when we go to London, I get to see 'Les Misérables' in the original theatre so that's exciting."
Sandstrom, on the other hand, is feeling so overwhelmed she had difficulty putting her emotions into words.
"I'm kind of speechless. There's no one word that you can describe all of the feelings, but I know I want to say thank you - to my parents, to (RHS chorus director Desiree) Wattelet for nominating me and giving me a chance to experience this trip," she said. "The biggest thing I'm looking forward to is singing in St. Mark's Cathedral (in Italy) and just having that overwhelming sound and being able to sing in such a famous, notable cathedral. To get to experience that as a high schooler, it's just fantastic. I'm so excited."
Nebgen is looking forward to exploring other cultures.
"I'm really just honored to have gotten picked for this. I'm so excited to play for all of these different countries and meet all of these people from all the different countries. This experience is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," she said. "I'm most excited about seeing all of the different countries and the cultures and getting to experience that."
One caveat to the honor is that the RHS band will be unable to participate in Rhinelander's Fourth of July parade. The parade is something the band looks forward to every year, but this year a tour of Europe is taking precedence.
"The only thing is this means the high school band is not going to be in the Fourth of July parade," Piasecki said. "The community has always been so supportive of the band in the parade and now we're not going to be there this year, but hopefully they understand just how big of a deal it is for these kids. This is a huge honor. Just being nominated is a huge deal and these six were chosen. They're going to be playing for people all over Europe. It's phenomenal."
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
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