While the Gustavus Choir rehearsed for hours upon hours a day and then flew off to tour Italy over January Interim, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra was gearing up a mere two hours each day for its regional weeklong tour that took place during the time between the end of January Interim and the start of Spring Semester.
I, as a member of the band, relaxed as my friends in the choir were always busy, but then again they got to go to Italy, which I’m a little jealous about. However, I was part of the Wind Orchestra tour to Eastern Europe last year, so I’ve had my own international music experience.
Contrasted to the vogue of international travel, a tour around Minnesota and Wisconsin that bypasses the Twin Cities and visits the town of the Unwashed (a joke that comes from the Greek word for unwashed, άπλυτος, which is pronounced App Le Ton, i.e. Appleton, as in Appleton, WI) could seem a dull experience. Instead of grand renaissance cathedrals, we played in modest Lutheran churches; instead of touring historic cultural centers like Venice and Budapest, this year the band will saw towns like Brainerd and Middleton.
Touring regionally doesn’t quite have the appeal of Europe, which could have cast a shadow over this year’s band tour—but strangely, it didn’t. Somehow, even if we had less free time and spent absolutely no time in art museums or royal palaces, this year’s regional tour had an incredible number of intense life-changing experiences for those who were a part of it, both in the audiences and ensembles.
The glamour of Europe, although incredible, perhaps distracts from other aspects of touring in an ensemble. Constant input from the senses during the day leads to more tired players at night; the exuberance of being in a new place perhaps overcomes the joy of playing music routinely. In Europe, I noticed we were far more focused on place than our purpose, which is above all to perform great music that affects the audience in a profound way. Touring regionally doesn’t necessarily hold those same detractors.
That isn’t to say that you cannot find value close to home. In fact, the beautiful scenes we did come across hit us with more power because they were right in front of us, like unexpected morsels of dark chocolate in what you thought was just a regular oatmeal cookie. Central High School in Duluth, for example, has probably a better view of the lake and waterfront than any place in town, since it’s situated atop the hill that Duluth’s streets notoriously slope.
Unexpected reward might best characterize our band tour this year. Along with physical beauty in newfound places, our many experiences with home-stay families that hosted us as we traveled were very gratifying. Almost every night we were kept by the generosity of the local churches among different families, an experience that affirms two things for me: primarily, that people are generally good people, and also that every single one of us has far more in common than in difference.
Every family I had the pleasure of staying with led compelling lives, told interesting stories and treated us with nothing but kindness. Even on the rare occasion when I knew I had very different views on issues than my hosts, it was incredible to me how much we could, nevertheless, talk about and agree upon; I never had a conversation that lasted less than an hour after a concert, and keep in mind that we got to these homes usually around 10:00 p.m.
The entire experience was a great inspiration to me. Not only did we play great music that got better every night, but we met our neighbors, and even if they were Packer fans, found that they were genuinely good people. Looking back, there was no European gold dust sprinkled on last year’s tour that made it such a great experience for us. Rather, it is in the doing of it, in the enjoyment of the moment and the quality of companions and new friends and in the novel experiences that lead us to wonderful tours.
As a last word, the Gustavus Wind Orchestra will be performing its home concert at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 12 (the Choir will be forming their home concert that night at 7:30 p.m. as well). I encourage each of you to attend, perhaps with a valentine, and hear for yourselves the music that propells so many Gusties through their own life-changing experiences.