Anastasha Echavarri
Staff Writer
For thousands of dollars, a student at Westford Academy can go to China or even Spain for a little over a week. For $4,000, a band student can travel abroad around Europe for over 3 weeks. The traditional WA band trip to Europe sponsored by the American Music Abroad association is about to begin yet again, and everyone is excited.
For many years, the American Music Abroad association has joined together the musically inclined students of WA with those from places throughout Massachusetts, New England, and even Virginia to go on a once and a lifetime experience to semi-independently travel the world.
“We have students from all over going on this trip. It’s not just for students from WA, it’s for any student that is interested in this sort of opportunity,” said band instructor, Kenneth Culver.
On this trip, students will be traveling to Paris, France, Austria, ancient castles and fortresses, villas, museums, and simple countryside towns teeming with culture.
“The students will be playing in amazing places– it’s such an amazing opportunity. They can perform on the beaches of Normandy and on the same night play in some ancient castle,” said Culver.
However, the trip itself is not based solely on the music and how the students play. The trip itself is an experience for the music players to completely immerse themselves into cultures that they have never been in before. Students will be visiting museums, going out to clubs, and even concentration camps.
“The trip is really for the cultural experience. There’s just so much to see, out there. The United States is so new, everything is 300 years old or younger. I want to see what the world is really like,” said sophomore band student Ashley Leung.
Students going on the trip are all excited for different reasons.
“I’m really excited to visit Germany. I want to see where my ancestors came from, the rest of the Schlather family,” said sophomore band student Daniel Schlather.
So although the trip is an opportunity solely for students in band, the point is not only for the students to play at concerts, theaters, and the beaches of Normandy. This is the chance of a lifetime to learn about cultures we, living in America, would not know much about.
