Owego-Apalachin musicians well represented in the 2018 American Music Abroad Red Tour

Owego Free Academy’s world traveling musicians have arrived home safely on July 21, 2018 after a 16-day tour in Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Germany.  

Abigail Dove, soprano and flute; Ally Fisher, soprano and saxophone; Andrew Clark, bass; Avery Townsend, alto; and Emmalyn Saddlemire, alto and clarinet performed with the American Music Abroad Red Tour. Over 100 high school students were selected for this honor from New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. 

This group of talented musicians came together on July 2 for an intense three days of rehearsals at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania and a farewell concert for family and friends on July 4. The group then flew to Switzerland on July 5 to begin their exploration and series of concerts throughout the six European countries on their tour.  

American Music Abroad was founded in 1975 by a high school band director and his wife to fulfill their dream of sharing their love of Europe with high school students, college students and adults. During the past 40 years, American Music Abroad has organized over 320 musical tours within Western Europe involving over 35,000 participants. 

A band, a chorus, an orchestra, and a jazz band performed a repertoire of diverse American music to share friendship in each country they visited, for a total of ten concerts.  

New cultures and foods were explored while many friendships were developed. Performances and tours included cathedrals, glaciers, river cruises, hiking and gondola rides, amphitheatre and cave tours, shared performances with German students, and chartered bus transportation and lodging throughout – making this an experience of a lifetime for these Owego Free Academy musicians.  

The students would like to thank all who supported this experience.