A Greene County High School student had a trip of a lifetime this summer.
Gavin Vander Linden was part of a group of about 380 choir and band students from across the state known as Iowa Ambassadors of Music. Vander Linden tells Raccoon Valley Radio there are three ways to qualify to be with these ensembles, including qualifying for either all-state or a regional honor band or choir, or you can be nominated by your director. Vander Linden is a three-time all-state qualifier and he says he got to travel to five countries including England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria, and performed five concerts from July 6th-21st.
Vander Linden talks about his favorite country he visited, which was Switzerland.
“It’s so beautiful and peaceful there. You still have that kind of Midwest feel though of you can like get to a tall point and see a bunch of different towns, just like really small places. And like the hotel that we stayed at had like balconies, so you could just like look out over your balcony and see like, ‘Oh there’s a town over there, over there, over there,’ and just a bunch of different places like all on the mountain side and the valleys, and it’s just really beautiful there.”
Vander Linden describes what he gained from this experience.
“So it was just really cool just to see all these other Iowa musicians who have just the same like level of passion and time put into this stuff. And it’s just nice to be able to be with those people for a long time and just to make new friends that way. But it also did help with becoming a better singer and all that because you do practice the music. It wasn’t easy music, it was some tricky music, but we got it all figured out. So it was like working on some technique, style, and stuff like that.”
Another Greene County High School student, Ava Schilling, joined Vander Linden on the trip. The two all-staters are entering their senior years of high school this fall. To hear more from Vander Linden, listen to next week’s Let’s Talk Greene County program.