By JOSHUA DEERE
Although the BYU Wind Symphony’s Baltic Tour ended June 4 when they left Moscow’s Sheremetveyo Airport, for some the memories will last a lifetime.
According to Don Peterson, a BYU music professor and tour manager for the trip, the tour served as a great opportunity for missionary work and as a growing experience for the students.
“It was to improve relations with the world and with the church members,” Peterson said. “It’s a great opportunity for the students to learn about other countries and to meet musicians in other countries.”
The three week tour began in Helsinki, Finland, and then took the symphony to such countries as Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and Russia. The group performed in many settings such as firesides, concert halls, various outdoor settings and the International Festival of Military Music in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Emily Camacho, 22, a senior from Glendale, Ariz. majoring in music education, said the audiences showed a lot of enthusiasm, despite political tensions as a result of the Kosovo crisis.
“The people, especially as we got into Russia, really showed a lot of response,” Camacho said. “Our very last concert, we had to play four encores.”
She said the most important concert was in a marketplace on the streets of Turku, Finland. Camacho said their performance was threatened by stormy skies, but a prayer allowed them to still play.
“It looked like it was going to rain but we said a prayer that the weather would be tempered and the clouds just parted over us and it didn’t rain at all,” Camacho said.
Melvin Luthy, cultural advisor and priesthood leader for the trip, said the concert in Turku was one of their many uplifting experiences. He said another such incident took place on the border of Lithunaia and Belarus when a military officer stopped their bus for two and a half hours to check their documents.
“He came back on the bus and was very curious and said, ‘Who are you people?'” Luthy said.
Luthy said when the symphony members gave the officer one of their group pictures, they saw his demeanor go from gruff to friendly. He asked them to autograph his picture as a souvenir of their visit.
According to Luthy, the man said, “I have never seen so many people smile in my life. I’ve never seen people so happy.”
After the picture exchange, the students told him who they were and sang “I Am a Child of God.”
“As we sang, he closed his eyes just like he was drinking in all that he could and tears came to his eyes and he said ‘I will remember this all of my life,'” Luthy said.
Jeff Case, 24, a senior from Binghamton, N.Y., majoring in music and psychology, said one of his most memorable experiences came at a sanitarium in Belarus where some children from Chernobyl were receiving treatment.
He said the parents were skeptical about Americans at first, but they warmed up when the symphony members began teaching the chilren how to play Red Rover and other games.
Case said the children ran toward the bus yelling and waiving as they left.
“When we had to leave, it was so hard to say goodbye,” Case said.
He said the experience taught them that, despite many cultural differences, some things never change.
“The kids around the world are the same,” Case said. “They play the same games and have the same jokes.”
Any sense of hostility toward Americans was quickly vanquished with the symphony’s performances, Peterson said.
“You have that universal language,” Peterson said. “You can struggle all you want with all those languages, but when it comes down to performances, it all worked out wonderfully.”
At dinner in Minsk, Belarus, a group of popular musicians entertained the symphony members with the John Lennon song “Give Peace a Chance,” Peterson said.
“They said, ‘We know musicians don’t start wars but, from us to you, we want to play you a part of our brotherhood,'” Peterson said.
Case said at the Festival of Military Music, they were simply accepted for their talents and not for their nationality.
“The sentiment was that you’re musicians and you bring music and, politics aside, they accepted us as musicians,” Case said.
