Music for Mozart

Aug. 21--When they are asked what they did on their summer vacation this year, 23 Yuma students will be able to say they celebrated Mozart's 250th birthday in the very places the Austrian musical genius once lived and performed.

The Yuma Youth Choir performed in the 2006 Mozart Youth Choir Festival this June. The choir members were among only 400 singers from around the world who earned an invitation to the festival. They spent June 17-20 touring and performing in Munich, Germany, and Vienna and Salzburg in Austria.

"We did so much," said Shannyn Illingworth, 19, a youth choir member and student at Arizona Western College. "I still can't take it all in."

The festival was a mass concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Elizabeth Tibbs, choir director and Arizona Western College professor of music, said the choir earned its place representing Arizona after submitting written applications and performance samples.

The choir first sang at a chapel in Munich. It then went on to Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace, where the entire group of 400 singers raised their voices together in the Salzburg Dome. Mozart performed in the dome throughout his career.

Illingworth was chosen to sing a solo during that performance. She said that was just "the icing on the cake" of the experience for her. She has only been a choir member since January and did not intend to go on the trip at first.

"I've been singing throughout high school, but I never thought it would interest me enough to study music," she said.

Last year, Illingworth was a math major. She did not think of music as a serious career goal. She's changed her major to music this semester and hopes to teach or perform professionally.

"Everyone here has been so supportive," she said.

The students did more than perform on their trip. They went down into the salt mines of Salzburg and toured European castles, including the Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria, Germany.

"It was the most amazing educational experience in their lives," Tibbs said. "I think all of them said that."

They also saw the uglier side of Europe's history. Their first stop, after getting off the plane in Munich, was the site of the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau.

"It was eye-opening, but it was hard," said Matthew Alexander, a 15-year-old home-schooled student. He has been with the choir since Tibbs started it four years ago.

The experience did not come cheap for the youth choir. It cost each student $3,000. The rising cost of jet fuel pushed that amount up another $300, Tibbs said. Chaperones also accompanied them, bringing the number who went to 42.

The choir spent 10 months planning and fundraising. They sang in recreational-vehicle parks on the weekends and lobbied for donations. In the end, their work paid off.

Alexander's mother, Barbara Akins, said the trip and the work leading up to it was a growing experience for her son. "I think he's matured a lot," she said. "He's more self-reliant. Because of all the different fundraisers, having to go ask for donations, he's become more confident."

Tibbs said the choir is accepting new members. Those interested in joining can contact her at AWC by calling 1-982-317-6019, or e-mail Elizabeth.Tibbs@azwestern.edu.

Music for Mozart

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun, Yuma, Ariz.

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