Nebraska Ambassadors of Music tour called trip of lifetime for CCS student

    Brendan Pump said if he could, he’d take part in another Nebraska Ambassadors of Music experience in Europe.
    And, that’s after having to raise the funds mostly himself to be part of the band and choir performing in England, France, Switzerland, Germany and Austria last month.
    Nebraska sends high school students every other year to Europe as part of the Ambassadors of Music program, and this was his year to do it.
    He’ll be a senior at Chase County Schools this fall. He was nominated for the tour by CCS instrumental director Agnes Strand.
    The Nebraska group numbered 220, and, like most of the participants, he performed in both the band and choir at free, public events in all five countries.
    Before leaving for Europe, the students rehearsed at Wayne State College June 7-12 before the nine and a half hour flight out of Omaha to London.
    In the band, Pump was in the alto saxophone section and sang in the bass 1 group with the choir.
    Most of the band concerts were outdoors, he noted, while Europe’s churches with their striking architecture hosted the choir performances. They spent two to three days in each country.
    Their first stop on the June 12-27 tour was London. In addition to their concerts there, the students took a river cruise and rode the London Eye, the latter being the city’s famous Ferris wheel. A highlight was attending a performance of Phantom of the Opera, he said.
    One of the songs the band performed there was so meaningful to one listener, Pump said, that she came up to him after and asked for the song’s name and composer.
    Next stop was France, where the Eiffel Tower was their first stop after landing. A bus tour of the busy city and visit to the Louvre Museum were on the itinerary.
    Switzerland was next, and proved to be Pump’s favorite of the countries.
    “It’s just an absolutely beautiful country,” he said.
    There, they saw the majestic Matterhorn among the Alps, visited a castle, did a walking tour of Crans-Montana and enjoyed a fondue party with traditional music and dance on their last night there.
    Switzerland also proved to be a more easy, and slower-paced country after the busyness of London and Paris, he said, and is one of the reasons it topped his list.
    Rothenburg is where they spent all of their time in Germany, Pump said. It’s a medieval town surrounded by a wall built centuries ago for protection.
    Pump walked the entire wall around the town, and enjoyed its “gi-normous” Christmas store. He bought a cuckoo clock there, which he hopes makes the trip to Imperial without breaking.
    A more somber part of Germany was their tour of the Dachau concentration camp.
    “It was really sad. What was most impressive was that no one spoke,” he said, as the large group moved through the camp and read about its history.
    Their final country on the tour was Austria where they stayed in Salzburg but also toured Vienna. One of the highlights of Austria was its Sound of Music tour, which included the church the Von Trapps were married in and a gazebo named after the movie, he said.
    They returned to Munich, Germany for their flight back home June 27.
    Pump said people in all of the countries were very receptive to their concerts, and enjoyed their music.
    He certainly thinks being a Nebraska Ambassador of Music is worth the fundraising efforts.
    He received a donation from the POM-POMS organization to help with his expenses, along with other individual and business donations. He said he raised the bulk of the cost by working his part-time job at Subway and from a coffee/hot chocolate sales fundraiser.
    He said he made some new friends on the trip, and hopes the organization continues the Ambassador program.
    “I’ll never forget this trip,” he said.