Riva Sharples | Editor
Alcester sisters Natalie and Olivia Moore are embarking on a journey of a lifetime this weekend. The girls, who will be seniors this August at Alcester-Hudson High School, are part of the South Dakota Ambassadors of Music Touring Group that is headed on a band and choral tour of five European countries this June and early July.
The 2025 SD Ambassadors of Music is made up of 124 talented high school students from across South Dakota who were nominated to participate in the trip, which happens every two years, by their music directors. The students will be performing and sightseeing in England, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria during the nearly three-week journey.
“It is truly an unbelievable experience,” says Jerome Letcher, state coordinator for the trip who has been involved with Ambassadors of Music since 2001. “The students will get a chance to share their music and our culture with other countries. Our students will be learning about the cultures of all the countries that we visit. We get to see a lot and do a lot while there.”
Natalie and Olivia Moore, who are involved in chorus, band, and theater at Alcester-Hudson, are part of both the SD Ambassadors chorus, made up of 53 members, and the SD Ambassadors Band, numbering 73. During the jam-packed trip, the chorus and band will share nine performances in different countries and venues.
Explains Letcher: “We will be performing in various locations, from great cathedrals to outside gardens. In the past, we have been greeted warmly by our audiences. At some venues, we get huge audiences, while other venues are smaller. The choir gets to sing in some beautiful and amazing churches, such as L’eglise de la Madeleine, in Paris. In 2023, when the band performed in the Clock Tower Square of Rothenburg O De Tober, we had a crowd of at least 1,000 people. It was amazing to see so many people taking time from their busy lives to listen to our band!”
This week, the Moore sisters, along with all the other members of the SD Ambassadors of Music Choir and Band, have been at SDSU rehearsing in preparation for the trip. The students were given the music a couple of months ago to practice on their own and with their home music directors. This week, they were brought together to polish it before leaving for Europe on Saturday. A free concert, featuring the music the band and chorus will performing, will be held at the Performing Arts Center on the SDSU campus this Friday, June 20, beginning at 7 p.m. All are invited to attend.
The music the students is performing is challenging, but good, say the Moore sisters.
“One of our favorite songs from the nine band pieces we’re playing is called ‘Choose Joy,’” said Olivia, who plays euphonium in the band. “We are also performing many patriotic songs, such as ‘The Stars and Stripes Forever,’ ‘American Barndance,’ ‘American Big Top,’ and ‘Dixieland Jam!.’ Some other pieces we will be performing are ‘On the Mall,’ ‘The Clapping Song,’ ‘AYO,’ and ‘Let There Be Peace On Earth,’ the last of which is a combined choir and band piece.
When it comes to the choir, the Ambassadors will offer ten songs, including: “The Old Mill” and “Home on the Range.”
Explains Olivia: “Many of the other songs aren’t focused on America, but on peace and helping one another, such as ‘O Magnum Mysterium,’ ‘Sing for Joy,’ ‘When The Saints Go Marching In,’ ‘One Step,’ ‘In Meeting We Are Blessed,’ and ‘Lean on Me.’ We are also singing ‘Over The Rainbow,’ from ‘The Wizard Of Oz,’ and, of course, ‘Let There Be Peace On Earth.’”
The Moore sisters have traveled to Niagara Falls, Canada, and have journeyed throughout the U.S. with their family, but have not been to Europe before. They are excited for this trip and all it will involve.
“We are generally excited about getting to explore the cities we visit,” they said. “We hope to learn a lot about Western European culture and landmarks, and to bring back many souvenirs!”
Some of the highlights of the trip will including touring London, enjoying “Phantom of the Opera” at His Majesty’s Theatre, seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louve in Paris, taking a cruise on the Seine River, viewing the Eiffel Tower, traveling to a small village in Switzerland to view the Matterhorn, experiencing the somber Dachau Concentration Camp in Austria, and much more.
The cost of the trip is more than $7,000 per student. Students going on the trip held fundraisers, took extra jobs, and collected donations to help off-set the cost of participation. For their part, the Moore sisters spent 10 weeks last summer working 40 hours per week at the Alcester-Hudson School to earn the money they needed to participate in the trip.
All of the effort, all of the fundraising, is worth it, says Letcher.
“It’s truly an amazing experience, both musically and culturally,” said Letcher, who has been on nearly a dozen of the trips as the state coordinator or a chaperone. “This trip has opened my eyes to the rest of the world. I feel like I had blinders on before I went on my first tour. I saw only my community that I was living and teaching in. Europe? Other Continents? Those were just places on the other side of the world. How could those people and places have anything to do with us? Boy was I wrong! I now have a much more global line of thinking. I take a lot of interest in what’s happening elsewhere, not only in our country, but all over the world. Other cultures matter to me now.”
The Ambassadors of Music program was started in 1985 by Dr. Darwin Walker and his wife Marlenna. It was originally called the Mid-West Ambassadors of Music, and was comprised of talented music students from South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and North Dakota. Since then, each state has started its own Ambassadors of Music program, and it has been the South Dakota Ambassadors of Music since then.