PLAISTOW — Daniel Fryburg has never left the country before. But by next week, the Timberlane Regional High School senior will be an international performer.
Fryburg, 17, is one of more than 50 local student musicians of 86 from around New England who will embark on a 16-day European tour tomorrow. They'll see the sites, but more importantly for these aspiring performers, they will play in exciting places — the royal gardens in London and Paris; the centers of Rothenburg, Germany, Seefeld, Austria, and Crans-Montana, Switzerland.
The trip is a first for Timberlane. The students are responsible for the cost of the trip.
Playing the clarinet and tenor saxophone will probably feel the same in Europe as it does in Plaistow. But the pressure is on to perform each 30-minute concert perfectly, Fryburg said.
"It's a different crowd of people with different expectations," he said. "We have to make a good impression."
Students were chosen by their high school music directors months ago. Timberlane music director Tony DiBartolomeo is directing the band and jazz band on the trip, which he's been planning for three years through a company in Wisconsin.
He chose 32 students to take on the seven-country tour. Sixteen other students from Pinkerton Academy are going and one from Londonderry High School.
Danielle DiPasquale, 17, a senior at Pinkerton Academy, is singing in the chorus and the women's chorus. She'll be singing the "William Tell Overture" and "Make Me A Channel of Your Peace" in English, but she's more excited about trying out her French in Paris.
"I'm most excited about Paris in general," she said. "I've taken French for four years and want to actually try the language there."
In the meantime, DiPasquale and the other ambassadors — from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont — joined together this week for just the second time to work on their music. The band, jazz band, choruses and orchestra spent three, 12-hour days at "camp" in the Timberlane Performing Arts Center for some key, last-minute rehearsing.
The group will put on a free concert at the center today at 7 p.m., then board buses tomorrow at 1 p.m. to head to the airport.
The camp was especially hectic for students like Andrew DiBartolomeo, 19, who needed to rehearse with the chorus, band and jazz band all at once. Andrew, who is the director's son, is one of three college students who were at Timberlane when the trip was first being planned and returned for the adventure.
"Music has always been a part of my life and changing that is not going to happen," he said. "I love it though. There are fantastic people in music. I love to be around it."
This trip is just another way to spread that love of music around. Timberlane and Pinkerton families hosted student musicians from farther away this week so they could attend the camp and get to know one another before the trip, Tony DiBartolomeo said.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for these kids," he said. "Every one of them is excited for a different reason."
