U Students Perform In Unforgettable Tuebingen

U students perform in unforgettable Tuebingen

SUNDAY AUG 24 1980

By Norman Gibson

DRAMA REVIEWER

Paul Boylan admires picture of Tuebingen, Ann Arbor's sister city.

Four University of Michigan music students will not forget the ancient and modern beauties of Tuebingen, sister city to Ann Arbor.

They were there in July.

They went to participate in Eurotreff 1980, normally an all-European music festival.

However, Tuebingen officials wanted to extend an invitation to the Tuebingen sister cities, of which there are several in the world.

THEY ASKED Ann Arbor officials to finance the appearance of talented young musicians from here.

Ann Arbor Mayor Louis D. Belcher got the request from officials of Tuebingen, who asked that a musical delegation be sent to the international festival which was held there July 7 through 14.

Belcher arranged for financial support from a number of business people in the city, and that support came in the form $8,500 from 50 busineses.

Belcher contacted the U-M and asked it to participate.

SCHOOL OF MUSIC Dean Paul Boylan got recommendations from the school’s faculty about what students were available this summer to make the trip from Ann Arbor to West Germany.

Fortunately, there was numerous talent attending classes.

Those who could make the trip and were finally selected were Laura Hunter, Roger Dyster, Lawrence Vincent and Brian Connelly.

Dyster is a baritone and Vincent is a tenor.

Hunter plays the saxophone and Connelly is a pianist.

THEY WERE accompanied on the trip by Boylan and his wife, representing the U-M and the city.

Boylan says the student performers were received with enthusiasm in performance. They got standing ovations almost everywhere they went.

A reviewer for a Tuebingen newspaper used the word “fantastic” a number of times in describing their performances.

“The people of Tuebingen were most cordial.” Boylan said.

“They were very interested in Ann Arbor."

HE SAID THAT the medieval part of the town is well preserved and the more modern part of the town blends well with the older section.

Tuebingen historically dates from the mid-15th century.

The lord mayor of the town presented the Ann Arbor party with greetings and keys to the city and took the visitors to the city hall, the Rathaus of Tuebingen. Both the officials of the city and the residents of the West German city showed the students a good time

The U-M students presented two concerts. One was at the Concert Hall and Museum and the other was at the Bebenhausen.

Both of the concerts were well-attended.

THE PURPOSE of the festival was to provide a cultural bridge between the Western and the Eastern bloc countries.

Ann Arbor turned out to be the only non-European city to be represented at the festival, which had talented performers from numerous Eastern European cities participating.

In the program, the audiences of Tuebingen heard Vincent sing arias from well-known operas and the Shubert song cycle. Works of Brahms, Ravel and others were presented in the performances of the other U-M students who participated in the international event.