UNO | Music | International Touring

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The UNO Department of Music International Touring Program

Over the past twenty years the UNO Department of Music has mounted nineteen international music tours of its various performing ensembles which have covered over twenty countries in Asia, Europe and North America. During this time a vast majority of the students with music degrees from UNO have had the opportunity to experience at least one international touring experience.

These tours have not only provided students with the chance to travel to new places throughout the world, but also have enabled them to benefit from developing friendships in each of the countries visited. The touring program has benefited significantly from relationships with UNO’s International Studies and Programs (IS&P). This internationally acclaimed program has helped to make many of the arrangements and contacts through its some thirty sister universities throughout the world. This relationship has given students and faculty the means to connect with their counterparts and in many instances develop lasting friendships. Over the years students have maintained these contacts through the latest technological applications enabling them to exchange not only ideas but music and more! Through the efforts of IS&P each individual who travels with the delegation is treated beyond being just another American tourist, they become very special guests in the countries in which they are visiting as well as ambassadors representing UNO, Omaha, the state of Nebraska and the United States of America.

Another significant enhancement of the UNO International Music Touring Program is its partnership with the Omaha Sister Cities Association (OSCA). Omaha shares sister city relationships with Braunschweig, Germany; Shizuoka, Japan; Siauliai, Lithuania; Naas, Ireland; and, Xalapa, Mexico. OSCA and its local affiliates have further enriched the touring program through their numerous connections in each of these cities. The organization has been invaluable in helping to provide one-in-a-lifetime experiences as the music groups travel abroad.

It should also be noted that the UNO Music Department International Touring Program consists of more than having its students and faculty tour internationally. The program also provides the opportunity for performing ensembles from our sister cities and universities to visit Omaha. This additional aspect adds still another dimension to the touring program, enabling students and faculty to reciprocate some of the gracious hospitality that they were afforded while guests in the countries of the touring groups visiting Omaha.

While Omaha, Nebraska is located close to the geographical center of the United States, UNO music students have had two decades of international enrichment that have left them with life-changing events and attitudes.

UNO Department of Music International Touring Program History

1986 Young Nebraskans Travel to Japan and the Philippines

1987 Chamber Choir Tour to Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria

1989 Jazz Band Tour to Japan

1996 Symphonic Wind Ensemble Tour to Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic

1998 Concert Choir Tour to Lithuania and Sweden

2000 Symphonic Wind Ensemble Tour to Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Denmark

2000 Concert Choir Tour to Germany, Czech Republic, Romania and Moldova

2002 Symphonic Wind Ensemble Tour to France, Belgium and Germany

2002 Concert Choir Tour to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia and Finland

2003 Jazz Ensemble I Tour to Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia

2004 Concert Choir Tour to Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia