Next year, the MSU Symphony Orchestra is planning to pay tribute to Mozart in the Austrian cities the world-famous composer called home.
The orchestra will play concerts in Vienna and Salzburg in 2006 as part of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birthday.
MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon worked out a deal with School of Music Director James Forger in which the university and the school will share the responsibility of paying for the tour. The trip will cost roughly $2,500 for each student.
"I said I would raise $1,000 of that," Simon said.
The School of Music will provide an additional $1,000 per student, and the students will be asked to raise the remaining $500 themselves. A minimum of 50 students must go to make the tour possible.
"If we have enough funds, we might be going to Prague, which was a favorite city of Mozart," said Leon Gregorian, a professor of music and conductor of the Symphony Orchestra.
The trip comes at the invitation of the Austrian government, and is part of a yearlong celebration of Mozart that will be opened and closed by the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the premier orchestras in the world.
One college or university was invited from each state, Gregorian said, and MSU was chosen to represent Michigan.
"We're very, very anxious and delighted to be singled out like this," Gregorian said. "This is a pretty big deal, and we're very proud of it."
Music performance senior Rachel Keathley, who plays violin in the orchestra, said the trip has been discussed as a possibility for the past few weeks.
"Everybody's really excited," she said. "We haven't traveled since I've been here."
In fact, this will be the first time an MSU orchestra has performed abroad, Gregorian said.
"We have been invited in the past by places in the United States," he said.
Details of the trip are still being worked out, he said, and the group might go in either May or October of next year. At this point, they do not know if they will have enough money to bring the entire 110-person ensemble.
Simon might accompany them to Austria along with a group of donors.
"Every year, the university has done a major donor trip," she said. "The president has typically gone on the major donor trip. It's not unusual."
Tying that trip into the orchestra tour is just one option being considered, Simon said, and those details have yet to be finalized.
Every performance abroad will feature at least one or two Mozart compositions, Gregorian said, but the orchestra will oblige the tastes of their European hosts as well.
"They also very much like to hear American music like Gershwin and Bernstein," he said.
As part of the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, the Symphony Orchestra is scheduled to play his pieces in three local events beginning in January.
"It's a worldwide celebration of probably one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived," Gregorian said.
