FHS grads travel to Vienna with orchestra
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FAIRMONT-- Two Fairmont High School graduates, Eric Head, class of 2019, and Ethan Grunewald, class of 2021, spent last month in Vienna, Austria, with the Luther College Symphony Orchestra. The two were there for a month-long residency.
Head is a senior violin player double majoring in music and communications studies. Grunewald is a sophomore baritone saxophone player double majoring in computer science and math with a minor in music.
The summer before he started first grade, Head began taking piano lessons with Sandra Krumholz. He continued taking lessons and in 5th grade, he enrolled in orchestra at Fairmont Elementary School and continued with it all the way through his senior year.
Grunewald started playing music as a 5th grade student at Fairmont Elementary School.
"My old teacher, Mrs. Tenney, said I would be good on the saxophone so I went with that and stuck with it. I think she was right," Grunewald said with a laugh.
In high school, Grunewald continued to play the saxophone in band as that instrument is typically not used in orchestra.
"It's kind of a rare thing that the symphony here (at Luther) brought saxophones. They pretty much only do that for the Vienna tour. They like to bring some more American pieces and some of those involve saxophone," Grunewald explained.
Head explained that Luther has three orchestras and that he's been in both symphony orchestra and chamber orchestra all four years of his time at Luther.
Head is currently president of the symphony orchestra at Luther so had the added responsibilities in corralling and managing the large group of 80.
Head said that getting all 80 students, and their instruments, overseas, was an experience alone. The smaller instruments could be brought on the plane as a carry on but larger instruments, like cellos, required an extra plane ticket so they could sit beside their player. Bigger instruments were either checked and placed beneath the plane or had to be rented while in Austria.
They were in Austria for nearly 4 weeks. The majority of the time was spent in Vienna though they spent some time in Salzburg, Austria and Munich, Germany. While abroad they played three concerts.
"The purpose of the whole month there was the residency. We rehearsed music everyday and had two concerts that were slightly outside of Vienna in smaller towns and one that was in the Vienna Concert House," Head said.
Performing in the Vienna Concert House was a highlight of the trip for both Head and Grunewald.
"It's such an iconic stage. It was such a special experience," Head said.
He said that their orchestra conductor said that the culture in Austria values musicians in the same way as Americans value professional athletes.
"That's uninteresting perspective to think about how much they're revered," Head said.
In addition to performing, Grunewald said he just enjoyed walking around the city and seeing the cathedrals and gold-lined buildings.
"There's really nothing like it in America.... everything you learn about, it turns out it's like 2,000 years old. It was just incredible," Grunewald said.
Both Head and Grunewald spoke highly of the music education they received beginning at a young age while students at Fairmont Area Schools.
"The music education I got at Fairmont is one of the biggest reasons I've pursued it. And at Luther having people to show me what a career in music can look like has helped," Head said.
"Eric and I are both extremely grateful to Kate Kallenbach and Mrs. (Katie) Hoaglund and the opportunities they gave us," Grunewald said.
He pointed out that Hoaglund is also a Luther graduate and went on the same trip when she was a student there.
Now a senior, Head is looking at graduate schools to further his education in music. He shared how he knew he wanted to pursue music.
"In my last years of high school I really started to get more serious and when I got here (to Luther) I thought I would give it a try. It's gradually stuck and I've realized that I really enjoy it. It's something I'm passionate about," Head said.
Grunewald has two more years to go and some more potential trips abroad in his future with other ensembles he's in at Luther.
"I'm in the jazz orchestra and next year we're going to Brazil for a few months and in my senior year I'm pretty sure the concert band is going to Spain. I feel very lucky here..." Grunewald said.