A group of Muncie resident youths will be taking music to the other side of the world and experiencing life in a different culture.
The White River Youth Choir will be taking its show to Japan on a 10-day tour.
Ball State associate professor of music education Don Ester started the choir in 1994. Ester has been a part of the music faculty since 1992.
Ester's goal when starting the WRYC was to provide an opportunity to high school students to sing and learn about music.
Today that goal has spread to an international lesson of music. The choir spent two weeks in Brazil in 1999 and has performed various concerts throughout the U.S.
On June 9, Ester will take 31 students to Japan. The choir will travel to Okazaki City, Nagoya and Kyoto to perform its one-hour concert.
It will also perform at Ball State's sister school, Aichi University.
While in Japan, the students will live with Japanese families, each student placed individually.
The students and eleven adults have been through 10 hours of cultural lessons, Ester said. The choir's cultural liaison, Aki Numata, is a native of Tokyo.
"He has taught us how to do everything from using chop sticks to when to take off our shoes, to how to bathe, in their culture," Ester said.
The choir members are local high school students ranging in age from 13 to 19.
"We are really excited and scared to go," WRYC member Katie Ester said.
Katie said she looks forward to it being a good learning experience.
Choir members pay half of the expenses for the trip and raise the rest from fund-raisers and donations collected over the year.
The Community Foundation of Muncie and Delaware County gave the choir $1,500 for its Japan trip.
"The community has been really supportive in making this possible," Ester said.
While in Japan the students will perform numerous concerts, which will include music from all over the world.
Some of the pieces will feature Japanese music. The choir will also feature selections to express U.S. music including jazz, popular, folk, Broadway and gospel.
The choir is familiar with Japanese music from the boys choir, Johsei School in Japan, with whom they performed at UniverCity 2002.
The choir will return to Muncie on June 20.
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