When college spring breakers think of Costa Rica, they think surf, sun and siesta. However, when Dartmouth Wind Ensemble members think of their spring trip to Costa Rica, their thoughts are more along the lines of sun, song and service.
In the group’s first international service and performance tour, the ensemble performed six concerts in nine days in Costa Rica.
The students performed 26 pieces that ranged in size from a quartet to two joint performances with the National Institute of Music of Costa Rica, which featured almost 100 performers. The styles of music varied from pieces by Mozart to Costa Rican composers, and the venues, equally diverse, included the U.S. Ambassador’s backyard and Oasis de Esperanza, the largest church in the country.
“There was really not a typical day,” saxophonist Kameko Winborn ’14 said in an email on the trip. “We’ve had rehearsals at the National Institute of Music, but we’ve also had impromptu rehearsals in the middle of a playground on a windy day.”
Percussionist Josh Perez ’17 recounted the relaxing night ensemble members spent at a beach resort. However, in keeping with a true Dartmouth schedule, the relaxation was brief. Most days, the ensemble woke up by 7 a.m., ate a quick breakfast of rice and beans, visited a tourist attraction and spent the majority of the day rehearsing and performing.
During the trip, the ensemble worked with Pundaresnas, a school participating in the Sistema Nacional de Educacion Musical, a government-funded service program that promotes musical instruction for students in high crime and significant drug abuse areas, giving students a place to keep them off the streets.
“Service has always been an important component of the DCWE for me,” conductor Matthew Marsit said. “It’s a wonderful thing that the government turned to music as a social reclamation.”
The trip brought the ensemble’s music to people outside of the typical concert house series, Marsit said. He called the experience “incredible,” not only for Dartmouth students but also for the students the ensemble worked with in Costa Rica, whose ages ranged from 8 to 20.
A few of the Costa Rican students had been selected to perform at the New England Conservatory and comparable music institutions. Saxophonist Juliana Baratta ’17 said she was inspired by the children’s determination.
“Even after playing for two hours in 85 degree weather, they still wanted to play the right notes and rhythms,” she said in an email.
Perez said the greatest challenge he faced was adapting to the “pura vida” culture. Many times ensemble members would wait hours for their students to finally arrive, he said.
Winborn and Baratta agreed that they struggled to speak Spanish well, though Winborn added that not speaking Spanish “was part of the fun.”
“Even when language was a barrier or where differences in economic and social backgrounds were vast, music was this amazing universal translator for us,” Marsit said. “The goal was for this to be a transformative experience.”
Marsit said the Dartmouth students’ demeanor changed by the end of the trip, starting out hesitant before embracing their roles as teachers and mentors. He said he hopes to make the trip a recurring tour for the ensemble.
The article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction appended: March 27, 2014
An initial version of the article misidentified the country of Costa Rica as an island and the New England Conservatory as the Harvard Conservatory. It has been revised to correct the errors.
