Joanne Williams
Editor
(Photo provided – Harley Craft enjoyed the cooler climates in Switzerland and Vienna during his recent Michigan Musicians Abroad trip.)
It’s been said, by poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that music is the universal language of mankind, a way to communicate feelings and emotions and even actions.
This has been true, so far, for recent Charlotte residents Harley Craft and Lena Smith.
Craft, who graduated from Charlotte High School this year, and Smith, who is now a senior at the high school, brought their singing talents to the Michigan Musicians Abroad Program and traveled to Europe for two weeks this summer.
Craft, a bass, and Smith, a soprano, worked with more than 100 young singers and musicians from Michigan to prepare for the tour, which included France, England, Germany, Vienna, and Switzerland.
Both had memories to share and encouragement to other students to look into travel abroad.
Craft is now studying interpersonal communication at Western Michigan University (WMU). His interview took place recently as he sat in an airport, journeying home from a WMU study abroad course in the Dominican Republic.
“I typically come into an experience with an open mind and see what it’s like,” Craft said of this trip. It was the same for his European travel. Craft said he has been singing all his life and was in choir four and a half years. Audiences might remember him from the “Hadestown Teen Edition” offered by the high school last November. He played Hades.
“That was a commitment,” he said of the Broadway musical, based on the ancient story of Orpheus and Eurydice. For the European adventure, he, Smith and student musicians from around the state, gathered at Grand Valley State University to prepare and learn 15 songs.
Students are nominated by choir directors for a spot in the program, usually a year before they travel.
Smith said the pieces were challenging, sung in English and other languages such as Spanish, and that one song included American Sign Language signed by the singers.
“It was all new music,” she said. The crowds were “excited” at the performances. Smith recalls being awed at seeing a poster of their tour in a town they visited.
The two musicians were in Europe as the heatwave baked the land. Smith remembers people walking around with water bottles, bringing them everywhere, including restaurants.
Both she and Craft especially enjoyed Switzerland, adding that it was the “coolest” spot weather-wise that they sang, too.
Smith and Craft recommend the experience to other students. Smith said of the journey, “Appreciate it while it’s there, time flies by.”
