Julia Lieb Takes on Europe

Julia Lieb, a senior at Galena High School, was nominated to take part in a high-caliber music program this summer. Julia was asked to travel to Europe and represent Illinois as an ambassador of music. She would travel all around Europe and just sing in front of crowds of people. “It was awesome being able to sing in front of all those people, it was very uplifting and it definitely put a smile on my face.”

This wasn’t the first time that Julia had the opportunity to take this amazing trip though, when she was going into her freshman year, she received the same letter that she got in January of this year. But it was different this time. When she received the letter the first time, she believed that she was too young, and that the trip was just too expensive.

Things were different though when she received the letter the second time, she was ready and she knew she wanted to do this. There were numerous things she had to do to make this whole trip possible. She had to fundraise part of the money this time because she knew that she could get a lot of donations from the community if she explained what she wanted to do. Julia was also working numerous jobs at the time to help make money to pay for the trip. With a little bit of help from her parents and a lot of hard work and dedication, she raised the money and was able to go on the trip.

Three weeks before they left, Julia received the music that she would be singing on the tour. “It was very overwhelming to only get three weeks to practice my music,” said Julia, “But knowing how good everyone else was going to be helped motivate myself to practice that much harder.”

The total length of the trip was 19 days. The first three days of the trip consisted of a camp that was being held at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. There, all the participants in the program performed together and the musicians got to meet and practice their music before they made the 9 hour plane ride to London, England. When the plane landed, Julia was very tired, she had been up for 48 hours straight and really needed some sleep. But they got there around 6 P.M. and the staff members on the trip took them to see “Wicked” on Broadway. “It would have been really cool to see,” said Julia, “If I hadn’t fallen asleep.”

The 16 days the ambassadors spent in Europe were jam packed. In just 16 days they covered London, England; Paris, France; Crans-Montana, Switzerland; Zermatt, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria; Venice, Italy; and multiple places in Germany. Julia got to perform in front of hugely diverse audiences and at a variety of different venues, from outside, inside churches and on sidewalks.

“My favorite part about the trip wasn’t so much getting to see all of these beautiful places, but it was seeing how a little bit of music can bring people together,” said Julia, “The people there don’t care if you speak their language or not, they just want to hear good music.”

When the trip finally came to a close, Julia was happy be back on American soil. Her plane ride home was a little scary but she made it home safe and was very thankful for that. The whole experience made her more appreciative and grateful for the opportunities she has been given in her lifetime. The downfall of this program is that once a student is selected to take part in it, they can not go again as a student. But if they wanted to return as a staff member they are able to do so.

“This trip gave me the experience of a lifetime,” said Julia, “I got to be a part of a beautiful thing. Music really does break the barriers of language, and being able to say that I partook in that is priceless.”