Johnathan Cochran, right, and his grandmother Nancy Boldt pictured near The Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland on July 16 as part of the 2023 Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour. PHOTO COURTESY OF NANCY BOLDT

TRAER – Tama County high school student Johnathan Cochran spent part of last summer experiencing the trip of a lifetime alongside his maternal grandmother Nancy Boldt, a 1971 Gladbrook high school graduate.

Cochran, a junior at North Tama, is a talented musician on both the saxophone and the piano. As such, he was nominated by his band instructor Channing Halstead for the 2023 Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour – a 15-day biennial tour that takes Iowa high school band and choir students on an adventure performing free music concerts to audiences across five European countries.

Following four days of intense rehearsal in early July at Grinnell College, Cochran along with roughly 400 other Iowans including Boldt (attending as a non-performing participant), spent July 6-21 visiting England, France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria on what is billed as a once-in-a-lifetime cultural experience by the tour company.

“It was really cool,” Cochran said during an interview with Tama-Grundy Publishing conducted this fall in his grandmother’s living room in Traer. “I got to play with some of the best high school musicians in the state.”

Cochran and Boldt’s trip together was a full-circle moment of sorts for the family as more than 25 years ago Cochran’s own mother — and Boldt’s daughter — Rachelle Cochran also went to Europe as a high school student with the Iowa Ambassadors of Music.

Johnathan Cochran and his grandmother Nancy Boldt, second and third from left, pictured near The Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland on July 16 alongside fellow Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour participants. PHOTO COURTESY OF IOWA AMBASSADORS OF MUSIC/FACEBOOK

“I wouldn’t have gone on this one either, but Rachelle wanted me to,” Boldt explained before turning to her grandson and adding, “Your dad was really nervous about you going by yourself.”

Neither Cochran nor his grandmother had ever traveled overseas prior to the trip. And while the experience is certainly not cheap, both said it is worth every penny and then some for those who are able to afford it – something Cochran was lucky enough to do thanks to his grandparents.

In addition to performing one concert in each country, the large group participated in a highly curated, meticulously planned tour of London, Paris, the Alpine resort community of Crans-Montana in Switzerland, the village of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria, Germany, and finally Salzburg, Austria – considered the birthplace of classical music.

“It was long days,” Boldt said. “We’d start at 7 a.m. and not finish until 10:30 p.m.”

“Every day felt like a week because you were doing so much stuff,” Cochran added.

The Iowa Ambassadors of Music band performing on July 17 in the Bavaria city of Rothenburg in Germany. PHOTO COURTESY OF IOWA AMBASSADORS OF MUSIC/FACEBOOK

The biggest surprise for Boldt, who recently retired from cutting hair after 50 years, was the sheer amount of walking involved in each day.

“We walked and we walked. We averaged almost five miles a day. No one told me that,” Boldt said. “I think they kept us running, so we wouldn’t fall asleep.”

Outside of the music, trip highlights mentioned by Cochran and Boldt included visiting Windsor Castle near London; the cobblestone streets of Paris; enjoying the food – “the bread was so much better,” Cochran said – and the crisp clean air near The Matterhorn, a mountain in the Swiss Alps; exploring the walled Bavaria city of Rothenburg in Germany as well as Dachau concentration camp; and seeing where the 1965 film “The Sound of Music” was shot in Salzburg, Austria.

For Cochran, just experiencing different cultures really piqued his interest.

“How they live over there. The culture. The architecture is so different. They have beautiful statues on the buildings. They don’t believe in tearing them down, they believe in restoring,” he explained when asked what he appreciated the most. “I saw three different dates on a church – 720 to 1564, and then 1960.”

The final band performance of 2023 for the Iowa Ambassadors of Music which took place in Salzburg, Austria. PHOTO COURTESY OF IOWA AMBASSADORS OF MUSIC/FACEBOOK

One thing that wasn’t all that different though was the weather. A historic heatwave was enveloping parts of Europe during the group’s visit to Paris which was the second stop on the tour. It was so hot the Paris concert had to be cut short.

“It was scorching,” Cochran said. “And they don’t believe in ice.”

“The only country we had air conditioning was Austria,” Boldt said.

But the heat and the copious amounts of walking – plus the lack of free bathrooms, Boldt added – were all worth it in regard to the music itself.

“As many times I heard them perform and sing, I never got tired of it,” Boldt said. “There was a lot of pride in these kids. Exceptionally talented people.”

Both the band and the choir played for about an hour at a time during the concerts.

After the band would perform, Cochran – who played tenor sax in Europe – would attend the choir’s concert and it quickly became one of his favorite parts of the trip.

“I really enjoyed the choir concerts, there’s nothing like that. It gives you goosebumps.”

As an example, Cochran described a performance that took place in a children’s chapel near Dachau in Bavaria. The choir performed a song about World War II.

“It was five minutes of pure silence after they finished,” Cochran said. “And the entire church was filled with people.”

When asked if they would go again if offered the chance, both Cochran and his grandmother said yes.

“I did enjoy it greatly,” Cochran said. “I think the reason [I went] is more important [than the fact] that I went.”

“Those kids had so much fun. They lived in the moment 150 percent,” Boldt said before later adding, “The music experience was outstanding. But to get all those other experiences was just the cherry on the top.”

“It was worth the blisters.”

The Iowa Ambassadors of Music tour takes place every other year in July. More information can be found on the organization’s website, https://ambassadorsofmusic.com

Many of the group’s performances from this year’s tour can be viewed on the Iowa Ambassadors of Music’s Facebook page.