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POUND RIDGE, N.Y. Pound Ridge's Sara Snadowsky is about to take a tour of Europe, and the Fox Lane High School student will get to sing on the stages of some of the most revered venues on the continent.
Snadowsky, a 12th grade soprano, has been accepted to perform with the Sound of America Honor Band & Chorus as it begins its 2012 European concert tour in July. After a tough screening process, she was chosen to join other student musicians to represent the United States.
I am really excited about it, Snadowsky said. Its an incredible opportunity to see all these countries and to do something that I love. She is one of nine students from New York State and just more than 100 from across the country who were chosen.
The group will embark on a 23-day concert tour starting with a four-day intensive rehearsal and orientation on the campus of Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. The group will then travel to Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, France and Luxembourg, visiting the cities of Rothenburg, Salzburg, Saalfelden, Venice, Verona, Stresa, Grindelwald, La Chaux de Fonds, Dijon, Paris, Luxembourg and Frankfurt. Along the way, they will perform 10 concerts in some of Europe's most prestigious concert halls, including St. Mark's Basilica and Notre Dame Cathedral.
For the past four years, Snadowsky has participated in the Fox Lane High School choral program under the direction of Edward Reisert. This past year she represented the Bedford Central School District as one of two Fox Lane High School musicians selected from thousands to participate in the New York State School Music Association All-State Ensembles in the Womens Chorus last December in Rochester.
Snadowsky said she discovered her love of singing when she joined the chorus in fourth grade.
I really started singing a lot at that point, she said. In fifth grade I auditioned for the district chorus and then sang my first solo at the Pound Ridge Elementary School Cabaret Day. I sang The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music.
Upon Snadowsky's return at the end of July, she will prepare to head off to Muhlenberg College, which is ranked No. 1 in theater by The Princeton Review, where she will continue her music and theater training.
They have a great musical theater program, she said. You can double your major by combining things like theater and dance. Its a broader education. They also have a liberal arts program I want to take advantage of.
Snadowsky said she loves jazz and Broadway music and counts Ella Fitzgerald, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth as some of her favorite performers.
While performing on Broadway is a dream Snadowsky says she would love to pursue, she realizes its a competitive, risky business.
I would really love to be doing that, but I would also love to teach theater and maybe direct, she said. I like all aspects of theater, including behind the scenes, and it would be a way for me to still do something that I love.
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