Blake Goertzen, who just graduated from Heartland Community School, was one of 15 percussionists who performed in multiple venues across Europe in June with the Nebraska Ambassadors of Music group.
Blake Goertzen, a 2025 Heartland graduate, just returned from a trip with the Nebraska Ambassadors of Music. He is a percussionist who was nominated by Heartland’s former band director, Royce Schweitzer, for the program before he retired. Once a student is nominated, a committee from Nebraska Ambassadors of Music chooses who to invite on the trip, and fortunately, Blake was invited and accepted.
Blake would agree with the tagline used by Ambassadors that it was “a musical journey of a lifetime!”
The Ambassadors program has been around for a long time, and Schweitzer has accompanied many of his past Heartland students on this 15-day trip to Europe.
“I’ve had the opportunity myself to travel on 12 of those trips since 1993. On this last trip, I decided to let some younger people join in my place. It’s a special memory for me because, even though we always went to the same places and followed the same itinerary, I never grew tired of it. I started developing friendships in each of the countries, so every other year I could catch up and maintain friends. The nice thing about this trip is you are not on stage all the time, so there is plenty of time for sightseeing,” said Schweitzer.
Like many students who go on the trip, Blake was accompanied by his mother, Ashley, and his Aunt, Colleen Goertzen, and they certainly would agree with Schweitzer about the time for sightseeing, which they enjoyed together. After leaving Omaha on June 15th, they arrived in London and hit the ground running, embarking on a tour of the city.
Blake with his Aunt Colleen on the left and mother Ashley on the right enjoys a selfie in front of Buckingham Palace. Here is a group picture of the entire entourage, including the band, choir, families, and sponsors that Blake toured with for two weeks.
Before leaving for Europe, Blake attended a practice band camp at Wayne State College for a few days, learning the music they would perform in just a few weeks. “I didn’t know any of the other kids in the band, so the practice camp was a good way to get introduced before we left. We stayed a couple of nights in the dorms at Wayne State during the camp and worked on 12 pieces,” said Blake.
The Ambassador’s group includes not only a band but a choir, making for about 250 people traveling on the trip. There were 125 band members and approximately 80 in the choir, but some students performed in both the band and choir, Blake said. He was one of 15 percussionists in the band.
Traveling with such a large group requires a great deal of planning and coordination. Matt and Barb Sheppard were in charge of the trip and made sure everything was on schedule. The large group utilized six huge buses while traveling across Europe. All the band members brought their own instruments except for the percussionists, who rented their equipment on the trip.
Once they arrived in London, they had a few days of sightseeing, culminating in an evening performance at an outdoor venue. “Pretty much what happens is when we start playing, community members nearby just start showing up to listen. It’s pretty cool,” said Blake.
While touring Europe, the group usually performs about five concerts, and Schweitzer agreed with Blake that the American groups are very well received there, which makes it enjoyable to perform. Below, Blake and the other percussionists used buckets during one of their performances.
Next, they were off to Paris, where he especially enjoyed a river tour that gave incredible views of the Eiffel Tower in around the city. Depending on the location and venue, the band or choir would perform solo, or both the choir and the band would perform together.
At every stop, they had local guides hired to show them the sights, but his most memorable location was in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. “After being in the big cities, it was so nice to travel to this small town up in the mountains with beautiful views and enjoy the quietness.”
Here, they toured castles and performed indoors at a local community center. “This was probably my favorite place we performed. After we started, a whole bunch of folks started showing up, packing out the place. They started dancing to our music and thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Blake.
“One of the coolest things that happened on the trip was when a few of the band directors who were traveling with us went around chatting and asking us where we were from. When I said Heartland, they all lit up and said, ‘Oh, Mr. Schweitzer! We actually watch videos of your marching band to learn how to do it, they told me!”
The last countries they visited were Germany and Austria, where he enjoyed more beautiful scenery and a fascinating, yet sobering, trip to the Dachau concentration camp.
After a whirlwind tour, Blake, his mom, and his aunt left Munich, Germany, and returned to the United States on June 27th with a wealth of memories and pictures.
