Wayne Goins and five hand-picked jazz students from Kansas State University, including bass player Kelly McCarty of Emporia, a senior in applied music-composition, will tour South America for three weeks this summer.
Goins, K-State’s director of jazz and assistant director of bands, will accompany the student jazz combo, named the KSU Jazz Ambassadors, on the four-country trip beginning July 3 and ending July 26. They will first stop in Brazil at Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo before heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Asuncion, Paraguay; and Montevideo, Uruguay. The group plans on performing at several U.S. embassies and universities in the South American countries.
“I think the trip is so important to students because they get to represent the department of music and the university on a global scale, and it’s a chance to put K-State on the map, musically speaking,” Goins said. “Furthermore, it is a rare opportunity to give students a chance to see a part of the world that has international significance with regard to relations to the U.S. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we are all really excited about it.”
Goins will be featured on guitar for the combo.
“These students are the cream of the crop in the jazz program here,” Goins said. “They’ve been with the program for the most number of years and they are veterans of jazz. They’re my go-to guys.”
The five students will be taking two courses in early summer in preparation for the trip. Goins will teach an overview on the music of Latin America. Bradley Shaw, associate professor of modern languages at K-State, will teach language, politics and other various cultural aspects of the societies in South America. Shaw, who is also the director of the international and area studies program at K-State, will be going with the group to serve as the tour guide and translator.