The music department is hosting a trip to Nashville for all students who are enrolled in music programs. The trip will take place from March 20 to 24, during spring break.

“It’s kind of a morale thing, it’s an opportunity to take students somewhere that isn’t normal for people from Berlin, necessarily,” band director Ben Ruetten said. “Just to go somewhere new, and experience things that it has to offer we can’t give here.”

The music department had its last fundraiser on Jan. 15. Students were also required to lock in room assignments on Jan. 13.

“We offer it to all music students. Ultimately it’s their choice, because obviously there are things like cost that go into it, but we offer it to 9-12 students that are involved in the music program here,” Ruetten said.

The purpose of the trip is to educate students on music and see new places as well as give them opportunities they normally wouldn’t have access to.

“I think it just opens up different things to learn, new things, new ideas,” sophomore band Josephine Broderick said.

Students see the trip as an opportunity to lighten up and learn.

“I’m sure there’s music history stuff there, and we get time to relax after a busy year,” freshman Austin Kujawa said. 

The main goal is to give students an opportunity to travel and see new places, as well as try new things.

“It’s about experience, and while we have a lot of students who are able to travel and see new things more often, the honest truth is that this is the only time some of the students here get to travel outside even Wisconsin. My perspective is that one of the best ways to learn is to push outside your comfort zone and experience other places than what your natural living space is,” Ruetten said. “So even though it’s relatively close, it’s still a much larger community, and is in a different state, in a very different region, and there’s a lot of stuff in Nashville that we don’t have here, so experiencing new things is a key point to that.”