Young Ambassadors to perform in Salt Lake City

By Derek Gurr

The Young Ambassadors will sing and dance their way onto the stage of the LDS Conference Center Theater tonight in Salt Lake City.

They begin a two-week run of their colorful show, “The New Music Makers.” The group will continue to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a fun and diverse show, featuring hits from the Four Seasons, Carole King, Diamond Rio, Frankie Valli and Stevie Wonder, among others.

“We love sharing this show with audiences because we know that it has something in it for everyone,” said Todd Schwartzman, president of the Young Ambassadors. “It ranges from Michael Buble to Les Mis to hip-hop.”

This year’s cast brings a unique energy to the show which has been performed in China, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, as well as national locations such as Arizona and Idaho. Although the Conference Center may not be the most exotic location the group has visited, the near-home location does not deter from the performers’ excitement.

“Every night I’m excited to do this show,” Schwartzman said. “It’s just as though it’s the first time I was doing it.”

Aside from the personal impact the music has on each performer and director, the group also makes an impact on audiences Schwartzman said could only be realized through their music.

“The Young Ambassadors share a message of happiness, hope and gospel joy through music to hundreds of thousands of people,” Schwartzman said. “Through sharing their testimonies on stage, they’ve been able to lift others up and make the world a better place.”

Music director Ron Simpson said he agrees.

“We travel and tour as representatives of BYU, the Church, and of America,” Simpson said. “The basic message of Young Ambassadors is friendship. We try to represent those three constituencies as true ambassadors.”

The current group has been preparing “The New Music Makers” since the beginning of the school year in Fall 2009. Performers began rehearsing from 15 to 20 hours per week.

Brad Robins, next year’s president of the Young Ambassadors, said the preparation was worth it.

“Once the music is inside of you, it’s just a matter of drilling those dance steps . . . until all of a sudden you’re not on stage dancing, you’re on stage communicating and sharing a story,” he said.

Artistic director Randall Boothe has watched the group evolve for 40 years, ever since he performed with them on their first tour to Osaka in 1970. At that time, he was a member of the group, “Sounds of Freedom.”

“Janie Thomson, who was the founding director of Young Ambassadors, wanted a bigger group of students to perform on this [enormous] stage at the World’s Fair,” Boothe said. “We combined the ‘Sounds of Freedom’ and the Young Ambassadors together and they performed as a big, giant Young Ambassadors group.”

Boothe later worked as an adviser for the group, starting with them in 1976. Since becoming artistic director in 1978, he has led the group to more than 68 countries and performed thousands of concerts for audiences that have included many world dignitaries.

“I’ve gone from being a Young Ambassador to a rather old ambassador,” Boothe said.

This article was published on April 30, 2010 by the Daily Universe, BYU’s student newspaper sponsored by the BYU Department of Communications.