Touring Spain with the WWU Symphony Orchestra!

Hi, my name is Mikko Laulainen and I am a first-year student at Western Washington University. I am a music education major and while my life is mostly music, I also triple jump for the WWU Track team, play games, and solve puzzles (mostly rubiks cubes).

Going into second quarter, there was an extra spot in the Wind Symphony, which I auditioned and was chosen for. Playing with such a high level group in my first year has been an amazing learning experience and also a huge inspiration.

Now halfway through the year, I have been offered the chance to join the Symphony Orchestra on their Spain tour for 3 performances as part of Spain's American Celebration of Music. The tour consists of traveling and performing in 3 cities, Granada, Valencia, and Barcelona.

This is a "once in a lifetime" opportunity as my trombone professor said, but it comes at a steep price. The cost of $3,000 (the total trip cost covering transportation, housing, food, additional fees) is an unexpected expense and has been my main deciding factor for this trip. However, I am committing and I want to do everything I can to make this work. That said, any and every share or donation, no matter the amount, will be greatly appreciated by not only me, but my family as well.

Thank you for your time, and thank you to Western, my directors, teachers, coaches, and mentors from Lake Washington High School and Rose Hill Middle School, my friends and my family for helping me get to a place where I have the privilege to recieve opportunities such as this!