Sound Alliance and Vocal Union bring jazz to nine cities throughout Chile
- posted: 1 May 2007
- scrollsports@byui.edu
They left at 5 a.m. on April 9, and now they’re back. BYU‑Idaho’s premier jazz groups, Sound Alliance and Vocal Union, returned April 25 from their two-and-a-half week tour to Latin America. The group, made up of 17 members from Sound Alliance and 11 members from Vocal Union, toured in nine different cities throughout Chile, giving a total of 14 performances.
Mark Watkins, director of Sound Alliance, believes there were several, specific purposes to this year’s tour. “All were met in a wonderful way,” Watkins said.
The first purpose was missionary work. “It was a good way to introduce the Church to people who probably wouldn’t look into it much,” said Shawn Scrivener, a senior from Rexburg and saxophonist for Sound Alliance.
The BYU‑I students were also conscious of the role they played in Church public relations. Some of Sound Alliance and Vocal Union’s performances were highly publicized, including those in Santiago at an English-speaking school and another for the Mi Casa foundation. “We were the image of the Church in a non-member populace,” Watkins said.
This was the group’s first tour outside of North America. “In Chile there are not a lot of English speakers. We had quite a few students who spoke the language. It makes the students grow because of facing challenges and grow[ing] from conquering them. They learn a lot about the culture; it makes the world smaller, in a good way,” Watkins said.
Scrivener was one of those Spanish-speaking students; he served a mission in Mexico. “I was pretty rusty, but I spoke some Spanish on tour…I was impressed by the reaction from the audience. I was surprised that we got such a good reaction; that they liked jazz so much. I didn’t know they had such a big jazz following in Latin America, but they do,” Scrivener said.
According to Watkins, all of the performances received standing ovations, most wanting encores and additional encores. “There’s not another tour organization that has both a jazz band and jazz choir touring together. It’s a lot of variety and keeps the interest of the audience,” Watkins said. 
