A summer music program can help students improve technique, but the Empire Tour 2027 offers something broader. It gives young musicians a chance to rehearse, perform, travel, reflect, and experience culture in real settings that make music feel more connected to the world around them.
For parents, that difference matters. American Music Abroad has spent 50 years creating performance-based travel experiences, with about 43,000 students and adults having traveled through its programs. The Empire Tour 2027 continues that tradition with a student-centered journey through Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Austria from July 8 to July 23.
Performance With a Clear Purpose
The tour begins with rehearsals, orientation, and a farewell concert before students fly to Europe. This preparation helps individual musicians become a unified ensemble before they perform abroad.
Once the journey begins, performance remains central. Students experience Nuremberg, including the Imperial Castle, Old Town, and a concert at Serenadenhof Nürnberg. Prague adds another major performance setting, along with the Old City, Prague Castle, the Estates Theatre, and a Vltava River dinner cruise.
These are the kinds of moments that make student performance tours with international concerts different from ordinary summer enrichment. Students are not only practicing music. They are learning how to perform with poise in unfamiliar settings and share their work with new audiences.
USC’s page, “USC researchers find music education benefits youth wellbeing,” notes connections between music education, confidence, creativity, emotional stability, and student performance. On the Empire Tour, those qualities are strengthened through rehearsals, public concerts, and group responsibility.
Culture That Students Can Actually Experience
The Empire Tour 2027 also gives students hands-on cultural learning. UNESCO’s page, “What you need to know about culture and arts education,” explains how culture and arts education connects learners with heritage, creative expression, and cultural understanding. That idea fits the Empire Tour because students encounter history, architecture, music, craft, and local traditions in the places where they live.
Bratislava brings city exploration, Bratislava Castle, and another international concert. A Danube River cruise to Vienna adds a scenic cross-border experience. Austria then gives students Melk Abbey, Linz, Salzburg’s Mirabell Gardens, the Hallein Salt Mines, Rattenberg glassblowing, and a glacier gondola trip.
For families comparing music travel opportunities for high school musicians, this mix of music and culture creates a richer kind of learning than a classroom-only program can offer.
Reflection, Maturity, and the Three Cs
American Music Abroad’s Three Cs, Cathedrals, Concentration Camps, and Castles, help give its student programs emotional and educational depth. The Empire Tour includes reflective visits to Flossenbürg and Mauthausen. The official “History, Flossenbürg” page documents the forced labor and suffering connected to the site, while “The Mauthausen Memorial” describes the memorial as a place of memory and remembrance.
These visits ask students to slow down, listen, and think seriously about history. That reflection is part of what makes the tour more than a student music tour. It builds maturity alongside performance growth.
A More Complete Summer Experience
Westendorf closes the journey with Alpine culture, Hotel Mesnerwirt, an Alpenrosensaal concert, and a Tyrolean folkloric evening. By then, students have rehearsed, performed, traveled, explored, and grown alongside peers.
For students seeking something deeper than a typical summer program, the Empire Tour offers performance excellence, cultural enrichment, and personal growth in one carefully structured experience.
Explore a Summer Built Around Music and Meaning
Families interested in the Empire Tour 2027 can contact American Music Abroad to learn how this program supports confident, curious young musicians through performance-based travel.