When UMKC Conservatory students prepare for classes, they have an unusual item on their to-do list: get a passport. Thanks to faculty and community connections, some students get the opportunity to study and perform abroad at little- to no- cost. 

 Six students had such an opportunity just last summer. Two students, Levi Birks and Andrew Voggesser, went to Metz, France to study at the Conservatoire Gabriel Pierné. Four other students – Jonathan Novelli, Peter Grebenyuk, Tyson Leuthauser and Matt Robertson – spent a week in Bern, Switzerland performing at an international jazz festival. These once-in-a-lifetime trips led to valuable experiences and connections.

New Connections in Metz

“This experience opened my eyes to how big the world is and how amazing it can be to connect with people through music,” Voggesser said.

Voggesser is pursuing a Master of Arts in music. As a graduate student, he works closely with Marcus Lewis, assistant professor of jazz at the Conservatory, who organized the trip to Metz, France. When Lewis asked him if he wanted to go, it was an easy decision.

“I had never been out of the country,” Voggesser said. “To go to France and play music was incredible. It really impacted me. I want to make travel a priority in my life and hopefully travel as a musician. It gave me a lot of motivation to keep finding new experiences.”

Voggesser, Lewis and Birks spent 12 days in Metz, studying at the Conservatoire Gabriel Pierné and spending time with their faculty and students. The students lived with host families, immersing themselves in French culture, language and customs. For Birks and Voggesser, this was a highlight of the trip.

“Staying with a host family and being planted in their life was eye-opening,” Birks said. “I ate dinner with them every night and they had several family parties while I was there. I learned a lot about the social aspects of French culture, especially the importance of food and leisure time. It really opened my eyes up to a different perspective on living life, and I feel like I brought some of that back home with me."

“I’m still in contact with my host family,” Voggesser added. “Some of them didn’t speak much English and I don’t speak French, but we all learned a little bit from each other. I hope to go back and visit them.”

Lewis said that the trip was a musical exchange as much as a cultural one. In addition to differences in culture, they experienced differences in music education and jazz. Lewis gave master classes to their students, and Voggesser and Birks attended master classes given by French musicians and professors. The students performed at the Marly Jazz Festival and received free tickets to watch the rest of the festival – an education you can’t get in a classroom.

“Music is a universal language,” Lewis said. “Exchanges and experiences like this are important because it teaches students what we can’t in classroom. It teaches them how to navigate in the world and interact with people from other cultures. Music brings us together and helps us better understand each other.”

At the culmination of their trip, they performed with their French counterparts in a concert for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, who was in Metz to officially declare Kansas City and Metz as sister cities. Kansas City and Metz are both UNESCO-designated Creative Cities of Music, with music being a long part of their histories and strategic part of their futures. Kansas City is the only Creative City of Music in the United States.

UNESCO provided funding for Birks, Voggesser and Lewis to go to Metz, which made Birks’ and Voggesser’s first international trip nearly free. They both emphasized how unique this experience was and how grateful they were to travel abroad while still students.

“The fact that everything was paid for made it a no-brainer, especially for being my first time out of the country,” Birks said. “I’ve never even been to the east or west coast; I’ve pretty much been in the Midwest my entire life. So, to get that opportunity to go overseas, especially for basically free, was kind of crazy.”

Professional Experience in Bern

Jonathan Novelli, Peter Grebenyuk, Tyson Leuthauser and Matt Robertson also got a nearly-free trip Summer 2025. The four Conservatory jazz students spent more than a week in Bern, Switzerland, performing at the International Jazz Festival Bern. Carl Allen, William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri Endowed Professor of Jazz Studies at the Conservatory, has a long history with the festival, and organizers reached out to him to ask for performers. The festival paid for the majority of the students’ expenses, allowing them to get valuable experience at minimal cost.

Lewis, who has worked globally as a touring musician, said that this trip wasn’t just about performing.

“We want our students to experience what it’s like to perform as a professional, even while they’re still in college,” Lewis said. "Playing with a group you haven’t played with before, having limited time to rehearse, coming up with a different set every night and managing travel and time are all experiences that are valuable for working musicians to have. Money can’t buy that knowledge.”

Although Novelli, Grebenyuk, Leuthauser and Robertson all knew each other individually, they had never performed together as a quartet. Working from a list of songs they all knew, each musician brought suggestions to form their sets.

"The first day we were a little jetlagged and were still learning to play together as a group,” Grebenyuk said. “By the end of the week, we definitely felt more comfortable playing together and just knew each other so much better. We hadn't just played together for a week at that point, we'd also been hanging out and exploring the city together."

The quartet played three times a day for five days and had the opportunity to listen to other artists between their sets. With the festival in the evening, the students had the rest of the day free to explore Bern.

“It felt like a glorified vacation, just hanging out and exploring the city with my friends,” Novelli said. “We would get up and eat breakfast together then go explore town for like seven hours. We got to play music together every evening, and we might hang out after our last set and listen to the other performances. None of it felt like work. I learned a lot though. I stayed after our sets every night to watch the other performances, and I learned a lot from the professional musicians just by watching them.

In addition to exploring the city and culture of Bern, another experience left an impact on them: European music culture. Both Grebenyuk and Novelli said that the atmosphere of the festival left an impression.

“It felt like there was much more of a social scene around music here, and I've heard it's the same throughout much of Europe,” Grebenyuk said. “There's more of a culture of going out and experiencing things. Every night we played, the venue was mostly full, which was amazing."

Novelli noticed that the culture of walking and public transportation made an impact as well.

“Performances are free to attend, so some people just stumbled upon the festival when they walked by the venue,” Novelli said. “And even if they found us by accident, they would stay for hours and hang out. It was eye-opening, just the difference that the infrastructure and density of the city made.”

Whether they went to France or Switzerland, every student agreed on one thing: these trips are the opportunity of a lifetime, both personally and professionally. Performing and making international connections, all while still in school, gave them valuable experience and lessons that they’ll take into their future careers – wherever those careers take them.