young ambassadors

During Summer 2024, Students from the School of Music and Department of Dance Worked Together to Produce a Music Video Covering the CAIN Song, “I’m So Blessed,” Performed by the Young Ambassadors and Rhythm N’ Soul Collective

2024 Marks 45 Years since BYU’s Young Ambassadors First Toured China and Showcases How the Arts Have Been A Key Part of our Relationship From the Beginning

Students From the College of Fine Arts and Communications (CFAC) Travel Nationally and Internationally to Gain Real-World Experience and Share Their Talents While Studying Abroad, Competing, Interning & Performing

After Being Selected to Participate in an Exclusive Theatre Workshop, Johnathan Tanner Learned What It Takes to Make it on Broadway

Join the Young Ambassadors For an Evening of Musical Hits

BYU Dance Professor Shares Guidance In Lecture “Vulnerability: The Companion of Faith”

After 55 Years in the de Jong Concert Hall, BYU Department of Dance’s World of Dance To Be Performed in Marriott Center and Off-Campus

BYU’s First Dance Performance of the School Year Will Also Be a Farewell to the de Jong

Attributing a variety of classic artists, BYU Young Ambassadors share their talents along with music sung by many of the “greats”

After Randy Boothe dedicated decades to the Young Ambassadors, he is now passing on the leadership to Nathan Balser

Hit-making Nashville-based singer-songwriter Ben Rector will be the featured talent for BYU Spectacular! 2019, along with prolific LDS-Christian crossover artist Hilary Weeks. The headliners will also be joined by Vocal Point, Men’s Chorus, Young Ambassadors, Ballroom Dance Company, Cougarettes, International Folk Dance Ensemble and the BYU Dunk Team as part of BYU Homecoming 2019. BYU Spectacular! offers two performances: Thursday, October 17, and Friday, October 18, 2019 at 7:30 pm. Tickets for the general public go on sale July 15th at BYUtickets.com, with advance ticket sales for BYU alumni and students and BYU ArtsPass holders the week prior. Read more at news.byu.edu

McKenna Wright had an unexpected opportunity to speak the language she learned on a volunteer assignment for her church when BYU invited her to perform in China. Brigham Young University invited the Young Ambassadors, a dancing and singing group, to perform as part of the BYU Spectacular tour. Wright, who is a performer in the group, excitedly accepted the invitation. When Wright received her volunteer assignment to Taiwan in 2014, she had no idea that years later she would be going to China and have the opportunity to use the language she spoke while in Taiwan. While living in Taiwan, Wright enjoyed learning about the Taiwanese culture and studying Mandarin Chinese. She shared that it helped her develop a love for the Taiwanese and Chinese cultures, which gave her a desire to integrate them into her life after her volunteer experience was completed. “It was like a springboard where I was like, ‘Of course I want to make Chinese my minor at BYU,’” she said. “I want to learn everything I can and associate myself with people who are from China or Taiwan.” Read the full story at universe.byu.edu.

Forty years ago, a group of Brigham Young University student performers traveled to China and put on a show that made history. This summer, the University is celebrating that anniversary with a return tour that highlights the relationship BYU and China have shared since 1979. Following the aftermath of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, BYU’s initial tour made the Young Ambassadors and Living Legends among the first Western performing arts groups to enter the country. The tour was the idea of then-BYU President Dallin H. Oaks, who had met with President Spencer W. Kimball of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1978. President Kimball spoke highly of China’s high standards and family values and upon returning from the meeting, President Oaks asked BYU officials to begin making plans for a performing arts group to go to China, despite no established U.S.-Chinese diplomatic relations at that time. But the diplomatic relations did happen in early 1979 and the show fell into place. Newly-launched China Central Television asked to broadcast BYU’s live performance and, even after the group had left the country, the channel continued to rebroadcast the performance. In the past 39 years, BYU performing groups have returned to China 28 more times. Read the full story at news.byu.edu.

Brigham Young University’s Young Ambassadors will perform “Heartsongs: Melodies of Love” Thursday through Saturday, March 5-7 in the de Jong Concert Hall, 7:30 p.m. along with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee. Tickets are $12, with discounts available to alumni, seniors and students, and can be purchased in person at the BYU Ticket Office in the Harris Fine Arts Center or Marriott Center, by phone 801.422.2981 or online at byuarts.com. “Heartsongs: Melodies of Love,” highlights some of the world’s all-time favorite love songs in a vibrant musical journey through the rollercoaster of life. With show tunes from award-winning Broadway musicals “Cinderella,” “Singin’ In the Rain” and “Thoroughly Modern Millie” along with international hits by The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Bublé, Adele and Michael Jackson, the performance celebrates life’s unforgettable seasons of love in a spirited 90-minute showcase that is appropriate for family members of all ages. Wearing colorful costumes and filling the stage with a kaleidoscope of dance and musical styles, the Young Ambassadors’ concerts provide a glimpse of their unique vision of international understanding, born of decades of goodwill tours around the world. Dance styles range from tap to the syncopated rhythms of the Caribbean islands, while featuring the next generation of contemporary sounds and choreography. The 2013—2014 season locations for “Heartsongs: Melodies of Love” included performance halls throughout Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. The upcoming touring season includes performances in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Illinois. To commemorate the groups 45 years of world tours, The Young Ambassadors will be joined by group alumni and accompanied by a live ten-piece show band that features some of the university’s finest instrumental performers. These musicians’ animated performances enhance each number so audiences always get what they came for: a night of talent and entertainment in every facet of the performance. Over the past 45 years, the Young Ambassadors have shared their remarkable talent and energy in almost 70 countries. The talented group traveled to Australia in 2008 for a special three-week tour where they performed for the legislators in the Queensland State Parliament in Brisbane. The Young Ambassadors have also performed for heads of state in India, Britain, Jordan, Egypt, Japan and the United States. Since 2000, the Young Ambassadors have been to Brazil, Argentina, the 2002 Winter Olympics, Canada, Russia, Australia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, twice to China, Tasmania, Africa, throughout Scandinavia and all over the United States. The Young Ambassadors represent the School of Music in cooperation with the Department of Dance from the BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications. For more information and to download production photos, visit youngambassadors.byu.edu. Tickets and Show Details Performance Dates: March 5-7, 2015 Times: 7:30 p.m. (with a 2 p.m. Saturday matinee) Location: de Jong Concert Hall, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU Price: $12 (with $4 off for students and $1 off for alumni and seniors) Tickets: Available at the BYU Ticket Office in the Harris Fine Arts Center or Marriott Center, by phone 801.422.2981 or visit byuarts.com. For a limited time, a discount two-for-one promotion code is available at the Young Ambassadors’ event page at BYUarts.com.

Photo by Jocelyn Bowman. The Young Ambassador Singing Entertainer Workshop (YASE) is underway at BYU for two one-week sessions this month. YASE prepares ambitious high school students improve their skills and understanding of music, dance and theatre. YASE is a camp where the teachers are the BYU Young Ambassadors, who take time to help teenagers put together a show after a week of high-energy musical dance training that includes group classes, auditions, rehearsals and performance-enhancement workshops. YASE attendees also enjoy an outdoor barbecue, a fireside given by Young Ambassadors and a final concert on Friday. “I loved being able to step into a high level of professionalism as we embarked on the challenge of putting a show together in less than one week,” said Tanner DeWaal, the current president of Young Ambassadors. DeWaal attended YASE when he was in high school, and attributes much of his happiness in his Music Dance Theatre (MDT) major to the time he spent there. “I am still great friends with a number of people who I originally met at YASE camp,” DeWaal said. “As a person with a passion for performing, there isn’t anything else I would more strongly recommend to a young performing artist than to be a part of this summer camp.” For more information about YASE camp, click here.

The Young Ambassadors started their week off in Siem Reap, Cambodia. This is the first time the Young Ambassadors have ever visited this beautiful country. One of the first things the group was able to do was tour parts of Angkor Wat. Translated, Angkor Wat means 'City of Temples' and is considered to be the largest religious monument in the world. That same night, the group met with 400 LDS church members for a devotional. The capital city of Phnom Penh was next. The group had the humbling experience of visiting the Killing Fields Memorial at Cheoung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Tears were shed as the group toured these locations where many people were tortured and killed during the reign of Khmer Rouge.

It’s 10 p.m. in a bitterly cold New York City. As light and excitement pour out from the windows of a late-night diner, a growing crowd flows into the establishment. Inside, surrounded by dozens of his former BYU students, sits Randy Boothe. It is Boothe’s last night in the city, and he makes it a point to take advantage of every chance to catch up with his graduates.

In 1979 the Young Ambassadors became one of the first American groups to travel to China after diplomatic recognition between the two countries. This spring the Young Ambassadors will return to China for the eighth time. Their three-week tour, from April 27 to May 20, will include cities the group initially visited in 1979–Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong–and also Tianjin, Jinan, Hefei, and Xi’an. The Young Ambassadors received significant media attention during their previous tours, including a 2007 documentary aired by China Central TV explaining the history of the Young Ambassadors in China and the relationships that have since developed. During their first China tour in 1979, the Young Ambassadors gave a private performance for 15 high government officials. The reaction of those officials would determine the extent to which the group would perform while in China. At the end of that show, artistic director of the Young Ambassadors Randy Boothe recalled the Chinese officials announcing, “Tonight the Young Ambassadors will perform in the Red Tower Theatre,” which at the time was the most prestigious theatre in Beijing. Through their joint efforts with the Chinese Performing Arts Agency, the Young Ambassador’s have presented throughout China. During this next tour the Young Ambassadors will join the Beijing Dance Academy, one of the most prestigious dance schools in China, for a performance. They will also return to the Meet in Beijing Arts Festival, which they last attended in 2005. Representatives from BYU and China have developed strong friendships from such regular interaction over the years and look forward to working together again. “Our friends in China have always welcomed us with open arms,” said Boothe. “Returning to China is a dream come true, and we look forward to making new friends as we share our unique brand of family entertainment through the best of America’s music and dance.” The Young Ambassadors certainly bring a style of music unique to American musical theatre and radio. Harmony showcases music from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Hairspray, Dreamgirls, and Carousel, as well as popular songs by Michael Bublé, the Gershwin brothers, and Benny Goodman. The Young Ambassadors are making every effort to communicate clearly with their Chinese audiences. The lyrics will have Mandarin supertitles and the video will have a Chinese voice-over. In addition to their very American-style music, the Young Ambassadors are also preparing an original piece for their Chinese audience titled “Take a Step,” composed by Boothe and Stephen Jones, dean of BYU’s College of Fine Arts and Communications, with choreography by Jiamin Huang, a former student of the Beijing Dance Academy. According to Boothe, “this is a tribute to our friends in China, showing the deep respect we have for them and their commitment to family values.” Set during the Chinese New Year, the piece tells the story of a young couple sharing a message of strength and the importance of family with their infant–then hearing the same message retold by the couple’s ancestors. Chris Udall, a soloist for “Take a Step,” looks forward to sharing the message of family with Chinese audiences. “The entire message of the Young Ambassadors show is about the importance of families,” he said. “I hope the message can touch their hearts and strengthen their family bonds.” The Young Ambassadors have a Pacific Northwest midsemester tour before they cross the ocean in April. From February 22 to March 2, they will perform in Idaho (Nampa), Washington (Richland, Everett, Marysville, Kent, Bremerton, and Olympia), and Oregon (Hillsboro). Watch KSL's feature on Young Ambassadors here. Source: BYU Performing Arts Management