Pursuing Music Performance and Chinese Studies in Freiburg

Daniel Kroth studied music, German, and European Studies at Michigan State University. Daniel grew up in Okemos, MI and was recruited by the track team at MSU and began studies in music for double bass performance. During his time in the 2018-19 year in Freiburg, Daniel participated in the Akademisches Orchester Freiburg as well as the AYF Quintett.

By Timothy Brewer (AYF 18-19)

Arrival Day September 2018 saw the biggest piece of “luggage” in the history of AYF!

Being a bit late to the game, Daniel Kroth made the somewhat last-minute decision to participate in the AYF program during the 2018-19 academic year. “Professors Lynn Wolff and Elizabeth Mittman put me up to it! I was hesitant to go abroad because of my commitment to the track team, but I really wanted to study in Germany.” To Daniel, the AYF Program seemed to offer the freedom (and time) to move somewhere and “really make a life for yourself,” and as an older student with few graduation requirements remaining, Daniel was attracted to the opportunity to experiment in the classroom and try new things.

Because Daniel is also a music performance student, this meant that he was going to try and bring his double bass with him all the way to Freiburg. “I knew I would want to practice and maybe take some auditions. The German and American bass communities are pretty well connected, so I was thinking of taking lessons with one of my professor’s former classmates,” Daniel described. Moving his bass was an intense process, to say the least. The travel case he used weighed 79 kilograms on the way over, which he carried along with a hiking backpack and a full suitcase. “There was an old flight case in the bass storage room at MSU, and no one knew who owns it. My professor allowed me to fix it up and use it for the year! I found airlines with good musical instrument policies, and decided to fly the bass over,” Daniel explained.

Daniel ended up having more success with auditions than he anticipated. “I played in an orchestra and a quintet and took a few gigs. I ended up playing in ensembles a lot more than I expected,” Daniel said. He played regularly with the Akademisches Orchester Freiburg and the AYF Quintett, with which he had several concerts in Freiburg and Tübingen including intense orchestral works such as Symphony No. 8 by Dmitri Shostakovich and Symphony No. 4 by Anton Bruckner. Daniel also described the difference he experienced working with an orchestra in Germany in comparison to an orchestra in the United States, “Everyone hugs their stand partner after the concert… that was a surprise. Musically speaking, the musicians seemed more risk tolerant in performances and were willing to jump into last minute changes with both feet. I definitely grew as a musician, and I had a lot of fun.”

Besides practicing and performing with orchestras and ensembles, Daniel was involved with courses on Chinese politics and with the Institut für Sinologie. “I mostly took classes on Chinese politics and history,” Daniel explained, “I also worked on my MSU German Capstone project and wrote a brief piece for a China Studies journal.” Daniel also returned to Freiburg in September and October for a conference and a community event: “I’m logistically assisting a Freiburg professor in putting on a conference for ASIEN, a German language Asia Studies journal, and will be writing a report for that journal. And I’ve organized a community discussion event, which brought together a mixed student/expert panel to discuss EU/US/China relations on October 7th,” Daniel mentioned. Besides having organized these events in Freiburg, Daniel is currently back in East Lansing at MSU taking a few classes and working as a student assistant on a grant project in the German department. Outside of school he is applying to graduate schools, studying for the GRE, and assistant coaching cross country at Okemos High School.

Daniel shared his story via the AYF Alumni Profiles Project page and interviews with Tim Brewer. We welcome your contribution to our communal story telling!