The BYU Young Ambassadors presented the New Music Makers to the Hart Auditorium May 14.
“I see it on KBYU-TV all the time,” said Lane Ward, a Rexburg resident.
The New Music Makers featured music from the 1960s to today. Audience members sang, clapped, danced and even snapped along to show tunes. Familiar radio songs from Michael Bublé and Sara Bareilles were also sung.
“If they could get Kevin Bacon to tour with them I think I would have a heart attack,” said Haeli Johnson, a junior studying communication. She was excited to see the Young Ambassadors perform a song from “Footloose.”
The Young Ambassadors are a troupe of singers, actors, musicians and a small group of technicians.
The group contains 26 singers, 10 musicians and 9 technicians.
The audience included many students and community members, some who had experienced the Young Ambassadors before.
There have been over 1,200 Young Ambassadors since the program was founded. The New Music Makers is a celebration of the program’s 40th anniversary since it started
 A photo slideshow was shown throughout the performance. Pictures of past members and their many travels with the Young Ambassador program were shown.
Alumni from the Young Ambassadors have gone on to perform in Broadway shows such as “Aida,” “Wicked,” “Mamma Mia” and “Footloose.” One member, Sharlene Wells Hawkes,  had won Miss America in 1985.
Janie Thompson founded the program. The Young Ambassadors’ first international performance was at the Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan.
The Ambassadors have traveled across the globe performing in 68 countries over 40 years. Past spectators include the King and Queen of Jordan.
Kay Kindorf, a Rexburg resident, attended Friday night’s performance with her husband, Ken.
 Kindorf “danced the Charleston” with Thompson’s performing group 52 years ago. The group did not have a name at the time   and would perform for wards around the area.
“This was back when BYU only had branches,” Ken Kindorf said.
The show then concluded with their final performance; a hymn that is familiar to the student body and the community, “I Am a Child of God.”
Afterwards the audience gave the Young Ambassadors a standing ovation.
“All the best adjectives could be used [to describe the Young Ambassadors],” said Cleone Jones, a Rexburg resident. “This place[ the John W. Hart] should have been full.”