A silent auction Sunday, Feb. 24, will help pay the freight for Wartburg College’s Wind Ensemble, which will tour Japan and China this spring.

Baggage “overage” fees for instruments larger than a trumpet are weighing down the 60-member Wind Ensemble as it prepares for a week in China and two-and-a-half weeks in Japan, April 28-May 20.

“We’ve made very aggressive arrangements to rent and borrow equipment there when possible, such as tubas and timpani, but we still have to actually take all of those other larger instruments,” said Dr. Craig Hancock, director of Wartburg bands.

The silent auction will be in the Wartburg Chapel from 2 to 4 p.m. KWWL meteorologist Jeff Kennedy, whose daughter is a Wind Ensemble trombonist, will emcee. Small instrumental groups will perform.

Some of the auction items will be research into five generations of a family’s genealogical history, a private plane ride, a samurai sword, a desk lamp made from an antique clarinet, organic honey, jewelry, quilts and themed baskets.

The Wind Ensemble, Wartburg Choir and the Castle Singers jazz ensemble annually rotate international trips as part of the “Tour with the Arts” course during the college’s May Term.

“While we’ll be playing many concerts, often in tandem with a Chinese university or Japanese high school band,” Hancock said, “the real reason for the trip is to meet and experience the people, places and things of these two fantastic cultures.”

The Wind Ensemble will perform the repertoire for its Asian concerts Sunday, April 7, 2 p.m., in Neumann Auditorium.