Musically Disney Bound
The week of February 28th is an exciting three-day week for Geneva High School students, but for members of band and orchestra, it’s an exciting week jampacked with Walt Disney World and Universal Studios experiences. Members of the Geneva High School Band and Orchestra program were offered the opportunity to fly down to Orlando during the 2021-2022 school year. Many jumped on this offer almost immediately with a lot of enthusiasm.
“I chose to go on this trip because I missed out on the last one my freshman year, and I regret not going and making memories with my friends,” Senior Band and Color Guard member Heidi Kjellander said. “This is the perfect opportunity to surround myself with the people I love and care about most: the family I’ve made within the band program.”
The trip will last from Sunday, February 27th, to Friday, March 4th. The Orchestra and Wind Ensemble will have a performance in Universal Studios on Tuesday, March 1st, and the Marching Band will have their own performance on Wednesday, March 2nd where they will be marching through the Disney World Park.
“We’ll be marching through Magic Kingdom, which that’s really cool,” Sophomore Orchestra and Color Guard member Liv Schleyer said. “We have a clinic on Monday and performances on Wednesday for Orchestra, which is neat too. I think we [The Orchestra] are performing in Universal.”
Members of the Band and Orchestra chose to go on this trip for many different reasons, but they are all extremely excited to have such a great opportunity to improve their performance skills and share memories with their friends.
“I’m most excited for spending a week with my closest friends in band and learning more about my playing style,” Senior Marching Band member Harper Bartelt said.
The Orlando Trip also presents the students with the opportunity to perform for many different audiences.
“I am really excited to get to perform in front of an unknown audience,” Kjellander said. “Here at the school, we play in front of parents. It’s lovely, but your parents will always enjoy what you play because they’ll always be proud of their kids. Getting to perform in front of people that don’t know us will be a true indicator of our talents as a band.”
Some students even see the trip as a great life experience that will benefit them in many ways outside of the music aspect.
“It [The Orlando Trip] will help in many aspects of my life,” Junior Color Guard member Marcella Monroy said. “Not only in marching band, but it may also help with my people skills; learning how to plan ahead, keeping up with school, being away from my mom and my family for more than three days, and going on a trip without my family.”
Whatever the reason may be, students in the Band and Orchestra programs are ecstatic over the trip coming up at the end of the month; however, each ensemble has a few more weeks of preparation before the trip occurs. They have already been hard at work with preparing their songs, in and outside of the classroom.
“We [The Orchestra] just had the concert and we’ve been reviewing some of the music before now,” Schleyer said. “We have 9 pieces total to get ready, so that’s fun!”
Along with the learning happening before the Orlando Trip, students will also be presented with opportunities during the trip to learn from different successful musicians through various clinics.
“We have a really cool opportunity through Orlando,” Schleyer said. “We’re playing a score for a movie, and they’re going to record it, and they’re going to put it up on the screen. And the last half of it is us learning how to do sound effects. It’s really neat.”
Even the Marching Band’s Color Guard and Twirler sections will have an opportunity to participate in clinics provided through the OrlandoFest program.
Although there is still a lot of preparation needed, the Orlando Trip is acting as a light at the end of the tunnel for many students at Geneva High School. Afterall, it’s hard not to be excited about the memories to be made by marching down Main Street in Disney’s Magic Kingdom, known as the Happiest Place on Earth.
