Clyde High School band, choir visit Disney World

By MICHAEL CARTER
Gazette Cor­re­spon­dent

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Clyde Flier March­ing Band recently enjoyed a trip of a life­time when they were invited to per­form at both Walt Disney’s Magic King­dom and at Epcot Cen­ter dur­ing the recent Christ­mas break, includ­ing march­ing in The Main Street USA parade: “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christ­mas Parade,” above. In addi­tion, the Clyde High School Choir was asked to join the trip with the band, per­form­ing at both attrac­tions. (Con­tributed photo)

CLYDE — The Clyde High School band and choir mem­bers wrapped up 2011 by embark­ing on a trip of a lifetime.

“Every four years we take a class trip to Dis­ney in Florida,” said CHS Band Direc­tor Craig McKenzie.

“We go every four years, that way every mem­ber who par­tic­i­pates in band has an oppor­tu­nity to go,” he said. This year the band and choir com­bined to take over 120 stu­dents to the world famous Amuse­ment Park.

“This trip is totally funded by our mem­bers,” McKen­zie said. “Each stu­dent has to raise their own money. We are not funded by the school at all.”

The band per­formed at the Magic King­dom on Dec. 28, then again the fol­low­ing day at Epcot Cen­ter, while the choir per­formed at both facil­i­ties on Dec. 29.

The plan­ning for the trip started almost two years ago in early 2010. The band and choir com­bined to hold sev­eral fundrais­ers which helped raise money for the mem­bers who participated.

The stu­dents boarded char­ter motor­coaches around 9 a.m. Mon­day, Dec. 26, for the 23-hour trip to Florida. They arrived at Dis­ney Hol­ly­wood Stu­dios around 9 a.m. the fol­low­ing day.

That evening they enjoyed a fan­tas­tic night time spec­tac­u­lar of Fan­tas­mic before finally check­ing into their rooms around 7 p.m. that evening.

The trip was not all fun and games, how­ever. The band took part in The Main Street USA parade: “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christ­mas Parade,” at Disney’s Magic King­dom while the choir par­tic­i­pated in two per­for­mances at Epcot Center.

“Our choir joined sev­eral other choirs from around the coun­try to give two per­for­mances,” said CHS Choral Direc­tor Lind­sey Sharrer.

“There were over 700 stu­dents in those per­for­mances,” she said. “We nor­mally learn three to four num­bers for a con­cert, but for this one we learned 12.”

Both the band and the choir also took part in work­shops directed at devel­op­ing their music skills.

“Our work­shop was focused on sight-reading music,” said McKen­zie. “This work­shop really helped the stu­dents gain a valu­able skill,” he added.

“My kids were able to work with Dis­ney sound crews and do voice-overs,” added Shar­rer. “We pro­vided sound effects for a film­ing of the Lion King.”

“I had never been out of the State of Ohio,” Co-Band Pres­i­dent Ryan Sher­man said. “It was an expe­ri­ence of a lifetime.

“While at Epcot I expe­ri­enced sev­eral dif­fer­ent cul­tures and got the chance to lis­ten to many dif­fer­ent lan­guages,” he added.

Co-Band and Choir Pres­i­dent Madi­son Aldrich also said she greatly enjoyed her time on the trip. “We got to see and meet sev­eral of the Dis­ney char­ac­ters,” she said. “I even got to per­son­ally meet Princess Ariel.”

Dance groups, choirs, ensem­bles and march­ing bands from around the world apply to per­form each year as part of Dis­ney Per­form­ing Arts at both the Dis­ney­land and the Walt Dis­ney World Resorts. Once selected, they are given the oppor­tu­nity to per­form at the resort for an inter­na­tional audi­ence of theme park guests. Mil­lions of per­form­ers have graced the stages of the Dis­ney Parks in the more than 25 year his­tory of the program.

Dis­ney Per­form­ing Arts Work­shops, avail­able at Dis­ney­land Resort and Walt Dis­ney World Resort, are an excit­ing way to sharpen per­for­mance skills by expos­ing groups to dif­fer­ent teach­ing styles, inter­pre­ta­tions, and instruc­tional tech­niques, taught by Dis­ney pro­fes­sion­als. Fes­ti­val Dis­ney, at the Walt Dis­ney World Resort, is an exhil­a­rat­ing Disney-produced music fes­ti­val where mid­dle, junior, and senior high school choirs, bands, orches­tras, and aux­il­iary ensem­bles com­pete for top awards on select week­ends from March through May. The Dis­ney Hon­ors, at the Walt Dis­ney World Resort, is a pin­na­cle event estab­lished to show­case, edu­cate and cel­e­brate the nation’s fore­most high school instru­men­tal and choral ensem­bles in March. Dis­ney Jazz Cel­e­bra­tion, at the Dis­ney­land Resort in Feb­ru­ary, show­cases the top high school jazz vocal and instru­men­tal ensem­bles in the nation.

Dis­ney Per­form­ing Arts offers band, choral, dance and aux­il­iary per­form­ers the oppor­tu­nity to learn, per­form and com­pete at Dis­ney theme parks. For more infor­ma­tion, visit www.Disney PerformingArts.com or call 1–800-603‑0552.

Posted by Brad Frank on Jan 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.