Every year, Sandburg’s band program heads to a new city to broaden their musical horizons. Last year, they went to London, and in years prior, they have been to Los Angeles, Nashville, and other famous cities to perform and explore.
This year, they are going to New York during Spring break and are headed alongside the two other music programs: choir and orchestra. It has been 20 years since all three programs traveled together. So, what can the Sandburg community expect from this trip?
New York is a city well-known for its artistry. Many NYC art icons, like Broadway or the Metropolitan Museum of Art, are just a few of the famous places you can see in New York. Luckily, Bob Rogers Travels allows the students venture to these places and more, like the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and St. Paul’s Cathedral. The kids will be able to spend their days filled with sightseeing and performing in New York City.
Notably, these student have the opportunity of a lifetime to perform in front of people and with Hamilton. Hamilton is a Broadway musical that debuted in 2016, and it has gained millions of listens on Spotify, and people from all around the want to see this show. The show revolves around the life of Alexander Hamilton, and many of their songs are very impressive when it comes to music production.
The same goes for Hadestown, which debuted in 2019, in which audiences get to see and hear the story of Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek Mythology. Hamilton and Hadestown are fan favorite musicals across all 3 music programs.
Not only are the kids going to see Hamilton and Hadestown on Broadway, but they are going to play with the Hamilton conductor with their own pieces and sight-read music from Hamilton.
This is going to be very different from the last time Sandburg went to New York, because, as Mr. Bailey explains, “the last time we went was just band. So it’s great to have the choir and orchestra back with us. We also did not perform in St. Paul’s Cathedral, which I’m looking forward to. We did not get to do a clinic with the Hamilton people, so that’s going to be cool.”
These are just some of the performances that the students will engage in as they visit New York City. The performance of St. Paul’s Cathedral will be open to the public, so people can come and go as they please. Sometimes, Sandburg gets a large audience; in London, the marching band paraded the streets, and in San Francisco, they played at Golden Gate Park to park visitors and passersby.
The students are very enthusiastic about going on this trip. Niko Diaz, a senior in band and wind symphony orchestra, and a composer, stated, “While I love traveling with my family, I love traveling with my friends from the music department because we get to bond through our mutual knowledge and love for music, and they can relate to me a bit more in that aspect,” Diaz explains.
The bond over music can help students grow together. This New York trip is a learning experience, and many students are excited to participate in events like playing music on Broadway or the flight deck of the Intrepid.
Diaz wants to “learn a little bit more about how it is to be a professional pit musician and pit director, since the level of talent and skill that the pit musicians and directors in New York are at is incredibly fascinating.”
Fascination is what drives someone’s passion, and you might not find it until you try it. Mr. Bailey puts it best when he said, “To experience it with your friends and kind of as a collective group, you realize you’re part of something bigger than yourself… [that,] I think, is really unique.”
These types of trips make students feel that they are someone and that they really could be an aspiring musician or performer in the near future. It looks like nothing is impossible when you’re in the Big Apple.