Many of Bernards High School’s most musically talented students arrived in Orlando, Florida on Thursday January 28th. The trip culminated at Universal Studios and Universal’s Islands of Adventure, where concert band, jazz ensemble, and orchestra performed on the waterside stage at Disney.
On Saturday January 30th, marching band performed in the “Festival of Fantasy” parade at Magic Kingdom.
Seniors Abby Ferrara and Reisha Chellani, both drum majors, lead the marching band during the parade.
Abby Ferrara said, “The performance in the parade included the first movement of our baseball-themed show we performed titled Bases Loaded.”
Ferrara continued by saying, “The second part of our performance was from the battery, which featured Amar Bindra on snare, Dan Mayer on quads, Thomas Reilly, Pedro Safi, and Conner Morris on bass drums, and Emily Kim and Alan Luo on cymbals”.
As marching band performed in the parade, those not in marching band supported their fellow musicians on main street along with 50,000 spectators.
One of the many spectators was Doctor Ferrara, a physics teacher at BHS, who has been chaperoning the musical trips for eight years. Doc said, “The best part is when people come up to us after the performances and want to know where we are from and they always comment on how amazing they sounded. They are often truly shocked to find out they are high school musicians. Many places in the country do not have such high quality programs. We are very fortunate at BHS to have such a great music program.”
Bernards High School’s own band had to audition in order to perform at Walt Disney World. The audition was comprised of performance recordings and videos, which were sent to the Disney selection committee; four ensembles were chosen to represent BHS at Walt Disney World. According to Mr. Trumpy, “The competition part of the process is actually being selected by Disney to perform at the parks”.
Rebecca Claffey, a four year concert band member, said, “We spent a month preparing only for the trip in addition to all the time we spent preparing for the winter concert. And thanks to Mr. Trumpy and his amazing direction, we sounded great at Disney!”
On Sunday January 31st, BHS orchestra, Jazz ensemble, and Concert band performed at Disney Springs, starting around 11 am. The concert band performed Blue Ridge Saga, Pixar Movie Magic, Seal Lullaby, The Great Locomotive Chase, and selections from Mary Poppins. The Jazz Ensemble performed Peg, Cool School Dropout, Grease Wheezer, Footprints, and Tiger of San Pedro.
After their performances, BHS orchestra, jazz ensemble, concert and marching band headed to Epcot. Rebecca Claffey, a senior, said, “ visiting Epcot and having a private dessert party only for the band, and having a great spot to view the illuminations fireworks show” was her favorite part about the trip.
