On Wednesday, March 22, 38 band and choir students left school for their five-day trip to New York City. Students got to experience many famous New York attractions such as going to a Broadway show, visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), and seeing attractions such as the Statue of Liberty.

Funny Girl on Broadway

For many students, their favorite part of the trip was getting to see a show on Broadway. Students saw the play Funny Girl and even got the chance to work with actors from the show.

“My favorite part was going to the Broadway show because we got to hear a live pit band which was really cool. A lot of us have had experience in pit band before,” said band student Abby Wallis ‘25.

Students directly engaged with members of the cast and got to learn more about the music, singing, and acting within the production.

“We got to ask questions to the Broadway cast member we worked with from Funny Girl,” said Finn Mac Sean ‘25. “Later in the day, we went to the Broadway Museum, which takes you through exhibits throughout Broadway’s history. At the end of the day, we got to go see Funny Girl.”

Band Workshops

On Thursday, band students participated in a private workshop with Dave Pietro, a professor at NYU.

“Working with Dave Pietro was probably the coolest thing because he gave us a lot of… pieces of wisdom that we could utilize in our playing,” said Sonja Colford ‘23.

Choir Workshops

On Thursday, choir students attended a similar workshop where they got to work directly with a member of the Funny Girl cast.

“I liked the Broadway workshop that we did,” said Molly Peters ‘23. “We got taught a couple of bars of a song and we also got taught a little bit of choreography, but we’re definitely not dancers.”

The NY Pops

On Friday night, students went to Carnegie Hall to see the New York Pops perform.

“I thought the Pops performance was really good,” said Miranda Bergeron ‘25.

“The night before our performance, we saw the NY Pops with Marilyn Maye singing,” said Peters. “She’s 95 and still sparkling.”

Elevator Drama

The elevators in the hotel made a lot of noise, which scared some of the band kids.

“Once upon a time, twenty kids were shoved in an elevator and one of them accidentally pressed the elevator button,” said Wallis. “Then it started making noises and two people started recording to send a video to their parents saying that they loved them.”

When band teacher Chazz Rogers heard her story, he said “That’s just the most morbidly sweet thing ever. You saw your life flash before your eyes and you were like ‘I’ve gotta tell my mom that I love her.’”

Overall, students felt that they learned tools that they can apply to their music while having a lot of fun along the way.