Niwot High Music Department 2024 World Tour

Last year, several students from the choir and orchestra departments at Niwot High School were given separate opportunities to travel during the spring and summer of the 2022-2023 school year. Orchestra members took a trip to Europe and the Baltics, while choir members took their traditional trip traveling to New York City to perform on Broadway and see some Broadway musicals.

This year, the music department world tour continues for students at NHS. Keynes Chen, the orchestra director at Niwot, is taking a group of twelve students from his relatively new ensemble of mariachi musicians to Europe from March 14 to March 21. There, they will have the opportunity to perform at a few locations and do some sight-seeing. Destinations include Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague.

The Symphonic Band at Niwot is also traveling during spring break, leaving on March 16 and returning on March 20. Forty two students and 8 chaperones will explore Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, perform onstage at Disney Springs, and participate in a backstage recording studio.

When the Niwot Band has taken trips to the Disney Parks in the past - the band has been to Disneyland in California in 2013 and 2016 - one of the highlights has been a backstage recording studio session called the "Soundtrack Session" where students work with a professional clinician and soundstage technician to sight-read famous Disney songs and put them alongside the scenes from the actual movies. Wade Hendricks, Director of Bands at NHS, hopes that by giving students "a taste of being real-life recording artists... [students will gain] an appreciation that participation in music can take you places," as well as "an understanding of how professional recording musicians are expected to perform."

Students and directors have been spending some class time as well as weekly after-school rehearsals in preparation for their respective trips.

In addition to rehearsing after school, the Mariachi Ensemble has also been performing regularly at local restaurants. Their set list includes: "Adios Amor," "Los Laureles," "Probablemente," "Estos Celos," and "La Llorona." Since the Mariachi Ensemble's inception, they have performed as a part of the orchestra concerts at NHS, however they will have their own, separate concert on Monday, March 11 in the NHS auditorium.

The Symphonic Band has spent its time working on practicing sight-reading for the "Soundstage Session" as well as rehearsing the songs "Marching Down Broadway" (a medley of songs featuring "Hey, Look Me Over" from the 1960 Broadway musical Wildcat, "Consider Yourself" from Oliver, and "76 Trombones" from The Music Man), "Mancini Magic" (a medley of songs including "Charade," "Baby Elephant Walk," "Moon River," "Pink Panther Theme", and the theme from "Peter Gunn"), "Solamente Una Vez" (used in the 1944 animated Disney film The Three Caballeros), and "Pixar Movie Magic" (which is comprised of songs from The Incredibles, Up, Ratatouille, Cars, Monsters Inc., and Toy Story). Some of these songs will be featured at the March 7 "Almost Spring" band concert at Niwot High School.

Both directors hope that students come away from these trips with a greater appreciation of participation in music groups as well as forming closer connections and bonds with their music families.