The West Geauga Marching Band traveled to Orlando, Florida over spring break to participate in a special parade performance at Walt Disney World on March 25. The crowded parade path through the Magic Kingdom included Frontierland, Cinderella’s Castle, and Main Street USA. During their stay, students were afforded free-time to visit several of the Disney parks including Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot. Before returning home, they also made a stop at Universal Studios.
A few behind-the-scenes highlights of the trip included a Dance Studio workshop for the Wolverettes, where they met a professional Disney dance instructor to learn about performance techniques and were taught several dance sequences that were performed to a custom Disney soundtrack. Band students in the brass, woodwind and percussion sections spent time in a Disney Band Recording Studio workshop, learning the fundamentals of sight reading and performance through the lens of a professional studio musician. The WGMB then recorded several Disney songs that were mixed/produced into a video montage aligning with clips from a Disney movie. Music included Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Haunted Mansion, and Moana.
Mr. Branch and Mrs. DeSapri were thrilled to provide the performance opportunities to our students and are grateful toward all of the band students and their families who were involved in making this trip happen, as well as the volunteer chaperones for their hard work during the trip. It was a memorable experience for the West Geauga Marching Band students.