Disney, Part Two

I finally feel like I've caught up on my sleep after what was an exhausting but very memorable trip to Orlando. After an easy flight (much better than the 9-hour delay fiasco of 2005), we set off on Saturday morning for our day of performances in the park. Here was our set list:


The Sinfonians, a concert march by Clifton Williams
Alligator Alley, a programmatic piece about alligators and hunters by Michael Daugherty
Lyric Music, a melodic solo trumpet feature with several exciting climaxes and wonderful scoring by Robert Starer
Spring Festival, a merging of a traditional Chinese folk song with contemporary western classical techniques by Chen Yi
Rio Con Brio, a lively dance number that uses Brazilian rhythms and instruments by Hugh Stuart


The last work garnered a standing ovation from our hometown crowd. The various percussion accessories included reco-reco (a scraper), pandeiro (a type of tambourine), double samba shaker, tamborim (a very small frame drum), claves, maracas, guiro, and timbales. We also had an apito (tri-tone samba whistle) soloist. Granted, the music wasn't truly authentic, but it gave us a chance to spend time in class listening to and discussing some real samba music from the Carnaval scene in Brazil.

After our performance, we watched the orchestra and choir. Both groups were wonderful, especially the chamber orchestra's choreographed, "strolling strings" version of "Sing, Sing, Sing" complete with gymnastics. That evening we enjoyed the dance company and Choraliers in their performances. All total, we gave five concerts between 10:00 am and 7:00 pm, monopolizing the FutureWorld West Stage in EPCOT.

Saturday night included a trip to Cirque de Soleil to see their death-defying acrobatic feats of weirdness. On Sunday night, after a day in the parks, the orchestra and band combined to form a 100-piece ensemble for a clinic with a Disney musician. He led us through several sight reading exercises, impressing upon us the importance of playing something right the first time. He said that while we may have 40+ rehearsals for one performance, professionals have one rehearsal for several performances--an impressive concept for us all to grasp. The evening ended as we recorded the music to some clips from Tarzan and then watching the video with our performance as the soundtrack. We did pretty well, I might add!

After another day in the parks on Monday, we got to celebrate a successful tour with a dance party at Fantasia Gardens, an outdoor pavilion on a small beach. On Tuesday, we visited the Kennedy Space Center and headed off to the airport for our return flight home. All in all, the trip was a big success, full of great music and memories. Now we can start planning Band Trip 2011!