Niwot High's Music Department world tour

The Music Department at Niwot High School is going on a world tour - sort of. In June, the NHS choir is headed to New York and Carnegie Hall, and the orchestra is going to Finland and the Baltics. The marching band is planning to go to Walt Disney World next year.

For many years, the Music Department at Niwot annually alternated which "sub-department" (choir, band, orchestra) would get to travel during the summer. In the few years preceding the pandemic, it had become common for each sub-department to go more regularly if they had the money from fundraisers.

Laura Walters, the choir director at Niwot High School, has been at the school for seven years and has made four trips to New York with the choir. "We haven't done a trip since before Covid happened, so we are thrilled to be able to travel again," Walters said.

Preparation for this trip required two to three after-school rehearsals a week for the past two months leading up to their departure. "It is expected that we arrive with our music learned for the concert,' Walters said. "

[We] will have a few rehearsals there before performing at Carnegie Hall," she said. "This is the first time we have done this particular trip where we learn a masterwork" to perform while abroad. The forty-five minute masterwork they will be singing is Dan Forrest's "Requiem for the Living" with several other choirs and a professional orchestra.

While in New York, they will also see Broadway musicals "Moulin Rouge" and "Hadestown." Choir members will also visit Central Park, The Statue of Liberty, Rockefeller Center, Ellen's Stardust Diner, the Broadway Museum, and Times Square.

This year, Walters is taking 41 students to New York. They will depart on June 9 and return on June 13.

In addition, twenty-four orchestra students will travel with Keynes Chen, the NHS orchestra director, to the Baltic States and Finland from June 9 to June 20. "This tour was supposed to happen last summer," said Chen, "but due to Covid, it was canceled."

There, the orchestra will see many Lithuanian historic sights and churches such as the Church of St. Anne and St. Bernardine and the Gate of Dawn, and will perform in the city of Vilnius. They will also venture to Riga, Latvia, to see the famous Riga Cathedral, St. John's Church and St. Peter's Church, and the Freedom Monument. The group will even get a tour of the University of Helsinki.

"I think our European audiences are in for a treat," Chen added as he elaborated on the one-hour of "all American repertoire" they will be performing. "Students are sounding really good at the moment" as they have had several regular after-school rehearsals in preparation.

"Our repertoire ranges from Aaron Copland's 'Hoedown'... to Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue'." The choir is also preparing Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

The "World Tour" continues as the NHS "Pride of Niwot" Marching Band is planning a trip to Walt Disney World in Florida for the spring semester of 2024. While that trip is still in the early stages of development, this is not the first time the marching band has taken a trip to Disney. In 2013 and 2016, the marching band enjoyed Disneyland in California but this will be its first time to Florida.

In previous years, the band recorded tracks from famous Disney movies in a professional recording studio backstage and played them over the scenes from the films. In 2016, the band marched down Disneyland's Main Street USA.

For the Spring 2024 trip, Wade Hendricks, band director, hopes to make those magical moments happen again for a new set of students.

All three departments hold various fundraisers throughout the year to supplement the cost of their trips, including cookie dough sales, peach sales, local performances, and restaurant fundraisers. For fundraising opportunities or ways to help students participate in traveling opportunities, go to their websites at the music programs' donation page, NiwotBands.org, NiwotHighschoolOrchestra.org and NiwotChoir.weebly.com and be on the lookout for ads and promotions in Niwot.