Blair music groups win in Florida

Blair's orchestra, jazz band, chamber choir, and symphonic band returned from a trip to the Musicfest in Orlando, Florida, for on April 14. Orchestra, Jazz Band A, and the chamber choir earned first, second, and third places in their respective divisions.

The Musicfest Orlando is a competition between schools from all over the country. The choir competed on the morning of April 13 at Colonial High School. The bands and orchestra competed that afternoon at Valencia College. The awards ceremony was held in the Indiana Jones Stunt Theatre at the Disney World theme park MGM Studios that night. The students were given a performance by the jazz and rock group, the Hollywood Hitmen.

Band and orchestra director Kurt Lucas feels that the groups could have done better, but due to fatigue from two and a half days of exploring the Disney World theme parks, students could not output their best. "I don't think any group played as well as they could have played," said Lucas.

The groups spent three days in the theme parks of Disney World. The first day was spent at the Epcot center, the second at Magic Kingdom, and the third day at MGM Studios. The groups had unlimited access to all of the theme parks during the entire trip.

Several technical difficulties occured on the way to Florida. Two hours into the bus ride, sparks due to a flat tire were observed around a wheel of the choir bus. The subsequent wheel change caused the buses to be stalled by the road for two hours.

Breakfast was at a Cracker Barrel in Santee, South Carolina. Several police cars drove up following a call from the restaurant about the painting of a gang symbol in one of its bathrooms. The perpetrator was found after a brief search, and arrangements were made to send the student home the next morning.

The Blazers arrived at the Epcot Center at 5:00pm April 11, twenty-three hours after they had left Blair. They left after the awards ceremony April 13 and arrived at Blair at 4:45 pm, three hours behind schedule on April 14.

Lucas said of the trip, "It was good and bad, grueling and fun." He is making tentative plans for taking the music groups to Canada next year.