MCHS Band Travels To Tennessee
“It was one of the highlights to my musical career, so I know it’s one of theirs as well.”
Members of the McDonald County High School band recently traveled to Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., where they won a competition and visited famous music and historical locations.
Junior drum major Gabe Hernandez said, “We were very excited about Tennessee, very excited about the competition and the sights. We practiced for a couple of months and it really paid off.”
The competition was the Performing Arts Consultants Music Festival in Nashville. The band won first-place gold in all categories, which included concert band, jazz band, indoor percussion and indoor color guard, Hernandez said. Band director Laurie Kinder-Lang said they also won grand champion.
Also while in Nashville, the group went to the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Grand Ole Opry and The Hermitage, according to senior drum major Tony Jaquez.
In Memphis, the group delivered hats knitted by MCHS students to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, Jaquez said. They went to Hard Rock Cafe. Then they went to Graceland and performed
Laurie Kinder-Lang Band Director
their halftime show, which was made up of Elvis songs. Then they went to the Bass Pro Shop at the pyramid.
“It was a really wonderful experience for us to all have. We all gained a lot from it. I’m really glad we had this opportunity,” Jaquez said.
Kinder-Lang said, “We’ve traveled before, so I knew what to look out for, and they were more comfortable.” She said she had a lot of band booster support.
“Any time you take kids outside the walls of a classroom, they seem to learn and absorb the new environment more quickly,” she added.
She said the trip, which cost about $45,000, was completely student- and booster-funded.
Kinder-Lang noted the band got to record the music from their Elvis halftime show at Studio B, which is where Elvis recorded.
“It was one of the highlights to my musical career, so I know it’s one of theirs as well,” she said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”