A musical journey
Edmond students visit London to perform.
Members of Edmond public schools’ music communities recently returned home from a successful music-inspired trip to London over the holidays to explore the city and perform at various venues. The most visible of the performances — and the event that prompted the trip in the first place — came from the Edmond bands’ marching in the two-mile, 32nd annual London New Year’s Day Parade winding through the city’s center.
In all, 418 students made the trip to London this year, including the bands and orchestras from all three Edmond high schools and the choirs from Santa Fe and Edmond Memorial high schools.
Joining them were an additional 249 adults, including chaperones and staff members.
The last group of students returned late Jan. 4.
All of the Edmond groups attended each of the other Edmond events to cheer on their fellow district students.
A combined choir performed during the
Grand Finale Concert of the London International Chorale Festival at Westminster Central Hall, built in 1912 and located near Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.
In addition to Edmond Memorial and Santa Fe singers, the choirs for that performance included Ravenscroft Concert Choir, St. Paul’s Episcopal School Chorale and South Fork High School Carillon Singers; accompanying them were London’s Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra.
Each orchestra performed separately during the London New Year’s Day Festival Concert at the 110-year-old Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.
“They represented Edmond and the state of Oklahoma just amazingly well beyond any expectations, not just in their performances but just being around the city,” said Mike Lowery, who led the first Edmond trip to London in 1998 as Santa Fe’s band director and who now is a consultant for the London-based organizers, LYNDP, short for London New Year’s Day Parade.
The Santa Fe band has marched in the London parade six times since its invitation that first year; a couple of those trips have included all-city (Edmond) combined bands, Lowery said. This is the first time that all three schools participated on such a wide scale across musical disciplines.
Edmond directors making the trip included orchestra directors David Koehn with Edmond Memorial, Christy Fine with Santa Fe and Justin Pourtorkan,
with North; band directors Sarah Neeley with Santa Fe, Jeff Jahnke with Memorial and Greg Mangus; and choir directors Wes Singleton with Edmond Memorial and Shermie Potts and Jeanine Gully with Edmond Santa Fe choir.
“It was fabulous,” said Neeley, who has made the trip both as a Santa Fe band student years ago and now as director.
The students, separately by schools and musical group, took boat trips down the Thames River, visited Greenwich and the Royal Observatory, toured the Tower of London, took walking tours of Harry Potter’s notable sites, visited Windsor Castle and Oxford University and much more.
The trip was designed to spark an interest in a world and culture beyond Edmond.
“It makes all those things they read about in their history books and in the literature books come to life,” Neeley said.
The students also got to see more of London’s musical
offerings, including either “Wicked” or “Aladdin” in London’s theater district, similar to New York’s Broadway, and the Choral Evensong church service in the 350-year-old St. Paul’s Cathedral. In addition, some of the students attended a reception at The Gladstone Library at One Whitehall Place, with officials such as Westminster Lord Mayor Ian Adams and Queen Deputy Lt. Roger Bramble.
Koehn noted how important it was to expose the students to a culture beyond the United States and have experiences that they can’t reproduce in this country, such as enjoying music performed in a centuries-old cathedral. He wished that all of his orchestra members could have joined his group for the experience.
Lillie-Beth Brinkman, one of The Oklahoman’s 20-40-60 etiquette column contributors, is the mother of Edmond Memorial orchestra student Ella Brinkman and went on the trip, along with her daughter.