A Cultural Weekend in Minneapolis
March 11, 2018
At 7:15 AM on Friday, March 2nd, most students were waking to begin an ordinary day at Middleton High School. However, 144 band and orchestra students were loading buses brimmed with instruments and luggage.
Since 1991, the Middleton High School Band and Orchestra have alternated tours to Chicago, Illinois and Minneapolis, Minnesota for a cultural weekend. The 2018 destination was Minneapolis.
The three-day weekend was busy, with a sample of Saturday’s itinerary reading as follows:
10:00 AM- Arrive at Minneapolis Institute of Art
12:30 PM- Lunch at local restaurants
3:00 PM- Brave New Workshop Comedy Show
4:00 PM- Depart for Minneapolis Sculpture Garden
6:00 PM- Eat dinner at the Chanhassen dinner theater
8:00 PM- Show begins- ‘Newsies’
10:00 PM- Depart for hotel
The trip began with a clinic at the University of Minnesota. The orchestra was coached by Ho-Yin Kwok, playing “Swamp Thang,” a pre-rehearsed piece from the Cardinal Orchestra’s winter concert, and sight-reading “Pinery Boy,” a piece based on Wisconsin folk tunes. An hour later, the band switched places with the orchestra and were coached by Cassie Bechard, a director for the University of Minnesota Campus Band.
According to band student Katy Kulie, these clinics are important for the music programs because “not only do we get to see cool places like Minneapolis, but we also get to do a clinic, which is basically a session with a music teacher there, or an important musician in that city, and it’s usually super helpful… I always end up learning a lot more than I thought I would.” She went on to say that “if you are an underclassman and you’re thinking ‘should I go on these kind of trips, or should I not?’ I would say you’re definitely going to have way more fun than you think you will.”
Following this clinic, students had the opportunity to explore a future college opportunity. Students participated in a scavenger hunt across the University of Minnesota campus, attended a performance of Debussy’s La Mer at Orchestra Hall, and experienced multiple examples of art and culture across mediums such as visual art, comedy, theater, and dance.
This weekend was orchestrated by Steve Kurr, the long-time orchestra teacher here at Middleton High School. His efforts, however, could not be possible without his music department colleagues Doug Brown, Mike Ver Voort, and Marissa Bedard, as well as the various parent chaperones.
Next year, the Band and Orchestra are planning to tour in Spain and Portugal over the 2019 Spring Break.
Lifelong memories and learning new skills are examples of the positive outcomes of these cultural tours. These tours brim with new experiences, opportunities, and adventures that will continue to be offered to the band and orchestra students of MHS.
