On February 16th, concert choir, a cappella choir and band classes at SRHS all took a trip to Disneyland, where they performed at the park and even recorded vocals for Disney. The trip was four days long, from Thursday to Sunday, and students had three whole days to enjoy Disneyland. Students and chaperones got to Disneyland by bus, traveling all day on Thursday and taking the bus back to Santa Rosa Sunday night. 

Taking 77 students to Disneyland is expensive, although the choir and band classes were fully prepared to cover all of the expenses. “It’s a variety of funding,” said Marla Tusa, one of the music teachers at SRHS. “The Foundation has given us money, we’ve done fundraising, bake sales, silent auctions, See’s Candy, our concerts, and students are paying for a portion of the trip.” All of the fundraising was well worth it, since the students got to perform a variety of songs inside the actual park. Some of these songs include “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” “Try Everything,” “Kaleidoscope Heart,” “It’s All Right” and a choral suite from Frozen.

Besides performing at Disneyland, students also had the opportunity to record vocals for Disney. “When we [were] there, we [went] to a professional recording studio and we . . . record[ed] the sound behind a cartoon . . . and our voices [were] behind it,” continued Tusa. This trip was a great opportunity for students who are interested in a career in music, since they got to see the inside of a recording studio and experience the process of recording. 

Normally, the choir and band classes take a trip like this once every two years; however, the pandemic changed the situation. The last trip the classes took was in 2017 to Carnegie Hall in New York. Now that students are back for their second in-person school year since the pandemic, the tradition of taking a trip every two years should continue. The performance that the choir classes did at Disneyland was their third performance this year and they will do at least one more before the end of the year.