The band left on Thursday, March 7 for Orlando, Florida to attend the “You’re Instrumental Workshop” at Disney World.

“We go into one of the Disney recording studios, and the students sight-read a bunch of Disney music. There’s a conductor that walks them through that […] decides what level they’re at. We will rehearse some music and then they’ll record it to a Disney movie.” band director Deb Steiner said, “They’ll record about a three-minute video clip so they can kind of see the movie as it’s going.”

Sight-reading is defined as “performing music without previous preparation or study,” which means the band went into their performance blind.

Though the idea may have been intimidating for some, junior Rebecca Hertog believed the band was prepared.

“It’s a very talented group,” Hertog said. “We have rehearsed before leaving for Florida [to learn] what to expect and look for.”

This isn’t the only time the band has gone on a trip, though this one differs from the last trip they went on, according to Hertog.

“This trip to Florida is a lot more expensive, but we will also stay for five days and we get to fly down there,” Hertog said, “In St. Louis we just played the music we had already rehearsed at a contest, so I am really really looking forward to sight-read through this music with the professionals”

With the average round trip ticket to Florida from Kansas City costing upwards of $250, the band had to get money for the trip with various fundraisers.

“We sold mattresses and mulch,” Hertog said, “We also went to local businesses and put their business cards in our concert programs.”

Though the workshop was only around two and a half hours, the band stayed in Orlando from Thursday evening to Monday morning, free to explore Disney and other local theme parks. Hertog had a couple of destinations in particular she was excited to visit.

“I’m looking forward to the Tower of Terror and the Haunted Mansion,” Hertog said, “but I am most excited to go see Harry Potter world.”

With all the time left open, there were more things than just the workshop on the band’s schedule, according to sophomore Ella Greenup.

“A lot of people in band own [Nintendo] Switches,” Greenup said. “They’re going to bring them, and it’s going to be intense.”

At the end of the day, the band’s performance was the top priority, and Steiner believed it was destined to be great.

“I think they’ll do quite well,” Steiner said, “The group of kids going is a great mix and the instrumentation is almost perfect, there are good players in each section and I don’t think there’s going to be any problem.”