JH choir, band to depart for Six Flags Magic Mountain, April 28

FC instrumental music to present A Night at the Movies, May 1

[/media-credit] Junior high and high school band will also be traveling to Six Flags Magic Mountain, April 28.

Junior high choir is taking a trip to SoCal, April 27, for their next performance, on April 28. Junior high choir, as well as junior high and high school band, will all be traveling to Six Flags Magic Mountain this upcoming Saturday.

Junior high and high school music director Susan Ainley talks about the upcoming trip. She is excited to go and showcase all what the campus music program can do in performance.

“We will be performing in the morning and going to Magic Mountain all afternoon,” Ainley said. “I am feeling very comfortable with the junior high choir and I know they are prepared and excited. Students very much do enjoy these kinda trips and look forward to these kinda performance venues that allow them to play after as a reward for all there hard work so yes they all look forward to it.”

The Music In the Parks organization is hosting and organizing the event. Each group that is going on this trip will be performing their festival repertoire in the morning for two adjudicators. The JH choir will be performing two festival pieces called Exultate Justi in Domino (Rejoice in the Lord) and Metsa Telegramm (The Woodpecker’s Warning).

They will perform at two different locations. One group will be going to a church and the other to a school to perform what they have been practicing. Once both groups are done performing, they will be taken to Magic Mountain and enjoy the park until the award ceremony.

[/media-credit] Susan Ainley will be accompanying her students on the trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain, April 27-28.

Being a part of the choir team, Elise Bessey, ’23, describes how she feels about the upcoming event.

“I am excited,” Bessey said. “We’ve been getting ready for this performance for about a couple months now so I hope we get a good score this year. I think we will place first this year because we have been practicing really hard. For me I am looking forward to performing more but to others they are more excited about going to magic mountain.”

The groups, depending on how they perform, will receive a ranking for their performance. That ranking will determine what placing they will receive out of all the groups that perform than their competitors. The award ceremony will be held in the Golden Bear Theatre inside of Magic Mountain, as each group will be shown their ranking. After the award ceremony is complete, students will go and enjoy the park for a little bit more before they are to depart back to school.

Busses will leave campus at 6:30 a.m. and to return to Fresno Christian grounds by 11 p.m. Students will be taken to the events by parents who are willing to carpool. Students are looking forward to perform and show that all their efforts were worth it and to go and enjoy time with their colleagues.

A Night at the Movies, May 1

Fresno Christian Music Department will present A Night at the Movies, May 1, 6:30 p.m. in the G.L. Johnson Chapel.

Join the junior high/high school band and percussion, 5/6 grade band, 4th grade percussion and 3rd grade recorders for the annual spring instrumental concert.

“There are so many amazing musical pieces that are featured in movies. I thought it would be fun to learn about some of the prolific movie composers and use that as our theme,” Lesley Bannister, instrumental music teacher, said. “All of our instrumental music groups, from third grade to high school, have learned music from some of the most famous movie soundtracks.”

In addition to the instrumental groups, the evening will also highlight a dozen junior high and high school students performing solos at this concert.

“The students have been working hard all semester,” Bannister said, “and I am excited for this culminating performance. Junior high and high school are playing a song called Pixar favorites, and it is one of my favorite pieces! It features music from Cars, Ratatouille, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story, and more! Junior high student Joseph Igot is also performing an interesting take on the Game of Thrones theme! It will be amazing.”

Next fall, Bannister is hoping to have enough students to form a new section of a jazz band, in addition to the band class currently offered. This new course would be for more advanced musicians and an opportunity to further advance their skills.

“I already have quite a few students in the band this year who are really ready for a bigger challenge!” Bannister said. “We will also be kicking our fundraising into high gear next year, as we are working hard for our Hawaii trip in the fall of 2019.”

Come celebrate an evening with the campus instrumental groups and support the FCS music department.

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