SJE-LWK band heading to California

Eagles and Tigercats, oh my!

Students from the combined high school St. John/Endicott/LaCrosse/ Washtucna/Kahlotus band, officially named the SJE Wind Ensemble, will travel to California next week to participate in the Heritage Music Festival in Anaheim to compete in the small schools division.

“I've been taking my band once every four years since 1996,” said SJE Band Director Billy Ray.

To compete in the small schools division – which has 21 schools from Washington, California, Arizona and Texas competing – a high school must have a student population of less than 800, Ray said.

“We're well qualified to be in the small schools division,” Ray said, noting the entire population of St. John is less than 800.

The students and their chaperones may be going to Anaheim for the music festival, but Ray said “this is known as the Disneyland trip.”

“Most of them have never been to Disneyland. This will be my sixth trip with high school kids,” Ray said.

The band will depart from St. John on a motor coach next Thursday, April 7, and arrive the next day. They are slated to perform in the festival shortly after their arrival on Friday.

“I tell them work first, play later,” Ray said. “We'll get all the hard work out of the way.”

After the festival, Ray said they will check into the hotel and then stow away their band gear and attend Disneyland on Saturday and Sunday. They will leave Sunday night from Anaheim and arrive back in St. John the night of Monday, April 11.

“It's a 22-hour bus ride both ways,” Ray said.

Ray said he has given his students some advice for the Disneyland portion of the trip.

“Keep up, because I will leave you in the dust,” he said. “My wife and I, we love to go ride the rides. That's all I am is a big kid.”

Ray said he and his wife Claudette will be two of the seven chaperones on the trip. Also chaperoning are Lore Hille, LWK band director, and her husband, Brian; Randy and Carla Root and Kristen Bammes. In total, there will be seven adults and 33 students. Six of the students are from LWK.

“Each town is represented,” Ray said.

Ray added students are very excited about the upcoming trip.

“We've been fundraising for the last four years,” he said. “The students are very much excited about it, so much so that kids who are going in 2020 are excited.”

Ray said 60 different ensembles will be performing at three locations in southern California next Friday, and more than 1,000 students will be a part of those ensembles. He added that an awards ceremony for the festival is slated at the Fantasyland Theater in Disneyland at 7:30 p.m., April 9.

An opportunity to see the SJE-LWK band perform is scheduled for tonight, Thursday, in the St. John school gymnasium. Ray said he has been rehearsing his students for about the last month, and Hille has been doing the same with hers. The two groups have rehearsed together once per month since October. They will rehearse tonight before the concert and then perform at 7:30 p.m.

“It will be just a quick preview of what we're going to be performing,” Ray said. “It's a positive experience for everyone.”

The three pieces being performed tonight and next week are “Avalanche,” which Ray will conduct, “Homeward Bound,” which Hille will conduct and “Manhattan Beach,” which Ray will conduct.

“Avalanche” is a piece written by Jonathan McBride, band director at Pateros High School, and Ray said “Manhattan Beach” is a John Philip Sousa march.

The performance tonight is free and open to the public.

Ray added that he wanted to thank the parents, community, school board members, administration and the kids for all the work which has gone into making the California trip happen.

“There's just a lot of thank yous,” he said.

He added that the students fundraised with the Tom-Wat fundraiser, which is a magazine “full of various items” the students could sell. He said many people look forward to the Tom-Wat fundraiser. He is also excited about giving the students this opportunity.

“Every kid gets that opportunity once during their high school career,” he said. “We've already got people excited for 2020.”