Story and Photos by Alan Ashley
Members of the Chelsea High School Music Program headed south to Nashville from April 21-25. Rick Catherman (band), Jed Fritzemeier (orchestra), and Steve Hinz (vocal) and Principal Mike Kapolka took 149 students and several chaperones to Music City USA.
The idea of taking CHS Music Program students on a trip began many years ago with a yearly non-performance trip to New York City. The first performance trip was in 2011 with the band and orchestra at the Heritage Festival in Nashville. It was decided to start taking a trip every other year, giving students the chance to plan and fundraise for the trip.
In 2013, the group competed in the Heritage Festival in Philadelphia and not only received a Gold Award, but was also Sweepstakes Winner. New York City was the destination in 2015 for clinics and a performance at the Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center.
Catherman said the trips are to provide students the chance to experience performance opportunities outside of Chelsea. Not only visiting cities for their culture, but also experiencing a music school at a college/university. In the past, students have visited Butler University and Penn State University. This year, students participated in a clinic at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, part of the University of Cincinnati campus, on the way to Nashville.
The trip began with an early 3 a.m. departure from Chelsea High School on April 21. After a stop in Cincinnati for a morning clinic and tour of the music school, the group arrived at the Opryland Hotel, their accommodations for the trip. The next day was a day of sightseeing, concluding with a country music show at the Grand Ole Opry. Artists that performed that night included Patty Loveless and the legendary Bill Anderson.
Sunday morning, April 23 began with a clinic at the hotel and a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame in the afternoon. Monday morning brought the first day of no rain of the trip and also an early morning wake-up call for a performance by the group.
Choirs and bands from California, North Carolina, Oregon, and Wisconsin also played. Afterward, some free time to visit downtown Nashville under partly sunny skies, before returning to the Schermerhorn Symphony Hall for the encore concert. The evening concert saluted Vietnam Veterans and several musicians spoke about relatives who served in the military.
Three CHS students, Mya Charleboix, Carolyn Pierce, and Emily Torrance, were given a few minutes to speak between songs. The buses drove through the night to return everyone to Chelsea High School on Tuesday morning, April 25, a little tired but with some great memories.
The slide show is just a few images of the 4-day trip, but thoughts of all of photos taken, inspired the idea of a new Facebook page. With the excellent music program at Chelsea, the page was created for students and parents to share their own photos and memories of performances and trips. Alumni are even welcome to post their photos from the past.
The new page can be found on Facebook at “Chelsea (MI) Musical Memories” and the full gallery of photos from the Nashville trip can be found there. There are already photos from the recent 2017 Collage Concert and last fall’s marching band performances posted.
