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JHS A Cappella Choir Director Norm Lydell, City of Jamestown Director of Development Vince DeJoy, JHS students: Caleb Kindberg, Dylan Lydell, Courtney Grey, City of Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi and JHS Marching Band Director Meghan Murray (photo courtesy of Jamestown Public Schools)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown School Board<\/strong> Tuesday gave its approval to a trip to Florida by the Jamestown High School Marching Band<\/strong> in December 2019 to perform at Disney World.<\/p>\n

According to Jamestown High School Marching Band music instructor Norm Lydell<\/strong>, the performance just after Christmas will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the students in the band.<\/p>\n

“This is something that’s been kind of brewing for a number of years, kind of a dream of mine to perform what’s called the ‘Candlelight Processional’ at Epcot Center,” Lydell told WRFA following the school board vote. “It’s a very special performance at the holiday time of\u00a0 year and trying to coordinate a trip at Christmas time is very difficult from a fundraising and trip payment standpoint, but we took a shoot and submitted a video application and it was accepted, so we’re very excited to be going.”<\/p>\n

To help offset the cost of the trip, it was also announced the Marching Band will hold a special fundraiser on Friday, July 19<\/strong> at the Reg Lenna Center For The Arts<\/strong> featuring the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra<\/strong><\/a> (BPO) performing The Music of Queen: A Rock Symphony<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamestown High School Marching Band director Megan Murray<\/strong> said bringing BPO to Jamestown will be a special event not just for the marching band, but the entire community.<\/p>\n

“It’s nothing like we’ve ever done before so it’s a really neat, different type of fundraiser where the nice part is the kids don’t have to do the fundraising and the parents don’t have to pay anything out of pocket – unless they want to go to the concert of course,” Murray said. “It kind of helps us in that way but it also is a great community event so it brings those two worlds together, our music department and the Jamestown Community, for a nice summer night out.”<\/p>\n

The cost of bringing the prestigious BPO to Jamestown will be provided in part with the assistance of a $50,000 grant from the Jamestown Local Development Corporation\u2019s<\/strong> (JLDC) Downtown Programming Fund<\/strong> program<\/a>, which was established with $600,000 from the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the city received from the state in 2016.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>“This is the first show that will actually be presented using this fund,” explained City Development Director and JLDC executive director Vince DeJoy<\/strong>. “The grant is made available to secure the talent for what’s going to be a fantastic show. Tickets go on sale this week and we’re just very excited about this.”<\/p>\n

Initial details of the concert were discussed by the JLDC board at the start of February when it approved the grant for the program<\/a>, although the specific details that it would be a BPO show couldn’t be made public until after the school board gave its permission for the trip to Disney World.<\/p>\n

In addition to funding by the JLDC, the newly opened DoubleTree by Hilton<\/strong> Jamestown has also signed on as the corporate sponsor.
\nMurray said if the show is sold out, the event should be able to raise an estimated $10,000 for the Marching Band and its trip to Disney World.<\/p>\n

Tickets for the show start at $35 apiece and will go on sale at the Reg box office this morning. They can be purchased by stopping by the box office between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., by calling (716) 484-7070, or by visiting RegLenna.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"