By Chris Moffitt
It claims to be “The Happiest Place on Earth,” and for TPA’s Cantamus members, it certainly proved to be so.
On the weekend of April 24-25, Cantamus took their annual trip to Disneyland. That 32-hour experience, from 10:30 p.m. on Friday night until 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning, is looked forward to by everyone in the choir. And when it finally came, everyone was beyond ready for it. When they arrived in the park after an all-nighter bus ride, the Cantamus members raced into the park to begin a 15-hour adventure.
This day obviously included spending time racing from one ride to the next and taking in the magic of Disney alongside one’s closest friends. And of course, this is a part of the trip that absolutely everyone enjoys. Participant Carter Marshall recounts that, “I hadn’t been to Disneyland in a long time and so it was tons of fun going on all those rides again! But it was even more fun because I went on them with my closest friends.” Mary Goodykoontz remembers that “everyone was laughing, and it was super, super fun.”
These amazing memories that were made with friends will certainly last a lifetime. One particularly favorite memory of Taylor Shroll was on the ride Grizzly Bear Rapids “when Christian Gaylor tried to tame the river gods and calm the rapids by hilariously crying out the lyrics to the song ‘Baal We Cry to Thee!’ and everyone was getting super soaked!”
Along with the fun times spent in the park, however, the Cantamus Disney trip also included time spent “backstage” in a recording studio workshop learning how the magic of Disney is actually created! The Cantamus members participated in a studio workshop where they worked with a respected music clinician to rapidly learn songs from Disney movies and then record them. Then, after recording the song, they got to watch that scene from the movie while hearing their own voices!
Connor Will describes this workshop as “an amazing experience because the director really taught us how to be professional and we got a lot of insight into the whole world of singing and the performing arts from a very professional standpoint.”
In the end, the trip was a rewarding experience for all. Marisa Putrasahan comments that “it was a really good break to have after all the hard work we put into Cantamus and it was also a time where we could use the skills that Dr. Wolfe taught us as an ensemble.”
Dr. Wolfe, the director of Cantamus, also finds the Disney trip extremely valuable. He comments that, “the Disney trip affords the students an opportunity to do something that I can’t provide for them here. I can provide some great performing experiences here, but we don’t have a recording studio and, of course, Disney has a state of the art recording studio! And they have their wonderful professional directors with all kinds of professional experience. So it’s an absolutely wonderful experience!”