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Mohonasen Orchestra Plays In Disney
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Student musicians perform on Disney World stage
Sunday, June 2, 2013
BY SHANNON LUIBRAND  


ROTTERDAM — The Mohonasen Select Orchestra traded in its high school auditorium for an open stage in the heart of Epcot in early April.

Their melodies carried throughout Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., while thousands of park-goers stopped to listen to their 20-minute performance on the Melody Gardens stage.

“We got to perform for thousands of people,” said Ashley Blanchard, a senior violin player. “It was an amazing experience.”

The Mohonasen Select Orchestra is used to playing in competitions, especially at Disney World, but this year was different. Instead of sitting in front of a panel of judges, the students played as their audience walked by. Throughout the day, people stopped the group members in the park, who were wearing Mohonasen T-shirts, to tell them how much they enjoyed their performance.

“They really enjoyed being in front of so many people. I think they felt really good about themselves,” said Kimberly Kondenar, the orchestra teacher. “They played really well and worked so hard to get there. They had such great feedback from people they had never met before.”

The Mohonasen Select Orchestra, made up of about 20 students from both the middle and high school, memorized a 20-minute set that included popular songs such as “Firework” by Katy Perry and “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele. Kondenar said she felt this experience put the students in more of a real-life situation and gave them a taste of what it is like to play and please an audience.

“For me personally, we had done so many of those traditional competitions in the past,” Kondenar said. “I kind of felt like the students needed a little bit of a challenge.”

The Disney Performing Arts program has been around since the opening of Disneyland in 1955, according to Angie Kline, the program’s spokeswoman. The program gives groups the opportunity to perform at any of the Disney park venues and also attend workshops if they wish.

“We are definitely looking for a standard of performance quality,” Kline said. “We choose groups based on talents and entertainment level.”

Kondenar described the application process as fairly rigorous, saying that it included submitting video of different performances by the group. Students attended a camp last summer in preparation for the upcoming school year. At that time, they recorded the performances for the application. A few weeks later, Kondenar was notified by Disney that they were selected.

After months of preparation and rehearsals, the orchestra members, along with 15 chaperones, drove down to Disney World. They spent about a week in the parks along with daily rehearsals. The performance was at the end of the week. Kondenar said this trip was important for many reasons.

“I think for some of these kids this is the only time they will ever go on a vacation,” she said.

Kondenar also said some of the students had never been to the ocean, so the group made time to do that as well.

“Not a lot of schools can allow field trips anymore because of the budget,” Kondenar said. “Our school is very supportive of the music program here.”

Kline said the program hopes to introduce students to the many career options they have as musicians, especially at Disney World.

Kondenar and her students expressed gratitude towards Mohonasen, Disney and their parents for allowing this opportunity.

“We are a family,” Blanchard said. “Playing was just a ton of fun.”

http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2013/jun/02/0602_disney/
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Madam X
June 2, 2013, 9:49am Report to Moderator
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Growing up,I was always impressed by the marching bands out of Rotterdam. They were better than the city ones, I thought, even though M.P. had an excellent music program in general. It's nice to know that the music tradition is still being carried on.

I'm sort of surprised they played that Adele song. Many people take the term "rolling" to be a drug reference. Not that they shouldn't have played it, mind you. It's just that you know how funny they get about things like that in the schools.
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SueM2342
June 2, 2013, 11:38am Report to Moderator
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too bad the music programs in this town are left by the side in favor of sports
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A Better Rotterdam
June 2, 2013, 12:25pm Report to Moderator

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What are you talking about Sue? They just went to Florida, the band goes all over the east coast competing, the band plays at all kinds of games and parades as well. Mohonasen's music program is more respected and better funded compared to pretty much any other program in the area.
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SueM2342
June 4, 2013, 10:14pm Report to Moderator
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Quoted from A Better Rotterdam
What are you talking about Sue? They just went to Florida, the band goes all over the east coast competing, the band plays at all kinds of games and parades as well. Mohonasen's music program is more respected and better funded compared to pretty much any other program in the area.



who pays for sports teams going off campus to compete

who pays for the band going off campus to compete

if both are free to the student then I stand corrected

keep the discussion sample

combine boys and girls soccer, basketball, and baseball to all bands and choirs combined

sports travels short distances many time

music travel further fewer times
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Patches
June 5, 2013, 7:19am Report to Moderator
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OMG....what satisfies you Sue......huh??????.....you are so negative and angry............if you can't say something nice......ZIP IT
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55tbird
June 5, 2013, 7:19am Report to Moderator
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If I am not mistaken, Mohonasen has a Friends of Music group that does a lot of fund raising.
Based on the travels the marching band did in the years my kids were in school, it doesn't look to me like Music was getting short changed at all. If anyone was getting short changed, it was students in the music program that were NOT part of marching band. Maybe the money the marching band spent should have spread evenly through the entire music program.


"Arguing with liberals is like playing chess with a pigeon; no matter how good I am at chess, the pigeon is just going to knock out the pieces, crap on the board, and strut around like it is victorious." - Author Unknown
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DemocraticVoiceOfReason
June 5, 2013, 7:37am Report to Moderator

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Mohonasen has a great program and a very active "Friends of".  I haven't heard much about them lately but Schalmont had a very good program at one time.


George Amedore & Christian Klueg for NYS Senate 2016
Pete Vroman for State Assembly 2016[/size][/color]

"For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that is sleeping in the unplowed ground."
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Patches
June 5, 2013, 7:59am Report to Moderator
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to add to my comment......most of the time the parents have to pay for travel expenses.......it's not totally funded by the school......at least at Schalmont .....when travelling to foreign country....school does not totally fund the

trip...

sports has always been relevant to the curriculum .....it keeps the kids fit......not in the house, on playstation......obsession with I pod use.....Facebook....and such...

wish I had had the opportunities the kids have today.......

sports helps to keep kids on the right path...no matter what you have seen or read in the media.....

my suggestion.....would be to emphasize less drinking of alcohol   and  using drugs for recreation ....


this issue should not have to be justified because of one bad apple's angry and negative comments......
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