Performers in the Southeasten Wind Symphony dressed up as popular Disney characters such as Minnie Mouse and Mr. Incredible for their third annual Disney concert. Zachary Araki/The Lion’s Roar
The Southeastern Wind Symphony performed its third annual Disney concert with some performers dressing as popular Disney characters.
The symphony performed “The Music of Disney and Friends!!” in the Pottle Music Building Auditorium on March 3 at 2 p.m.
“I feel the concert was great,” said Associate Director of Bands and Conductor for the Wind Symphony Derek Stoughton. “There was a lot of fun music. The group played really well. Clearly, there was wonderful participation from the audience. They really enjoyed it. I think it was just a wonderful afternoon.”
Stoughton explained the purpose of the concert.
“It’s a great opportunity for outreach within the community,” said Stoughton. “We always receive requests all the time for students and parents that want to bring their kids to this event, so it’s great community outreach. It’s a lot of fun for our students as you can tell. They get to dress up, and almost all of them love Disney and everything associated with Disney. It’s something to do that is a lot of fun for everybody involved, for the students, for the community, for the parents.”
Junior music major and flutist Jordan Bergeron discussed why he enjoys making connections through music.
“You’re able to connect to a bunch of different people on another level,” said Bergeron. “It brings out a lot of emotions. You can have fun. It’s a comfort, especially for me. All these people are here to see me perform, to listen to the hard work I put into what I’m doing.”
According to Stoughton, the largest challenge of the concert was not having much time for preparation due to weather conditions at the beginning of the semester.
“We were actually gonna do this concert at the end of January, but we just didn’t have enough time to put it together,” said Stoughton. “So, we postponed it to this weekend, which was really the only other weekend on the calendar we could do it. So, I think the biggest challenge for us was just that we got started late. We had to put this concert together in basically less than two weeks, and really only spending about 15, 20 minutes on the music every day. And then they put on an hour concert. I’m very, very proud of our students. They really stepped up.”
Bergeron discussed what he finds to be the most difficult aspect of performing.
“It’s a weird balance of trying to be hard on yourself so you can get it right but also making it like I shouldn’t worry about this so much,” said Bergeron. “It’s a very fine line of not stressing yourself out and still having fun.”
The music for the afternoon was chosen based on the popularity and relevancy of Disney movies.
“‘Beauty and the Beast’ had a remake last year,” said Stoughton. “‘Frozen’ is still very popular. We still got a little bit of mileage from that one. ‘Star Wars’ of course is taking off with the release last year. I believe the summer is the next installment of the movie coming out. That’s always very exciting. ‘Tangled’ I actually did for one of my friends back in Texas. She’s a big fan of ‘Tangled,’ and it’s great music, so we did that one for her. ‘Moana’ is another very popular film. Really, we just take the movies that are the most current right now and highlight them.”
Some attendees brought their children to the concert, and one parent shared her opinion of the performance.
“I think it was wonderful,” said alumna Laura Bauerle. “We really enjoyed it. The kids enjoy coming to this concert every year.”
