Music and The Arts
Traverse City West has an active music program, with multiple choirs, bands (wind ensemble, symphony band, and concert band), and orchestras. In addition to the larger groups, there are also numerous small ensembles, including two jazz bands, small vocal groups (Choral Aires, Bella Voce and Westmen), and some student-led chamber ensembles. Every three years the Chorale goes on a tour throughout Europe. The first time Euro-Chorale went to Europe they won 3rd place in the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod. Two years later Chorale went again and was awarded 2nd place. In 2006, Chorale did not make the festival. They did, however, perform at the Eisteddfod as a general concert outside of the competition. In 2009, The Traverse City West Chorale traveled to Europe again, where they were invited to sing at Mass in Saint Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, and to compete in The Musica Mundi International choral competition located in Budapest, Hungary, where they won 1st place in the "Folk Music" and "Mixed Choir" categories.
The school puts on an annual musical which involves students from all fields. Musicals performed at West include such classics as Patience, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Pirates of Penzance, The Music Man, Ruddigore, Les Misérables, West Side Story, Aida, The Mikado, Me and My Girl, The Secret Garden, and The Phantom of the Opera .
The Theater Arts classes put on several different shows for the public each year; in addition, the Thespian club puts on a performance and competes at drama festivals.
Read more about this topic: Traverse City West Senior High
Famous quotes containing the words music and, music and/or arts:
“People today are still living off the table scraps of the sixties. They are still being passed around—the music and the ideas.”
—Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (b. 1941)
“The sound of tireless voices is the price we pay for the right to hear the music of our own opinions. But there is also, it seems to me, a moment at which democracy must prove its capacity to act. Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal chords.”
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965)
“On every hand we observe a truly wise practice, in education, in morals, and in the arts of life, the embodied wisdom of many an ancient philosopher.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)