North Battleford Comprehensive High School’s concert and jazz bands will be heading to New Orleans come March.
The extracurricular bands will be travelling south for a five-day performance tour and clinic at Tulane University. Band Director Jackie Kroczynski says the trip came highly recommended from another band teacher in Estevan, but she’s no stranger to the city either, having already been there five times.
“I love it there. The jazz, but not just the jazz, all kinds of music — the city just lives and breathes,” says Kroczynski.
She says she hopes her familiarity with the city will help make the tour more than just an ordinary band trip.
“Because I've been there I have some other things for them to do that aren't otherwise on the tour,” says Kroczynski.
“People tend to stick in the French Quarter, but there's some other things I’d like them to see as well. One thing we'll be doing is going down to City Park where the New Orleans Museum of Art is.
“It’s the most beautiful, beautiful, park you've ever seen with giant oak trees. And the museum has a sculpture garden, so we're going to be going there.”
Although Kroczynski says she wants the students to see all that New Orleans has to offer, that doesn’t exclude the famous French Quarter. The bands’ concerts will be held in Washington Artillery Park, which, Kroczynski says, is “right at Jackson Square in the French Quarter, in the busiest part of New Orleans.”
Ultimately, Kroczynski says, “I want them to see how the music and the culture all go together, how people are outside playing music all the time, [and how] the food, the people and the hardships the city has lived through over and over again is part of the music.”
The bands are still in the middle of fundraising for their trip, having started last May, and Kroczynski says they will be fundraising right up until the tour, with a car raffle and a “Mardi Gras Coffee House” still to come. The coffee house fundraiser is scheduled for Feb. 28 at NBCHS.
Besides the cultural experience the students are sure to experience in a place as historically eclectic as New Orleans, Kroczynski says she also hopes it will show future students what being in high school band is like.
“We’re really excited about the kids playing music here at the high school. I'm really hoping to help raise the profile of the band in the community,” says Kroczynski, adding, “I want to get more kids coming from elementary schools in band.”
