After two years without one, Chaminade bands has finally returned to the annual band trip. Due to the COVID pandemonium these past couple years, the band trips of spring 2020 and 2021 were cancelled. The last time we had one was 2019, the Spring of my Freshman year, when we went to Tennessee. This trip marks the first trip the large majority of Band members have gone on. For those out of the loop, Chaminade’s Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and Percussion have traveled to out-of-state contests and made a trip out of it since the early 2000s. These are multi-day expeditions complete with sightseeing, bonding, history, and – of course – music.

For this most recent adventure, we all loaded up the bus and headed out on Thursday, April 7^th, not to return until Sunday evening. Thursday afternoon, we received clinical instruction from Dr. Fischer at Chicago’s Concordia University. An opportunity like this simply wasn’t possible a year ago due to travel restrictions and school visit policies. After visiting with Dr. Fischer, we had some authentic Chicago deep-dish at Giordano’s. The next day, we each had the option of visiting the Shedd Aquarium or the Museum of Science and Industry. I chose the Museum, and wasn’t disappointed when I got to see a full German U-505 Submarine up close. We all then went on a history and architecture boat tour up and down Chicago’s rivers, and then saw “The King and I” in Drury Lane Theater. The next day – Saturday – we had our actual band competition for much of the day, played our hearts out, and did very well. At the awards dinner – which also happened to be at the jousting dinner-theater, Medieval Times – we earned fantastic ratings from every group that we submitted. Gro Kelrick ’23 even got recognized as an outstanding soloist! Overall, it was a great trip that was a ton of fun for everyone, and I am so happy that we were able to do this after two years of being stuck in St. Louis. Let’s look forward to next year’s!