Every school year, students involved in the three major performing arts groups, band, choir, and orchestra, are invited to a trip. These students are not mandated to go on these trips, and these trips are a privelege, but music students get rather excited about these trips. There is a four year cycle the music teachers go through when picking the trip for the year, which typically is a theme park trip, then a big overnight trip, then a musical, and then a live orchestra. The current Hamburg music seniors have already experienced the opportunity to go to the Hershey High Note Festival their freshman year, where the students performed in front of judges and got ajudicated before going to Hershey Park the rest of the day.
These seniors, along with music juniors have also experienced the big overnight trip to Boston, where they took a charter bus, stayed in a hotel for a couple nights, and had opportunities to visit historical sites and museumssuch as the Boston Duck Boat tour, along with many other fun adventures.
Last year, music students in their current senior, junior, and sophomore years went to see the musical Wicked live in New York, while also adventuring around a section of New York.
This year is the orchestral trip, where music students in freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years get to witness a live orchestra perform the music to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on March 7, 2026. With this trip being announced months in advance, students have been stirring up their expectations about it.
Ellie Grim, a student involved in choir, orchestra, chamber strings, treble choir, show choir, and the musical, is excited to go on this trip. She says she has seen a live symphony before, though she has never been to one with the music alongside a movie. Her excitement is from “being able to see a live performance of the music to a classic movie.” Al Diegel, a senior who went to the other four music trips and was involved in Hamburg’s Piano classes, along with concert choir, performed in Java Jam, and was the president to the Audio Technology club, says he is “excited to see the live orchestra, to see a Harry Potter movie for the first time,” and is excited to “eat the buffet-style food,” though believes no trip could top the Boston trip.
