On March 7, music students and friends of music students will take a bus trip to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center to see a live orchestra perform the music to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. These students have to arrive at the school by 9 AM on a Saturday to make it to New Jersey by 11:15 AM. These students also get a catered lunch buffet before watching, which allows them to enjoy the show in full. Once it hits 1:30 PM, the students will make their way over to their seats to watch the show. They get to enjoy the show in the Prudential Hall. Then, at 5 PM, the students leave New Jersey to eat their packed dinner and head back to Hamburg. This full day event is primarily bus riding, since it is about three hours to and from New Jersey.
These students have waited months to see this live orchestra perform, and it will be a worthy Saturday filled with social time with friends and a musical performance most will never forget.
Due to empty seats remaining a week before the trip, the directors opened it up to friends of music students or family, along with anyone who originally did not sign up, and any staff who wanted to chaperone. This meant that anyone could pay to go on the trip at the full price, which was $123 for every music student. Music students were able to pay for the trip using their student grant fund that was formed after fundraising for HAMA, Hamburg’s music association.
Many students enjoyed the trip, and some even had their expectations fulfilled even further than they originally thought.
Andrew Koval, a senior who used to be involved with music, was invited to go on the trip by his girlfriend, Riley Mohn, who is involved in band and choir in any way she could be. Andrew says that he “enjoyed every aspect of the trip” and said the live show was “absolutely amazing in every sense of the phrase thanks to the phenominal band and conductor.” He enjoyed the relaxing coach buses, and he found the food presented delightful. He enjoyed the audience’s reactions as well, since he was able to clap at the fun parts with his friends. However, he wished that students would have had a longer time to prepare for the show, since “we only had fifteen minutes to grab food before the introduction started.” Alongside a longer time to prepare, he wished that the buffet the students had was a wider variety, since it was all “simple sandwiches and wraps, along with chips” and some students did not want the same meal they would have for dinner on the bus ride home. His expectation for the movie was that he “would not be able to hear the movie over the live orchestra,” especially since this was his first experience with a live orchestra, though he was able to “understand and hear both perfectly fine, and the subtitles helped.” As someone who has read the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, Andrew says “the movie was mostly accurate in comparison” and it helped him remember what he had read a couple months ago. He was glad to have watched a Harry Potter movie for the first time ever, and to experience it live. He was also glad to spend his one year anniversary with his girlfriend at such a beautiful location.
Ellie Grim, a choir student who was previously asked about her expectations for the trip, said “my expectations met reality. I was expecting an entertaining bus ride there and back because I would be sitting with my friends. Something that suppressed expectations was the lunch served to us before the show, the food was incredible!” She said the show was amazing, and she was so immersed in the movie that “it was hard to tell sometimes that a live symphony was playing because they were so on cue with the movie.” Ellie’s only complaint was how high they were, since she could not see the screen. She did, however, express how much fun the audience was having, since she said “the audience and I enjoyed cheering on our favorite characters and houses, clapping after our favorite lines were said, and booing the villains was a lot of fun, which I appreciated how lively everyone was.”
Al Diegel, another choir student, expressed how excited he was to see the live orchestra, and to see a Harry Potter movie for the first time. And he had high expectations for the food, but he had expressed that this music trip would not live up to the “peak experience that Boston was.” Though it lived up to the expectations in Al’s mind; he said “the food and live orchestra was really good, but the seats were too high,” which was a common complaint overall. After seeing Harry Potter for the first time, he said he “did not think Draco Malfoy put enough emphasis on the P in ‘Potter,’ but would recommend it to others, since the view is worth it even if someone dislikes heights.” On the way there, Al layed back with headphones and enjoyed the two hour trip. He also enjoyed the ride back, since he napped for the majority of it.
