After school thursday, April 10, a parade of music students piled into three buses destined for New Orleans, Louisiana. For four days, students involved in Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, Varsity Choir, Pop Singers, and Chamber Orchestra, the highest levels of music classes offered at South, will travel the Jazz Festival, take clinics at Loyola University, and sight see. We asked junior Emily Barnhill, a member of Varsity Choir, to give us daily updates on what they were up to.

Day 3 – Saturday

Today we got to spend all day in the French quarter. A lot of people ate a lot if cool food like alligator, turtle soup, and crawfish. The jazz band performed this afternoon at the Historic Jazz National Park.

Day 2 – Friday

After waking up early, we bussed over to the French quarter. First we all walked around Cemetery Number 1 (a famous graveyard where they make a lot of movies). It was really cool because the graves are above ground because of the high water table level in New Orleans. Then we walked to the jazz festival and enjoyed beignets from the famous Cafe Du Monde. At noon the choir sang at the St. Louis cathedral which was AWESOME because the acoustics were fantastic. Then all groups went to Loyola University for clinics with Loyola music groups. We finished off the night with a river boat cruise down the Mississippi complete with a live jazz band and a buffet!

Day 1 – Thursday

After arriving in New Orleans and settling into our hotel, everybody went down to the French quarter jazz festival to listen to music and grab dinner. There were street performers on every corner, tons of food tents, and there was art everywhere. I think the most exotic thing that I saw on a menu was shrimp and alligator sausage cheesecake (apparently it was good). We spent the night relaxing in the hot tub and recovering from our 24 hour bus ride.