Over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day long weekend, Grayslake Central High School’s choir performed at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, FL. There, they performed for people in the park and worked with park employees in a vocal workshop.

“We performed at Disney Springs, which is an outside facility,” said choir director Liza Shapin. “It’s a part of Disney World, but it’s accessible without a ticket, so it’s kind of like an outdoor mall. They have a stage set up there in the middle of the facility, so we performed on that stage. What was really cool was that shoppers and passersby were stopping to watch the performance.

The night before leaving, the choir had a “lock-in” at the school from 9 pm until 1 am, to ensure that all of the students made it on time to the trip. Junior Evie White, a member of the choir, said that Ms. Shapin decided upon 9 pm because “people’s parents would still be awake enough to drive us to the school.”

On Friday, all three choir groups flew down for a four-day trip. The mixed ensemble, treble choir (women’s choir), and concert choir had the opportunity to work with an employee at Disney named Todd to advance their singing.

Todd’s three-hour workshop had the choir sing a melody from the movie Tangled that was then layered into the movie. “We did the workshop on Sunday, which was really fun,” said choir student and freshman Neveah Bridges.

While the choir was at Disney to practice and perform, they were also allowed to explore around the park.

“We shared a hotel room with our groups,” said choir student and sophomore Gabriella Bassi. “So you’d pick the friends that you got to stay with, and you’d hang out with them for the majority of the day, and then you’d stay in your hotel room together. Just going through the parks with all of my friends was awesome.”