Singing for their airfare

WESTFALL — The Delaware Valley High School auditorium was alive with the sound of music last Saturday night. A concert to benefit the music department’s spring trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, was held for the first time in the program’s history. DV participated in the trip four years ago, and will resume the tradition this year. The music department sent an audition tape to Disney, and was selected to play this May. In Orlando, the students will be given the opportunity to perform on stage in one of the Disney parks. Funds raised from the concert, which are estimated at $2,200, will aid financially-challenged students for the trip. All seven of the program’s performance groups — the jazz band, string quintet, concert choir, symphony orchestra, chamber choir, chamber string orchestra, and concert band — collaborated to compose one concert, a feat that had not yet been attempted. The music students prepared since the beginning of the school year for the benefit concert, while practicing pieces for football games, in the pep band’s case, and for the annual winter concerts. On the conductor’s stand that evening was Lance Rauh, band director, Gordon Pauling, chorus director, and David Swinehart, orchestra director. Rauh called the event a really exciting opportunity.