Leading the Band and Orchestra class this school year is Mr. Brandon Cunningham, a successful musician who is experienced on and off the stage. During his 3-year gap in his teaching career post-COVID, he got the opportunity to work with people like Beyonce, H.E.R., and Kendrick Lamar, and then decided to “come back to the classroom” this year at LACES. Although most people would pick being a professional musician over being a teacher, he explained that he wanted something more than to just make music.
“Being a professional musician is cool but for me I missed being able to help musicians grow, and I wasn’t really able to do that in my role as just a professional musician,” said Cunningham. He shares that so far his experience at LACES has been great, describing the kids as phenomenal, engaged learners, who are passionate about learning and practicing this year’s winter performance which took 2 months.
This year’s performance incorporated Christmas themes and fan favorites, including: Someday At Christmas by Stevie Wonder, Themes from a Nutcracker from The Nutcracker, and Christmas time with Charlie Brown from Charlie Brown, which included instruments like guitar, piano, flutes, and drums. It also included some regular jazzy tunes like Girl from Ipanema originally sung by Stan Getz, and Someone to Watch Over Me by Ella Fitzgerald.
Both the Jazz and Orchestra groups successfully created a magical, festive atmosphere which drew in and soothed the audience. The band and orchestra really captured the smooth, harmonic essence of the Christmas spirit.
