Congratulations to students from Heritage Christian Academy who made an impressive sweep of an international Worldstrides music competition in Orlando,
Fla. Saturday.
The 67 Grade 10-12 students swept the competition as the top overall school, and received gold standard and first place ranking in each of their competition areas: Band, Choir, Jazz Band and Percussion Ensemble. Their trophies included top choir, top band, top instrumental combine, adjudicators award and overall program award.
Of seven individual student Maestro awards at the festival, Heritage students earned five. Congratulations to Lyden Hayes-Sparkes, Ryan Nunwieller, Shannon Wattis, J.D. Gorospe, and Joseph Gorospe
As a result of recent successes, HCA has been invited to participate in the Worldstrides Festival at Carnegie Hall in New York and have accepted an invitation by TQI Performance to perform at an international music festival in the Netherlands during April of 2015.
International competitions are part of a three-year tour rotation within the HCA secondary music program under the direction of Torrance Airhart. Students fundraise to cover the cost of tours in partnership with the school’s Music Parents Association. Heritage Christian Academy has seen top level success in previous competitions including, Anaheim, Chicago and Vancouver.
“At HCA, our music program o?ers our students tremendous opportunities to develop and demonstrate their gifts at competitions and in ministry," says Heritage Christian Principal Ryan Brennan. "The program, and tours like this one, create learning opportunities that cannot be o?ered in a classroom. While the successes at competitions are awesome, it is the learning and the collaboration that happens before and during music tours that is critical. Of course, none of this could happen without the dedicated teachers, sta?, volunteers and students that work so hard to make it all happen.” ?