Burton's band to perform in the Sugar Bowl

Every year, the John I. Burton Marching Band takes a trip to reward the members of the band. These trips are often costly, requiring students to do extensive fundraising and/or pay remaining fees out-of-pocket. While Burton's band trips are expensive, they offer a priceless experience to students. This year, the association is taking an eleven hour bus ride down to New Orleans on December 30th through January 3rd. While on this trip, the band will visit many locations.  They will be touring the city, visiting World War II memorial, visiting the French Quarter, touring a cemetery, going on a New Years dinner party on a river boat through the Mississippi river, and last of all performing at the Sugar Bowl.

For the Sugar Bowl performance, John I. Burton will be accompanied by ten other bands. They will be performing "On the Town" with a guest singer, although they do not know who it will be.  They will also be performing "Dancing in the Streets." This will then transition into "Uptown Funk." This will be one of Burton's largest band performances to date.

From the selection of songs that the ten bands are playing, certain songs will be more challenging for specific instruments. For instance, "Uptown Funk" will be harder to play on the saxophone, clarinet, and for the trumpet. Maggie R., a saxophone player in the band, said "Learning this music was way beyond hard because of the rhythms."   Kali D. a flute player in the band, said "Learning this music was extremely hard. No song, in particular, was really hard to learn; it is the whole performance that is the challenge."

This event will be televised so thousands upon thousands of people will be watching from all over the nation. With such an extensive audience, there are mixed opinions about this approaching performance. Some feel confident while others are nervous. Be sure to watch your fellow high school marching band perform at the Sugar Bowl on January 2nd, 2017.

Written by: Austin Q. and Michael M.