By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


200 Hartland High School band and choir students spent the past week performing at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

The band performed a parade in the Magic Kingdom on March 30th, while the choir performed at Disney Springs on March 29th. Both groups also participated in music workshops with Walt Disney World musicians.

The Marching Eagles, under the direction of Brad Laibly, Joe Guarr, and Allison Laibly, paraded throughout the Magic Kingdom as an opening act for the 3pm afternoon parade in front of a sold-out crowd of 70,000 guests.

The choir, led by Bailey Shepherd, performed at the Waterside Stage at Disney Springs.

The band students attended two workshops led by Scott Devlin, who has been a Walt Disney World musician for 25 years. He leads Walt Disney World saxophone quartet that can be heard regularly at the Magic Kingdom.

The choir attended a workshop led by Jenny, who is an alumni of the Voices of Liberty acapella ensemble that performs daily at EPCOT. Musicians at each of the workshops learned what it was like to be a Disney musician and how to work as a musician in a recording studio. The trip was originally scheduled for March 2021 but was canceled due to the pandemic.

More information is in the attached press release.

Main Photo - Marching Eagles - Credit: Matt Tennis
Middle Photo - Marching Eagles - Credit: Michelle
Bottom - Hartland Choir - Credit: Bernice Bowels