From the Yorktown school district…

The Valhalla Band Collaboration Project was created by the collaborative efforts of Yorktown High School’s Band teacher Emily Kluga and Valhalla High School’s Band teacher Dr. Scott Rimm-Hewitt. The idea was to hold a serious of shared rehearsals and practice sessions and to perform together at a joint Winter Concert held in Valhalla on December 8, 2008 at 7:00pm.

Late last year, Yorktown High School learned that the school’s auditorium was going to be under construction for much of the 2008-09 school year.  This news sent most of the performance and music programs wondering where they were going to perform and how would they manage while losing their central performance space.

The Yorktown Music Department got the creative juices going and spent some time brainstorming a solution. After a few phone calls and a bit of coordination, a potentially negative situation gave birth to something that had never occurred in the school’s history; they created the Valhalla Band Collaboration Project.

The collaboration began back in September when six student band-leaders from Valhalla visited Yorktown High School for the day where they attended rehearsals, spoke with the YHS band officers and took part in Yorktown’s Homecoming festivities. The Yorktown band reciprocated and played at Valhalla’s Homecoming. The two performances sparked a friendship between the two band programs and defined the positive power of music.

On Monday, November 17th, the entire Valhalla HS band visited YHS for part two of the collaboration project. The rehearsal was electric. After months of preparation, 40 new band friends from Valhalla joined the Yorktown band to prepare for the joint Winter Concert in December.

Valhalla and Yorktown are making beautiful music together. Their collaboration reflects the spirit of the season and has established a relationship that will continue well into the future.