Wando has a grand program of both arts and sports, however when it comes to showing support for them, sports are being favored. This is not just the case for budgeting, but shows up especially at pep rallies, when seniors from sports are being honored, while musical arts programs are not mentioned.
Senior Holly Homan, who has been doing theater for all four years of high school, believes that the arts deserve to be honored just like the sports are.
“We put in just as much work for our musicals, for our theater performances, for our competitions, if not more, than … athletes,” Homan said. “I think we’re getting better at it, especially because… this was the first time at a pep rally that we got to perform, ‘All That Jazz’ from ‘Chicago.’ So that was like a big deal”.
Senior Adelaide Lanz, who is in the honors orchestra, is also hoping that the musical arts will be able to perform more for the school.
“I understand why our concerts are mostly parents, like, that makes sense. But I think advertising the concerts, or even if we could… play sometime in the PAC (Performing Arts Center) for, like, an AP (Advanced Placement) Academy credit, or we could … put on a concert, like, we’re in orchestra because we like to perform. And so … we want a chance to show off to all the people in our classes, like, ‘this is what I enjoy doing, I’m gonna’ make a performance for you.’ But we just don’t have that chance often,” Lanz said.
But all of the orchestra’s hard work and efforts are paying off.
“We have four performances a year. One of those is music that we then take to CPA (Carolina Performing Arts) concert performance assessment, which is where we go in front of judges, and we play that, and we also do sight reading where we’ve never seen the music before. So that gets judged as… a way to evaluate how well the orchestra program at the school is doing. We got Superior with Distinction times three this year. So we really are the best in the area,” Lanz said.
Wando’s orchestra also travels to learn and compete.
“Part of our New York City trip is we’re going to watch the New York Philharmonic play, and … of course, we love our instruments, and we’re all happy to be musicians. So it’s nice that we’re all excited [that], like, we get to go watch them. They’re playing this really cool symphony and we … watched a video about … the composition of that music and how symbolic it is” Lanz said. “We learned about that, which is something we don’t normally do”.
The arts are not only important at Wando: they are a cornerstone of society.
“We first need to … look at our modern, like, television and TV shows, and … actors and musicians, and singers, and artists, like, they all started somewhere, like, you can be that one day… that is literally art and culture and music and entertainment, and that’s what we consume. Like, that’s what keeps this place … alive, like a popular term I like to think of is ‘bread and circuses,’ which is when, like, the economy is, like, failing, or people are in … the depths [of] despair, they eat food, and they watch a show, and they have fun. So, like, the arts and the culture and the entertainment, that’s what keeps society flowing … I think you need that to keep, like, the culture of, like, the world alive and to keep our economy moving,” Homan said.
