On March 24, music students departed Redwood for a weekend of bonding in Yosemite Valley.

Music students from Advanced Performance Workshop (APW), Jazz Band A and Wind Ensemble were invited on the trip.

The students all brought their acoustic instruments and played them each night, according to junior Bryte Darden, a member of APW.

“Every night at the village where we were staying we would have a big jam session and play on the spot,” Darden said.

Audrey Smith, a senior in APW, felt that the connection that the music students had when performing at night was unique.

“We did jam sessions every night and it was cool how easy it is for a bunch of young musicians to throw together a jam session and know this universal thing which is like how to set up a group jam session— everyone has their part,” Smith said.

Unlike past Yosemite trips, the music department opted out of performing at different locations in the Central Valley, according to Darden.

Students felt that the trip was less focused on working on music and more focused on bonding with their fellow music students.

“All the kids who weren’t really friends before, it’s obvious they are becoming integrated into the whole group,” Smith said.

Darden also felt that the trip helped create unity among the students.

“Instead of a more work-oriented trip, it was more in- the-moment hang out with your music friends and bond,” Darden said.

Junior Jesse Petersen felt similarly about the trip.

“[Music class is] less about the grade and it’s more about what you’re taking from the class. That’s what I feel like this trip is related to,” Peterson said.

By rooming together in tent cabins in Half Dome Village, as well as traversing up steep trails every day, the students were able to learn more about each other on a personal level in a unique location.

The students spent two days exploring Yosemite Valley by hiking.

According to Darden, music teacher and chaperone John Mattern would give them easy, moderate and difficult trails to choose from, and students would choose which trails to go on in groups of their own choosing.

The students embarked on hiking trails that led them to destinations such as Vernal Falls, Yosemite Falls, Nevada Falls, and Mirror Lake.

“I was also just really surprised at how fast everyone was and how [in] good shape music kids could be,” said Smith. “I consider myself to be in pretty good shape but I was at the back. They were going full steam ahead up the waterfalls.”

The trip was not funded by the school or by the music program, according to Petersen. Instead, most of the students going on the trip paid for it themselves or fundraised money through events such as bake sales.