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Cindi Johnston-Turner
cindi johnston-turner
When I first arrived at Parkside High School as a young teacher in 1989, students understood a band traveling experience as a fun, week-long trip to a warm Caribbean location where the 60+ member band only performed one, or perhaps two concerts. There was little meaningful interaction with the host community. Very few activities were carried out as a group, and students "hung out" in cliques.
My personal experience as a high school student was very different. We traveled to the United States for 12 days during March Break and performed ten or eleven concerts, each in a different school, in a different town. We stayed with host families of the band members we were visiting. Almost everything the band did, we did as a group, as an ensemble. Cliques were strongly discouraged. The overarching goal of tour was to grow: musically and personally. I remember Tour as personally transforming . While I returned exhausted, I felt proud that I had accomplished something worthwhile. I had 'connected' to the other band members and I had learned much about music and performing. Because of that connection with my fellow band members and the many adventures we had endured and enjoyed together, I had a greater sense of Self. I know now that those experiences, in a profound way, changed me forever.
When I became a music educator and band director, I knew that band tour had been a transformation for me, and it should also be transformational for my students. So for many years and many band tours, I tried very hard to produce transformational experiences for my students. Still, on many tours over the first six years, I achieved only moderate success. Each tour taught me significant lessons by presenting difficult challenges--treacherous driving conditions and an incompetent coach operator, inadequate preparation of the participants, non-cohesiveness of ensemble members, poor choice of chaperons, individual behaviour problems, and so on.
Then came the New Mexico Tour '96. The power and mystery of what happened during the New Mexico Tour '96 compelled me to attempt to describe the experience of that journey and identify what made it so special. I explore the richness...