It is a Christmas miracle that something as complex as Winter Fantasia happens. Despite the challenges, Winter Fantasia—a performance put on by all the music classes around the holiday season—has been a staple of the Floyd Central performing arts curriculum since Harold Yankey, the previous band director, started it 20 years ago.
Most students have seen the finished product; however, only a select fraction of the school knows of the difficulties in making it happen. It’s a complex logistical process that demands delicate care and has been perfected by the music department over the years. Orchestra director Doug Elmore heads the preparation process. Elmore makes sure to start this planning very early.
“Well, the first thing that happens is the year before, during our calendar planning meeting, we select the week in December when we will do it,” said Elmore.
Elmore and the other directors work to coordinate with the different departments. Scheduling conflicts could lead to the loss of key players and, in the worst-case scenario, the loss of a director.
“We then collaborate with Mrs. Chalfant about the theater, to make sure that the theater is available for the time. We try to compare carefully with the athletic schedule to ensure that we don’t have direct conflict with sporting events. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t,” said Elmore.
Once scheduling is over, the directors start assessing their talent, said Elmore. Certain key players and talents are very important to the performance, like freshman Lincoln Fogarty, who is one of the integral players in the school’s symphony orchestra due to him being the principal trumpet, or like senior Wiliam Trask, who serves as the section leader of the violas. It’s their job to make sure their sections sound excellent.
“It’s just about practicing, which is really about going through it slowly. It can be hard music. Most of it isn’t too hard. [It] sounds pretty good with the choir, though. So it’s just like practicing, knowing what other people play,” said Fogarty.
“The best case scenario for Fantasia is what happens every year; people come out with friends and family, have a good time, and listen to some great music. The money raised is a nice added bonus,” said Trask.
Certain classes are a little harder to prepare than others, though, because of their skill level.
“I mean, the classes that have freshmen in them are the ones that haven’t done this before.
There’s a little bit more preparation that goes into that. I wouldn’t say it’s more difficult, but it’s just different preparation because they don’t like it. I always show them the video of the previous year so they know what it is,” said choir and handbells director Angela Hampton.
Regardless of talent, one thing stays the same every year.
“The big rocks don’t change from year to year. The three mass pieces have traditionally been ‘Hallelujah Chorus,’ ‘Do You Hear What I Hear,’ and ‘White Christmas.’ And since those are traditionally done pieces, it’s a little less arduous to learn them, since a lot of the kids have experience with them already,” said Elmore.
In other instances, the music picked for Winter Fantasia can be a new experience for young musicians. “I’m not repeating anything with the choir or the handbells we did last year,” said Hampton.
When it comes to the three mass pieces, those require the most coordination between departments. They are frequently the most played in every class while leading up to the big performance. Elmore said that the worst-case scenario in performance is if one of the mass pieces goes badly. It can’t be understated that the mass pieces are also part of the novelty of Winter Fantasia, so they are integral to the performance.
To make sure the mass pieces and the individual sets go well, a plethora of elements need to be coordinated between the departments.
“I think some of the biggest problems just result from the number of people we have on and off the stage in a performance. So the hallways through here are crazy during Winter Fantasia because there’ll be a group on the stage, a group that has just exited the stage, and a group that is going on the stage all the time,” said Hampton. “And sometimes, if our timing is not just right, we’ll have the next group after them waiting as well. And so it gets very congested. And so sometimes we have traffic flow problems, or just like, people congestion problems because kids are just back and forth a lot.”
Though this coordination may be routine for the other directors, band director John Cooksey is very new to the process. He has had to step into the shoes of a giant, and, so far, he has succeeded.
“Collaborating with my music department colleagues Ms. Hampton, Ms. Johnson, and Mr. Elmore on this concert event was incredibly rewarding. Floyd Central is so lucky to have these very dedicated teachers and incredibly talented musicians leading their respective music students. I had a great time and have truly enjoyed my time working with the entire performing and visual arts department staff at FC,” said Cooksey.
Despite the efforts of the directors, it wouldn’t be possible without the dedicated students. Most students have an understanding of this and work their best.
One example of this would be junior Landon Seibert, who is a member of multiple choirs. Students like Seibert sacrifice a lot for Fantasia.
“It’s really difficult. Like last night, I didn’t get home until 10 o’clock, so I did homework very late into the night. I try and get as much done as I can between the start of Fantasia and the end of school, but it’s usually a lot of late nights,” said Seibert.
In addition to the sacrifices students make, they also believe in the program and work hard to play their best.
“Anytime you ask over 450 musicians to do something wonderfully and beautifully together with musical sensitivity and balance, that’s a giant challenge. And, fortunately, our kids are—I’ll just say it. They’re brilliant at making that happen. We can get our Christmas miracle every year and have this work because the kids try so hard to do this well,” said Elmore.
It can’t be understated that preparing for Winter Fantasia is a cumbersome process. It can happen through the sacrifices of students and directors alike. In some Christmas movies, a Christmas miracle is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Here at Floyd Central, it happens every year.