Weslaco East students enjoy music during trip

WESLACO — Although it wasn't part of the original plan, students with the Weslaco East orchestra took part in what they said was a valuable expedition during their trek to Houston last month.

Twelve students, along with director Brooke Neal, took the school year's end trip to see musician Eugene Ugorski perform with the Houston Symphony at Jones Hall.

The original plan was for the East students to see Yo-Yo Ma, a popular cellist and composer, but the trip was delayed during last month's swine flue precautions.

Still, Neal said the trip was an amazing learning experience for her students.

"In many ways I feel like the concert we went to was better because it was where we were sitting, the performer was younger," she said. "The students were impressed by it."

As an orchestra lover, Neal has been to quite a few halls in her lifetime, but said she hadn't seen anything like the historic Jones Hall, a facility that can seat as many as 3,000 people.

"It was quite an impressive place," Neal said. "For my students to see it was really nice."

As part of the experience, Neal said her students sat in the front about 19 rows back and also enjoyed going to the Galleria Mall and a delicious dinner at a nice restaurant.

A few days later, the East Orchestra gave a strong performance during its spring concert. Neal said her students were inspired by their trip.

"They were in the mindset that they wanted to perform at a high level," she said.

To make the visit to Houston, Neal said students raised more than $4,000 through a number of fundraising efforts including candy and bake sales.

The trip was also made possible by a generous donor, Neal said.

Moe Lopez, newly elected to the WISD school board, gifted the orchestra two tickets to the recent George Strait concert at the Dodge Arena to use as prizes for a raffle.

The Weslaco Booster Club handled the sales and sold almost 400 tickets, raising approximately $2,000.

"We were blessed that we had someone who was generous," Neal said.