Lehighton band heads to the Grand Ole Opry

Lehighton students will have their chance to shine on a national stage Saturday as the high school’s band performs at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

While Lehighton music teacher Bryan Buffington is no stranger to the Music City, having taken previous Tribe bands in 2011 and 2015, he said it is always exciting seeing a new group of students have the experience.

“It’s such a wonderful place to take a music group,” Buffington said Wednesday, one day before the band’s scheduled departure. “For the kids to have a chance to see the epicenter of such a popular music style is a great opportunity. The city really embraces it and cherishes it and it’s great to be a part of that for a few days.”

Nashville is famously the place where many country music legends got their start. Even if you’re not a fan of the genre, however, the experience offers something for everyone.

“I’ve had students who were die-hard anti-country and after the trip they told me it was amazing and one of their favorite trips they had ever been on,” Buffington said.

The Country Music Hall of Fame purchased the historic RCA recording studio, leading to an incredible opportunity for Lehighton students. Lehighton’s jazz and marching bands will have a recording session at the studio guided by professional recording technicians.

“They get to go through the whole routine, that’s such a great experience for them,” Buffington said. “They’ll be able to talk to people in the field of professional music about how those people got to where they are and what they do on a daily basis.”

While they are going to perform, Buffington said he hopes the band soaks in the entire experience. The Nashville trip, along with the Disney trip of a few years ago, he said, are a way to get Lehighton known nationally and give the students something to remember outside of the normal band functions.

“Being in a band is so much more than Friday night football games or parades,” he said. “While that’s a critical part of it, our students are getting to showcase their talent around the world. They get an opportunity to see the world and know that it’s so much bigger than their little slice of life in Carbon County.”

Taking music totally out of the equation, the trip is also about bringing the students closer together.

“Of course you have the normal stuff that goes along with teenagers being together for that amount of time,” Buffington said, “but I think a lot more friendships are built on trips like this than enemies made.”