Rather than spending a normal day at Palo Alto High School, 96 Paly musicians will be invading the streets of the Big Apple.

Tomorrow, the Paly band and orchestra will fly to New York City for three days where they will perform a concert and take in the sights of the city.

According to band director Jeff Willner, “You want to give the students experience of going on the road…[and] some other experiences than just playing here.”

Over 100 students, staff members, and parents will be going. The chaperones include Willner, fellow Paly band teacher Darin Ishimatsu, and parent chaperones.

At noon on Friday, the band will perform at the IBM Atrium at Trump Plaza. Symphonic and concert bands will combine musicians in a joint performance. Jazz band members will be attending but not playing at the performance.

Their concert pieces will include: Holst’s First Suite in E flat; a medley of modern Broadway tunes; Legends of Soul, a medley of soul music; and Times Square 1944.

The orchestra will play separately, performing Bach’s Fugue in G minor, Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5, and Mozart’s Divertimento in C major.

The total cost of the trip is about $1100, plus a $10 t-shirt that students are required to wear at clinics in the Chelsea Studios. The clinics consist of students learning from guest conductors, including some from Broadway.

They will stay at The Crowne Plaza Meadowlands in Secaucus, New Jersey.

“Whether we were going to have a trip at all depended on a balance [of musicians],” Willner said.

Highlights of New York City will include walking around Rockefeller Center and Times Square, dining at Mickey Mantle’s restaurant, touring Radio City Music Hall, attending a performance of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite performed by the New York Philharmonic, and seeing the musical Monty Python’s Spamalot.

The trip will culminate in a cruise of New York’s harbor on Saturday night.

To prepare for the performance, the students have “a lot of time to work out the kinks,” sophomore clarinet player Rebecca DeHovitz, said.

Additional lunch rehearsals have been necessary for the different classes to combine their musicians and prepare for the upcoming performances.

The band takes a trip every two years, and a “big trip” every four years. The last “big trip” was also to New York City, however “the big trip could change [in the future],” Willner said.

Two years ago, Paly musicians traveled to Southern California and performed in Disneyland. “It was pretty fun…[and] definitely worthwhile,” senior Bowen Wang, an alto saxophone player, said.

Members of the band and orchestra are looking forward to this opportunity to visit New York City. “I’m super excited,” junior Bryn Kimura, a trombone player, said.