“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
Students from Anniston High School and Anniston Middle School joined our Donoho Jazz Band to honor MLK Day and showcase their talents at the Annual Martin Luther King Youth Participation Day at the Anniston City Meeting Center on Monday, January 21.
Band director, Mr. David Swinney, said that the students worked collaboratively to learn new music and techniques. The crowning event of the morning was when the students from all three bands joined together to play a tribute to the late Roy Hargrove entitled “Strasbourg,” to a crowd of over 1000 people.
Mr. Swinney, along with Anniston Band directors, Tyson Hall and Desmond Mitchell, joined the students in performance of this piece.
Mr. Swinney shares, “A couple of our (Donoho) guys took some solo time. They absolutely killed it. You would not have believed it. The crowd was screaming!”
Once again, our students have engaged their passion and honored a man of great passion on MLK Day!
