Santa Barbara Students Make Their Broadway Debut

Condor Community Choir Travels to New York to Perform in National Youth Ensemble

By Callie Fausey Tue Apr 15, 2025 | 01:02pm

Santa Barbara students just hit the big time, ditching their schools’ halls for the Broadway stage this week.

Manhattan Concert Productions invited Santa Barbara Junior High teacher Rich Lashua — the 2025 Santa Barbara Bowl performing arts teacher of the year — and his students to perform in a national youth ensemble for the one-night concert on Monday. On the bill was a variety of showtunes and a cast of real Broadway stars.

For the trip — funded by a one-time Cal Arts block grant — Lashua assembled the “Condor Community Choir,” featuring a mix of 34 talented elementary and junior high students from Santa Barbara Unified schools.

They flew to New York on Friday night to practice with the whole ensemble, following weekly rehearsals of a number of songs from movies including Moana and Encanto that started in September.

Lashua may have broken a record for the number of times one adult had to listen to a group of children sing “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” over eight months.

“The sweeping majority of these kids have not been to New York City, and so going across the country, going to sing on Broadway is a huge, huge deal,” Lashua said. “The students took the time out of their own schedules to be here, stay late, and work hard.”

The student singers showed up at 4 p.m. for practice last Monday. They ran through their choreography and harmonies, while a proud Daniel Dupont, Santa Barbara Junior High principal, danced and sang along. Sending such a large group of students across the country was a lot of paperwork, he said, but completely worth it.

“Maybe this will be the trip that convinces them, ‘This is what I want to do,’” he smiled.

A mix of 34 Santa Barbara students (not all pictured) auditioned and were chosen to perform in a huge youth ensemble in New York. | Credit: Oscar Hernandez

But while the trip is a point of pride for the district’s arts community, its timing coincides with 85 layoff notices sent to teachers, including multiple arts and music positions. Although many notices will be rescinded, teachers and students have been protesting the potential cuts, arguing that they could harm arts education in the district.

Tensions hit a high note at the most recent school board meeting last Tuesday, April 8, when a group of high school students, invited to start off the meeting by singing a song from the musical Hadestown, instead stood silently in protest of how the cuts may affect music instruction.

As the instrumental track of “The Wedding Song” from Hadestown began to play, one of the students pulled a sign that read, “If you defund the arts, there won’t be any.” They stood quietly for four minutes, refusing to sing as the roomful of teachers and the board looked on. Speakers then took to the podium to oppose the reductions in force and urge the board to look at cuts elsewhere.

“We have therapy built into our school day,” said Chloe Voigt, a 9th-grader at San Marcos High School. “Therapy for me is walking into the choir room.”

Despite the layoff notices, Superintendent Hilda Maldonado says that the arts are incredibly important to the district, using the Broadway trip as an example. She said the district does not intend to defund the arts.

“Thanks to the money from the block grant, we’re able to offer students something beyond Santa Barbara,” she said. “This is another example of our deep commitment to the arts, and the value that we know it brings as a part of our holistic education pathway for all our students.”

Students returned this Tuesday, after a weekend of Disney-like magic and classic melodies in the Big Apple.