Watch Horizon High School’s Epic Quarantine Band Life Video

Coronavirus. Lord, how tired are we of hearing about it? How tired are we of being locked in our houses and not being able to go on about our regular lives? Pretty tired, let me tell you. We can't go to work, school, church, restaurants, movie theaters, concerts, the park. Man. This is tough, but the Horizon High School band director, Raul Candelaria, decided he wanted to bring some smiles and joy to his students quarantine life.

I spoke with Mr. C and he said that about two weeks ago he sent out a message to his students on their remote learning classroom platform and asked if they had their band instruments handy. He told the students to pretend like they were playing for a project he was working on but didn't tell them right away what the project was. He filmed the students, wrote the music you hear in the video with a little help from an online music program, wrote the rap lyrics himself and then sent the video of him rapping and the kids playing to a former student, Kevin Venegas, who put the video together. The whole thing took about three weeks to finish.

Kevin just happens to be my former cameraman from my KCOS cooking show. El Paso is a small town no matter how many people live here. He's a very talented editor and the finished project is one that Mr. C said he did to help lift the spirits of his students. He said as teenagers, they are having a tough time not being able to be around their friends and the seniors in the band are understandably bummed out by the way their last year ended.

I've gotta hand it to Mr. C. His time and effort and understanding of his student's plight during this era of coronavirus is commendable. His students at Horizon High School are lucky to have him in their lives!