Auburn choir students set their sights on Disneyland trip

Published 7:00 am Friday, January 23, 2026

“Let’s try it again,” said Ryan Hutchison, aka, “Mr. Hutch,” queuing up for the umpteenth time Tuesday morning a recording of Elvis Presley belting out “Jailhouse Rock.”

The students in front of him, members of the Auburn High School show choir, got into position, as Hutchison called out instructions and demonstrated the step.

“The warden threw a party in the county jail…” (“Back step, triple step, triple step, back step”) … “the prison band was there and they began to wail (“Triple step back”) … “the band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing…”

“You’re going to drop your right hand,” he instructed the boys. “Then, you’re going to go over the girl’s head as she goes in front of you this way, so your arms aren’t going to be in front of her face.”

Lots of jostling, bumping and laughter. Clearly, the kids, ranging from freshmen to seniors, paired up into him-and-her dance partners, were enjoying themselves and excited about what they were doing in a class that teaches them to both sing and dance.

Hutchison is taking the school’s show and jazz choirs to Disneyland over Memorial Day weekend in May. In so doing, he’s carrying on an annual tradition, which, with the exception of a pause for COVID, has been going on since 1995.

“We’ve been doing a lot of fundraising,” Hutchison said. “The students have a date, which is at the end of February, to have all their money in, and then we’ll see if we can go. Most likely, they will be able to go. I have some scholarship money if they need it, but usually they do a lot of fundraising on their own. We’ve a got a couple of fundraisers coming up with local food-and-service locations.

“Some of these students have never been on an airplane,” Hutchison continued. “I’ve had students in the past who’ve never been outside of Auburn, which is pretty wild. It’s a chance to see them in a whole new light, and a whole new area. It’s very rewarding. They’re really excited about it. I will continue to do it as long as the kids want to do it because it’s a lot of fundraising for them.”

Hutchison, a 2001 Auburn High School graduate, is now in his eleventh year of teaching at his old alma mater, where he took the same show choir class when he was a student there. He went on to earn his undergraduate degree in music production and engineering at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, before moving to Los Angeles to work on sound for film and television. After earning his master’s degree in teaching, he moved to Europe for several years before returning to the states, and from there to AHS to take the job he now has after his predecessor, Candy Gilbert, retired.

“This class is a totally unique experience for them,” Hutchison said of his students. “Not all of them are dancers. I have the two classes that I take with me. Show choir is unique because it’s one of the only show choirs around, and they sing and dance. It’s a very dance-intensive class. Most of them don’t have dance training, so I teach them what they need to know to dance alone and with partners.”

Hutchison is one of those lucky souls who get to do in life exactly what he loves.

“It’s building relationships with the students. I meet them where they are. I also engage with them outside the regular classroom, day to day. So I like to know about their personal lives and support them in whatever they do. I go to sports events, theater productions, anything they’re involved in as much as I can,” he said.

The smiles on the faces of senior Sapphire Patrick, 18, junior Angel Cabral, 17, and freshman Cesar Cisneros, 14, make it clear that the affection is mutual and that this 10:10 a.m. to 11 a.m. class is their gem of the day. And not merely for the dancing and singing.

“What makes this choir really special is that there’s not a lot of us, so we spend a lot of time together, and the bonds that we make are so good,” said Patrick. “And we’re all really close. We talk all the time, we hang out together outside of school. It’s different from other choirs. There’s advanced choir, and there’s jazz choir, with so many people in those choirs … but in this one, we all get to dance with each other, and we all get to learn about each other.”

”It’s not the sort of class where you have to come in before school or after school,” Cabral explained. “We’re here every single day. And it’s really convenient because some kids’ schedules are really complicated, and some of them do dual credits, where they take college classes outside of high school.”

Cisneros is in his first year in show choir.

“Before this,” Cisneros said, “my sister was in it, so I’ve really gotten into it.”

And all of them “can’t wait” to get to Disneyland.