MSMS music students kicked off the annual Sites and Sounds Tour season by performing Sunday at Columbus’s Lion Hills Club in a brunch concert.

The MSMS Blue Notes participants are students from MSMS who decide to express themselves through music. The MSMS band and choir are led by instructor Dawn Barham, and each year the students travel to various historic and cultural sites, performing all along the way.

“It went fantastic!” senior Jackson Sparkman said.

The next upcoming event for the Sites and Sounds is Thursday. They are going to the coast to play Biloxi and Poplarville and go sightseeing there and in New Orleans. In addition, they will be playing in the Veteran’s Day parade in Biloxi. “That is a totally different experience from playing a brunch,” Barham said.

Many of the students involved in Sites and Sounds formerly played instruments and sang before they came to MSMS, so they were asked what about music keeps them interested. “Well my mom was the coach for the dance team in Laurel, so I was always with the high school band. I really liked listening to the drumline when I was little, and I wanted to play one day. I started percussion sophomore year, and I still love it! Yesterday we had our first concert at Lion Hill’s country club and it went very well!” Mia Parker explained.

The students are excited about all the upcoming events and junior Erin Williams expressed how she felt about the Blue Notes, the brunch performance, and how she began playing instruments. “I joined the Blue Notes because I wanted to continue playing my instrument at this school. The brunch performance was a fun learning experience. The group saw how it felt to play together in front of a large crowd and that was really cool. I am very excited about the Sites and Sounds tour of south Mississippi. I started playing viola about 7 1/2 years ago because my parents both played musical instruments and I thought people who played instruments were sensational,” Williams explained.