PROSPERITY — Prosperity native and S.C. Governors School of the Arts and Humanities student Morgan Hair recently returned from Sydney, Australia after being selected for the 2018 High School Honors Performance Series.

She and other students from around the world performed at the prestigious Sydney Opera House, she also performed at Carnegie Hall in February.

Hair plays the french horn and said she has had a love for music.

“When I was two or three I had this toy piano and I was always playing on it so my mom signed me up for piano lessons when I was three and I took those for about 10 years, but when I got into marching band in seventh grade I kind of had to stop playing, but I’ve been playing french horn for six years,” she said. “I actually didn’t have any intentions of joining band until my brother joined the band and then I saw how much fun he was having even though it was a lot of work and I said I wanted to try it.”

Before boarding the plane to Australia, Hair held various events to raise money to get there.

“A lot of fundraising went into getting to Australia, a lot of people in town helped us out with a spaghetti supper, I had a recital to raise money, it was really hard, but we ended up getting the money which was a huge relief, most of the money was for the plane tickets there, instead of the actual performance series package,” Hair said.

She added that multiple yard sales were also held with people donating items of their own to the yard sale.

Once the funds were raised Hair, along with her family, made there way to Australia, the program was held from July 18-23 and the performance was held on July 21.

Hair said leading up to show day the band had rehearsals every day for six hours, three in the mornings and three in the afternoons with two full days of rehearsal and a dress rehearsal the day of the concert.

She said playing with people from all walks of life was an amazing experience.

“It’s definitely a different level because you have those people that are all in and willing to pay that much money to play a 30 minute concert in this really cool concert hall. I met a lot of people that were really diverse, but we were also all the same in our love for music, so it was cool,” she said.

When she wasn’t in rehearsals Hair was able to take in the sights of Australia, visiting the Sydney Tower and the Blue Mountains. She also went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef with her family, got to hold koalas and enjoyed a dinner cruise around the Sydney Harbour.

Hair said she would love to go back to Sydney to experience more of what they have to offer and also play in more concert halls, but more than anything she enjoyed learning about different cultures.

“The culture is a lot different, there’s definitely a heavy Asian culture there which was cool, it was cool to exchange stories about cultures. I think the diversity was my favorite thing, and the fact that everyone in our group got really close,” she said.

Morgan Hair in front of the Sydney Opera House.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_Morgan-Australia.jpgMorgan Hair in front of the Sydney Opera House. Courtesy photo

Hair has been playing the french horn for the past six years and also performed at Carnegie Hall in February.
https://www.newberryobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/web1_Hair2018.jpgHair has been playing the french horn for the past six years and also performed at Carnegie Hall in February. Courtesy photo

By Kelly Duncan

kduncan@newberryobserver.com

Reach Kelly Duncan at 803-768-3123 ext. 1868 or on Twitter @TheNBOnews.