The Music Machine 

2015-2016 The Music Machine

The Music Machine, Bonita Vista High School’s Mixed Show Choir was formed in September 1976 by Ron Bolles.  Forty years later, it is still going strong, now under the direction of Gail Kennedy.  The Music Machine’s cumulative record for festival competitions is 401 awards in 257+ festivals with 279 top awards.  The most festival awards received by a group were 22 in 1996.  The most consecutive first places were received in the 1998 festival season.  Seven consecutive first places were won, including 4 sweeps of all top awards.  The Machine first went to Los Angeles area competitions in 1981.  For six years, they competed in the Reno International Jazz Festival where they received 2nd place twice, and then proceeded to win first place for four consecutively years, permanently retiring the trophy to BVHS!  Other international competitions include two trips to Orlando, Florida to compete in the International Showstoppers competition at Disney World, where they placed 2nd and 4th.  They also placed 4th at the Showstoppers Festival in St. Louis in 2000.  The Music Machine has been asked to representthe State of California nine times in National Competitions.  In 1997, they won the Young Americans National Invitational festival, bringing home to Bonita the title of National Grand Champion.  In 2010, The Music Machine was named Grand Champions and Best Overall Music at the Heritage Festival in San Francisco, and in 2011 was once again named Grand Champion at the Finale National Show choir Competition in New York City - sweeping all top awards, including best vocals, best choreography, best show design and best combo.  The Music Machine has traveled to 22 countries on 4 continents in the past 31 years.  They were the first BVHS class to travel internationally.  The Machine was the first American High School Show Choir to be featured at the Montreaux Jazz Festival and the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1983.  It was also the first American High School Show Choir to be presented in the People’s Republic of China.  The Machine has been featured performers at four Disney properties around the world.  They performed in Washington D.C. in 1987 in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and on theMillennium Stage at the Kennedy Center in 1999.  In 2006, under the direction of Roxanne Ronacher, The Music Machine opened the “Voices of the World” stage in Salzburg, Austria to begin the international celebration of Mozart’s 250th Birthday.  In 2012, they added a 22nd country, performing in Toronto, Canada at the Heritage International Music Festival.

2016 Festival Competition Set: "POISONED' 
Directed by Gail Kennedy
Choreographed by Gerald Espinosa and David Legg
Show Design and Musical Arrangements by David Legg