Students perform with music legend Jimmy Sturr

Third graders from Golden Hill Elementary School joined local celebrity and Florida Union Free School District alumni Jimmy Sturr at his annual Christmas Show on Saturday, Dec. 6. The students performed five numbers after being led out in sleigh formation alongside Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.

Sturr is a 1958 graduate and was recently inducted into the S.S. Seward Sports Hall of Fame. The three-sport athlete at S.S. Seward played soccer, basketball and baseball. Now, he is an 18-time Grammy Award winner. Sturr’s orchestra is on the Top Ten List of the All-Time Grammy Awards, and has acquired more Grammy nominations than anyone in the history of musical polka awards.

The students who joined him on stage were hard at work for 10 weeks preparing for the performance. They had many songs to learn and needed to prepare for what it would be like to perform on a professional stage in front of such a large audience.

“I’ve been singing with Jimmy’s band on his Christmas tour for the past 22 years,” said Golden Hill’s music teacher Kristin Risedorph. “It was such a cool experience to share the stage with the kids. From being scared - we had songs with so many words to learn right at the start - to getting to see their wide eyes in amazement at the size of the theatre, the experience the kids had shows really how you have to work hard and keep practicing to make these kinds of things come to fruition.”

The students had a blast on stage. Student Kenny Roberts said he had a great time performing for the audience.

“My favorite part was Rudolph,” student Ivy Wilton said. “I liked that we got to wear antlers on stage!”