Drumbeat. MSBOA Band Festival

Transcription

1 Drumbeat Covering the activities and endeavors of the Beal City Bands in the classroom, in the gymnasium, and the concert hall... A Quarterly Newsletter Issue No 29 - February 2012 CMU Jazz Fest Our annual trip to the campus of CMU to perform and get highquality commentary on the development of our students. High School Solo & Seven events involving eleven students prepare for this event in February & 3 Festival Winds Discover what exactly our concert on Sunday, February 26 is about and how it impacts the development of your student and MSBOA Band Festival. & 4 MSBOA Band Festival Our Middle School Band will perform on Friday, March 16. Find out where! Middle School Solo & Very much along the same lines as High School S/E Festival, this is quickly becoming a great tradition for our middle school students i n d e v e l o p i n g musicianship skills. Swiss Steak Dinner Our final fundraiser of the year - this annual event allows to break bread with our community. Be sure to mark your calendars! Page 5 What is Letters Home? And why isn t Concert Band attending MSBOA Festival? And why is this event on a Wednesday? It has become customary that we explore the opportunity to travel with the high school Concert Band every two years. The years we do not travel, our Concert Band undergoes SPECIAL FESTIVAL EDITION the traditional MSBOA Festival experience. In years in which we offer the opportunity to travel, where commentary, clinic or adjudication is central to our travel, we explore an interdisciplinary event to engage other curricula of the school and and highlight the impact and commentary music makes on important events. This year, our students selected to perform a program called Letters Home. Produced once before at Beal City several years ago, this program features real letters from men and women in the armed services to loved ones throughout American history. Letters Home will be produced in conjunction with Ms. Gigowski s Drama class and both Ms. Gigowski and Ms. Marshall will serve as narrators during the production. Please mark your calendars, invite friends and community members and join us Wednesday, March 21 at 7:00PM for this moving tribute to the men and women who have put their lives on the line for our liberty. Talent Show Congratulations to all Isabella County Talent Show participants - but especially to our own Patrick Schafer and Emily Steffke who performed so very well on Sunday, February 5. You represented our program with amazing talent and class! WAY TO GO! IMPORTANT NOTICE ON PRACTICE RECORDS, PG 4 Do what you love and love what you do. 1

2 Beal City s Festival Experiences fes ti val n. 1. An occasion for feasting or celebration, especially a day or time of religious significance that recurs at regular intervals. 2. An often regularly recurring program of cultural performances, exhibitions, or competitions: a film festival. 3. Revelry; conviviality. CMU Jazz Fest High School Solo & Festival Winds Concert Band Festival Middle School Solo & For many years, our Jazz Band has participated in C e n t r a l M i c h i g a n University s Jazz Festival. Our students prepare three selections: one traditional swing chart, a ballad and a one contrasting selection, usually either a jazz-rock or Latin-inspired number. This allows three judges to hear and comment on our group s ability and development. Our Jazz Band has performed very well in year s past, garnering several awards. This year, our performance occurred on Friday, February 10 performance at CMU s Plachta Auditorium. Hundreds of students from area schools travelled to Owosso High School to perform for outstanding judges and re c e i v e i n s i g h t f u l commentary. This year, Beal City had a saxophone trio, a clarinet trio, a flute duet, a flute/clarinet duet, a horn solo, piano solo and alto sax solo participating. Each student participating receives extra credit for each ensemble they perform in regardless of rating. Please see flyer for additional stipulations. On the last Sunday of February, we invite a band director of high quality to work with our groups in a concert setting. This allows our parents and community to view what happens in the classroom, to hear expert commentary on our students progress before we perform at MSBOA Festival in March. This year s clinician is Mr. Jamie Denslow of White Cloud Schools. Festival Winds will occur on Sunday, February 26 Our first concert at 4PM will feature Jazz Band & 6th Graders; the second at 5PM, our Middle School band with a clinic. Due to a scheduling issue, the middle school band and high school Concert Band will not be performing on the same weekend at MSBOA Band Festival. Our Middle School Band will be performing the following Friday, February 16at 4PM at Perry HS. Each experience is similar: 30 m i n u t e s b e f o r e performance our group has a warm-up time; f o l l o w i n g o u r performance, we engage in a rigorous sight-reading process. Parents are highly encouraged to attend. It is a gratifying and exhilarating experience for all. Similar in scope to the high school, Middle School Solo & Ensemble Festival allows students of developing aptitude the ability to perform in small groups or as soloists. This year, students who chose to participate will travel to Perry High School for their performances on Saturday, April 14. Each student participating receives extra credit for each ensemble they perform in regardless of rating. Please see flyer distributed in class for additional stipulations. These opportunities are available each year to our students. While Band Festival is a logical our growth of the band curriculum and a graded activity, Solo & is an outstanding extra-credit educational opportunity for any middle and high school student. Preparation, while possible during class, must take place outside of class, too. 2 If music be the food of love, play on

3 S E Q U O I A C L U B Solo & Results from a triumphant afternoon at Owosso High School CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL OUR STUDENT PERFORMERS Saturday, February 18 witnessed a great day for Aggie musicians! Seven events of eleven young ladies travelled to Owosso High School to perform in MSBOA High School Solo & - Here are the results! First to perform was Emily Steffke on piano. Her performance of a Grieg Nocturne garnered a First Division rating. Nearly 30 minutes later, Maggie Kolb performed a Minuet from Haydn on alto saxophone (accompanied by Emily Steffke) and received a First Division as well. Next to perform was Emily Steffke once again, this time along side Alexus Thompson in a flute duet. Their performance of We are the music-makers; we are the dreamers of dreams Larry Clark s Quintus was spirited and they too received a First Division! Another 30 minutes transpires and our duet of sisters, Larissa & Rachel Schwerin, played two selections for flute and clarinet. Some fine and helpful comments were given following their performance, resulting in a rating of Second Division. Now events began to occur even more rapidly! Mikaela Cotter, Maggie Kolb and Emily Schafer performed Carroll Butts Moderato and Allegro and received a Second Division. Next, our Clarinet trio: Eileen Cotter, Hannah Neyer and Manisha Cole. They performed Rondo Scherzando by Richard Winters. Another round of excellent comments were given following their performance, which resulted in a First Division. Our final performance of the morning was Melanie Schafer in a horn solo. She performed March Slav by Piotr Tchiaikovsky and received a First Division. A great showing for our Aggie musicians! By virtue of their First Division ratings, our Emily Steffke, Maggie Kolb, Melanie Schafer, Flute Duet and Clarinet Trio are eligible for State Solo & on Saturday, March 24! This is our largest eligible participation in over a decade! 3

4 Festival Winds Concert - 2/26/12 A truly educational concert for parents and community members to view inside the classroom while enjoying a performance by our fine band ensembles. Read how this concert is slightly different from others we hold and how it will make an important impact on your student s festival preparation and musical development! 4PM: Jazz Band & 6th Graders Our Jazz Band will perform first, reprising their great performance at Central Michigan University Jazz Weekend Festival. When they are finished, our 6th graders will take the stage. They will perform three selections - just like our middle school bands heading to festival: a march and two concert pieces. Following their performance, Mr. Jamie Denslow, director the of White Cloud Schools Bands, will come on stage and work with our 6th Grade students until 4:50. Following Mr. Denslow s comments and work with our 6th graders, parents and students are free to go for the evening, or may wish to stay to hear other performance. 5PM: Middle School Band Our Middle School Band - combined 7th & 8th Grade classes - will take the stage next. They will perform their three selections: On-Line March by John O Reilly, Arietta and Rondo by Frank Erickson, and The Tempest by Robert W. Smith. Following their performance, Mr. Jamie Denslow, director the of White Cloud Schools Bands, will come on stage and work with our 6th Grade students until 5:50. Following Mr. Denslow s comments and work with our Middle School Band, parents and students are free to go for the evening. PRACTICE RECORDS! Attention Middle School Students and Parents! Practice Records are still an important part of your child s grade in Middle School band classes. Nearly 1/3 of Middle School students have not turned in a practice record this marking period! This does not bode well for our upcoming performances as outlined in this issue of the Drumbeat - not to mention your child s grade. Practice Records are readily available in the band room, online at the band webpage, or at jason@lowe-net.us so a PDF file can be sent to you to copy at your convenience. BEAL CITY BANDS MISSION The mission of the Beal City Public Schools Music Department is to advance the district s goals by providing a balanced, comprehensive, sequential program of instruction in music. Highly qualified faculty will present the music curriculum through educational opportunities for the aspiring musician, as well as the broadly educated citizen. 4 TEMPO Club Executive Board Jane Clark President Kathleen Schafer Treasurer Denise McBride Secretary Amy Schafer Historian Nancy Bogart Trustee Veena Cole Trustee Vickey Newman Trustee Public Relations Contact Mr. Lowe at or via e- mail at: jason@lowe-net.us BEAL CITY BANDS 3180 West Beal City Road Mount Pleasant, Michigan Wherever you go, there you are.

5 Swiss Steak Dinner Be on the lookout for more information regarding our special community event & fundraiser, our 9th Annual Swiss Steak Dinner! This event is now staple of our community - anticipated by current and former band families as well as those who just plain enjoy a good meal! If you are available to help Saturday, April 28 - please contact Kathleen Schafer ( ) or Jane Clark ( ). We hope you join us for this fun and food filled annual event! Beal City Bands - TEMPO Club Issue No 29 - February 2012 Beal City Public Schools 3180 West Beal City Road Mount Pleasant MI 48858