Great Falls High School Choirs

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1 Great Falls High School Choirs Welcome to, or welcome back to, the choral program at Great Falls High School. Great Falls High School has a long tradition of excellence in choral music, and we are pleased to join you in continuing our tradition - making the highest quality music that we can. We have a lot of fantastic events planned, and are excited to begin our year together! Not everything we do as a choir will be covered in this handbook; some things are sure to change. We will give you as much lead time as we can regarding changes in schedules or procedures. Please review this document, and sign and return by Tuesday, September 4 th. EXPECTATIONS We believe that music has an incredible power to develop our minds, emotions, and spirits. We chose to be choral directors because of the experiences we had in high school choir, and we want you to have a similar experience, one that will hopefully improve all areas of your studies and life. Pretty profound stuff! Our number one rule is to BE POSITIVE. Singing is an intensely personal act, and we want to encourage and put each other up at all times. Rule number two is to GIVE YOUR BEST EFFORT AT ALL TIMES. Practice does not make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Choir is intensely social (this is a good thing!) and there will be some talking. Please do not talk when the director is teaching, or when another student has the floor. Usually, we will be singing almost all of the period, with brief instructions from the director. Put another way: we won t give you much downtime to socialize during rehearsal, so if you are talking, you probably ought to stop. It s common courtesy to the instructor, the choir, and each individual in the group. Please do not bring food or drink (besides water) into the choir room, or chew gum. Any items other than water will need to be stored at the front of the room until the end of class. Choir is a cell phone-free zone. DO NOT disrupt our interpersonal connection at ANY TIME. If you choose to violate this rule, your phone will be confiscated and taken to the office until the end of the day. A second offense will include being assigned Saturday School. Please be on time. Tardiness will affect your grade (see Rehearsal on page 5). Those are most of the rules. They are fairly easy to follow and make sense. Follow the Golden Rule. We re pretty good choral directors and we promise you if we all follow the guidelines above, we will have a wonderful time making fabulous music together. We re excited to get started! 1

2 Choral Schedule September 30 ACDA National Auditions DUE October All-State Honor Choir Missoula October 23 Fall Choral Concert GFHS, 7:00 October 31 Fruit Sales Begin GFHS November AA Choral Festival CMR November 19 Fruit Orders Due GFHS December 3-4 Holiday Concerts GFHS, 7:00 December 6 Fruit Delivery Fairgrounds January 3-4 Jazz Workshop CMR (Rhapsody only) January 29 Delphian performance at East EMS, 8:00 am February 11 AA Treble Festival GFH (Select only) February Delphian Choir Tour Portland, OR March 14 MIOSM GFHS Old Gym, 7:30 March 26 Spring Choral Concert GFHS, 7:00 April District Music Festival GFHS/CMR May 20 Pop Concert GFHS 7:00 GFHS CHOIRS Period 1: Aeolian (freshmen girls) Period 2: Varsity (freshmen/non-auditioned boys) Period 3: Select (advanced girls, audition only) Period 4: Delphian (auditioned, advanced mixed choir) Period 6: Advanced Men and Lyric (intermediate choirs) Period 7: Rhapsody (auditioned chamber choir, must be enrolled in Delphian) 2

3 EXPLANATION OF EVENTS Travel Policies While we are on a trip, we will be excellent examples of GFHS pride, in how we sound, look, and act. Music department members must be passing ALL classes in order to travel with the group. Any use of alcohol or drugs, or other illegal activity, will result in your immediate removal from the group for the rest of the year and your parent/guardian will pick you up at their expense. Auditions Placement auditions for the next year s groups occur in each April. Students auditioning for Delphian or Select must perform a solo at district music festival. A group audition for Delphian takes place the next week, along with current members of the group. Audition results are posted by the end of April. Your most important auditioning takes place every day in rehearsal! November Fruit Sales Fundraiser This is the only fund raiser for the music department at Great Falls High. We use this money to finance trips, community performances, wardrobe, et cetera. Our community is extremely supportive of this event, and the fruit basically sells itself. Students in Delphian and Select must use fruit sales to finance their travel or students may pay for their travel in cash. If a student in an auditioned choir does not finance their travel, they will be reassigned to a non-auditioned group for second semester. All-State Choir (October) An annual event, only twenty students per section from around the state (all class levels) are selected to sing in this prestigious group. Auditions occur in May, and are evaluated anonymously by a panel of choral and voice experts. GFPS pays all fees and travel expenses associated with All-State, but you must pay a school district activity fee. AA (Delphian), Treble Choir Festival (Select), Men s Choir Festival (Advanced Men s) These events are really fun and educational trips. We will perform our own music for many other schools, and watch their choirs perform as well. We will also rehearse and perform a number of pieces together under the direction of fabulous guest conductors. Regional Honor Choirs Being selected for one of these honor choirs is the highest honor a high school singer can receive. Auditions are due September 30. This requires significant time commitment for the students involved, but is sure to be a life highlight. Audition materials will be handed out in class soon. National ACDA 2019 will be held in Kansas City, MO. 3

4 District Music Festival (April 11-12) Music students from CMR will converge on Great Falls for the annual District Music Festival over the course of the day. Students are required to perform with their group on Thursday. This will occur in the afternoon and students will need to remind coaches/advisors of this commitment. Singers are also encouraged to perform a solo or ensemble on Friday. Delphian Tour We will be touring in February to Portland, OR, to perform at the NW-NafME conference on Saturday, February 16 th, at 9:30 am. Details will be finalized in late September. Delphian members are expected to sell fruit to finance their trip, or may pay the cost of their trip if they do not wish to participate in the fruit sale. Delphian Tour is REQUIRED for all members of the group. Voice Lessons There is no better or faster way to improve as a singer! GFHS Choir members are encouraged to take private voice lessons. Voice lessons are usually in half-hour or hour increments. See Mr. Ryan or Miss Spicher for more information on local teachers. Concerts Performances are a public display of all we ve been learning in class. They are our final exams, and are mandatory. Performances constitute a large portion of your grade, and you are expected to be at all required performances. In the rare case of a school-related activity conflict, accommodations can be made. If you are very ill, or there is an emergency, please contact Mr. Ryan or Miss Spicher prior to the concert. In the case of illness or emergency, make-up work will be assigned. Other absences will receive a grade of zero, which will lower your semester grade by two letters. If you are in an auditioned group, unexcused absences will result in reassignment to a different ensemble. Choir students need to be properly attired and ready to perform at least thirty minutes before the start of the concert. Some groups may be called earlier. Wardrobe: Most concert attire will be checked out to you. ALL CHOIR MEMBERS need to pay a $10 wardrobe fee, which covers dry cleaning and alteration costs for your wardrobe. Women wear dresses, which are checked out to you and need to be returned in clean condition. Black, close-toed shoes are required (you will be far more comfortable in flats, not heels). Varsity men need black shoes, black socks, and black dress pants/slacks. They will be assigned robes. Chorale men need black long-sleeved dress shirts, black shoes, black socks, and black dress pants/slacks. They will be assigned a blue tie. Delphian men wear tuxedos, tie and vest, white tux shirt, black shoes and black socks. The tuxedos are checked out to you and are your responsibility to keep clean and neat. You provide the black shoes and socks. Delphian members need to purchase a Delphian sweatshirt. Cost is $30. 4

5 All Delphian members will be checked out a polo that will be returned. Family and friends, please come and enjoy our student s music making! You can help us maintain a pleasant atmosphere at the concerts by observing the following concert guidelines: enter and leave only between numbers, listen quietly during songs, and please supervise your young ones. We look forward to sharing our music with you! 5

6 GRADING POLICY Grading choral music is a challenging endeavor. You are not graded on how well you sing. What is important is making progress with the voice you have. Attitude and effort are vastly superior to talent, especially in the long run. We believe this is an important life lesson. However, since we are a public school, we are required to give you a letter grade. This involves some subjective judgment on the part of the director (as in rating rehearsals), rather than an objective test score (like a multiple-choice test). In our perfect world, grades would not be necessary in choir. If you are working with your best effort and enjoy singing, the group as a whole will be fantastic and you will be learning things at a rapid rate. In fact, this is usually what happens in choirs at Great Falls High. Letter grades are earned in choir in the follow manner: Rehearsal 40% Points are earned by your positive contributions to the group. Grades are posted weekly. A - You are always ready, positive, volunteering, and leading B - Ready to work, showing good effort, basically positive C - You do all that is required, but in a neutral manner. Not disruptive. D-F - Talking, critical of others in a negative way, distract others Attending rehearsals is crucial to the success of our group. Excessive absenteeism or tardiness (total of ten occurrences per semester) will result in removal from auditioned groups. We will accommodate you in the choral program, but the rigor of advanced classes necessitates consistent attendance. School-related absences will not be held against you, but you are responsible for the material you miss. Excused, non-school-related absences begin to affect your grade after the fourth absence. You MUST complete make-up assignments for each absence after four. These make-up assignments include attending other concerts or completing the YouTube Make-up Assignment located at the front of the room. Students are responsible for obtaining and completing make-up work within one week. If you choose not to make up these rehearsals, you will lose 5% of your grade per occurrence. Concerts 40% Concerts are essentially our final unit exams. You are required to participate in concerts. Excused absence: no points earned, but may be made up students MUST contact the director prior to the concert in order for it to be considered excused. Unexcused concert absence: no points and is grounds for dismissal from auditioned groups. These may not be made up. Unexcused absences from a concert will result in a two-letter grade reduction of your semester grade. Tardy to a concert: loss of points. Be on time. If a student is deemed unprepared to perform in a concert by the director, s/he will be given an alternative assignment. If students are not properly attired, they will not perform. They will not receive credit for the concert. There is plenty of time prior to the first concert to make arrangements for attire. If there is significant financial difficulty in obtaining these items, see Mr. Ryan or Miss Spicher. 6

7 Assignments and Score Markings 20% Your music will be checked periodically to make sure you are putting markings in your score in pencil. If the director says it, write it down in your music! You will be assigned a choir workbook with various assignments including worksheets involving music theory, in-class singing tests, self-evaluations, listening examples and written responses, to name a few. Choirs will have an exam at the end of each semester. This exam will constitute 10% of your final grade. 7

8 Parents & Students: We believe there are a few really important reasons to take choir. One, choir is active. We are engaged in doing for the entire class period. This involves both the mind and the body. Far too often, we are passive - watching TV, surfing the web, texting or talking on the phone. This is also a nice break in the school day to do something a little different. Two, choir is an exercise in delayed gratification. Our world is moving faster and faster, and it is easier than ever to feel instant gratification. However, most deeply fulfilling things take time to develop. In choir, we might rehearse thirty hours to present fifteen minutes of music. And, there is no guarantee that it will work out right, even with hard work! Finally, choir builds self-confidence and teamwork, and creates a whole new set of acquaintances that students might not have otherwise. These are important lessons that singers bring to college, and their future careers. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your child. Please contact us if you have any questions. We look forward to meeting you at the Open House or our first concert October 23. Patrick Ryan: patrick_ryan@gfps.k12.mt.us Jordan Spicher: jordan_spicher@gfps.k12.mt.us 8

9 GREAT FALLS HIGH SCHOOL CHOIR PLEASE INITIAL (parent/guardian AND student): We have reviewed the calendar and will work out any conflicts for the required events. We will have any required performance attire by the first concert. We will pay the $10 wardrobe fee. We will be responsible for all wardrobe, folders, and music checked out to the student and and understand that damaged or lost items will incur a financial fine. We understand the travel policies outlined above and that illegal behavior while on a choir trip will result in removal from the group. We have reviewed the GFHS Choir grading policy. We understand concert attendance and timeliness count for a large percentage of the grade. Student s Signature Date Parent/Guardian Signature(s) Date 9