What a week. I don't even know where to start. Yesterday, our 8th grade band performed at the Carowinds Festival of Music and earned a SUPERIOR rating. In fact, they received a Superior from each of the three esteemed judges, one of whom was Robert W. Smith, the composer of the piece "Apollo Fanfare" we played. After our performance, Smith came up on stage and spoke to the band for ten minutes about the piece and about music. He was very excited about our performance. In fact he thanked us for playing so well, because we were the last band of the day and he was about to get on an airplane to Taiwan to conduct a band there for two days. Amazing. What a great day. I could not have been more proud of our kids.
And of course our concert Thursday was amazing. I will copy and paste what I wrote to you on Friday:
I have edited and uploaded the recordings of our May 11 concert. You can access them on the Recordings page on my website, and feel free to share this website with friends and family who were not able to attend the concert:
I am emotionally and physically exhausted. And I am so proud of what we did this week, I don't know how to put it into words. Really, I don't know what to write to you right now. It was an honor to host James Swearingen, a man who has published over 600 pieces of music, some of which are among the all-time staples of wind ensemble literature. And I was so proud because we were equal to the task, the responsibility of hosting someone of that caliber. We performed a great concert.
I learned so much from him this week. I know your kids did too, although it may not "hit them" until the next time we learn a new piece of music. I think this experience will make us look at music differently: these are not just black notes printed on a white piece of paper, they are the work and expression of an artist like James Swearingen.
Okay So What Now?
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6th grade band will work through material on my website, to get a head start on next year. We probably have enough time to get through chapters 9 and 10 before EOG testing starts, and we will do playing tests from those chapters.
7th grade band has lots to do. We need to do auditions for the 8th grade Jazz Band class. I also need to get our new pep band organized and see who wants to sign up for it. We also need to do some more playing tests before the quarter ends, so we will work through some of the Advanced Studies on my website.
8th grade band is going to work through Chapters 17-19, which are fun and will get them prepared for high school level music. We will do playing tests from these chapters. We will also pull some new concert music pieces out and learn them just for fun. We have a few filing cabinets full of old music, and there is some really fun stuff in there.
Jazz Band will be rehearsing every day for our performance on Saturday. We are performing at 11:00am at the Community Fun Day hosted by Creedmoor United Methodist Church. Students should arrive no later than 10:45. It is going to be a fun event, so consider bringing the whole family and staying around for a while!
EOG Proctors
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If you would be willing to volunteer to proctor our EOG exams, even for just one day, please call the school at 919-528-0091. We need all the help we can get. Thank you!