Hey Aloha
Band Community!
It has
been an eventful Fall for our program and school, and
I wanted to send out a quick word to all of our students and parents.
Upcoming Concert, Symphonic, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz band
performances
Although marching
band students have been performing throughout the last couple months, our
entire band program will be performing in November and December.
All
concerts are mandatory for the students in each group that are performing that
night, and this is an important part of the grade of each class.
Pops Concert
Tuesday Nov. 24th, 7PM is our Pops concert,
featuring the Jazz Band and Wind Ensemble. This is a concert of
"lighter" fare, including popular music from Cole Porter, Kurt Weill,
John Philip Sousa, Disney, and many more. This would be a great concert
for folks who like a little shorter concert with "ear candy" music.
In addition, we are planning to have this concert in the commons along
with a fabulous bake sale, so you can enjoy treats while listening to great
music. Downbeat is 7PM. Dress is our new concert dress, all black.
Zoolights
On Tuesday
evening December 15th (TIMES TBA), we will be taking the concert and
symphonic bands to the Zoolights festival to perform at the Oregon Zoo.
This is a fun opportunity to experience music in the community and have
fun bonding time together! There are two critical things we need
for this trip.
1.
We need ALL students to complete the appropriate permission forms
available in the band room. Many students have already done this, but we
need ALL students to get this done. There is important emergency
information we MUST have to take students off site, and there is also very
important fee information on these forms that needs to be completed. As
you know, this is a large organization that performs in a variety of
environments, and we need to have these forms with us to comply with district
regulations and to ensure the safety of our students. I have been trying
to get these forms collected for weeks, and have made multiple announcements in
class, so PLEASE take care of this as soon as possible!
2. We
will need chaperones for this trip, and it will be a fun and easy gig.
Those of you interested in being chaperones must first complete a very
simple background check on the district's web site:
https://www.beavton.k12.or.us/volunteer/
(Please
do this asap, as there is a bit of a lag once the
forms are submitted)
Then
contact our volunteer coordinator, Mrs. Lazur: chaperones@deenaszoo.com
Chaperones
and performers will get free admission into zoolights after the concert, and we
will all hang out at the zoo after the performance is finished and we have
loaded the truck. Think ahead and dress nicely, but most important, very
warmly!! If school is canceled due to weather (like last year) this
concert will also be canceled.
Winter Concert
All bands
will perform for our annual winter concert on Thursday Dec. 17th, 7 PM, at
AHS. This year's concert will feature some student conductors,
holiday classics, and fine performances from all of our bands.
Marching Band Wrap Up
This
season:
Whew!
A whirlwind weekend of marching band activity over veteran's day weekend
has brought this season to a close. Our students represented themselves
with class and pride at the Auburn Veteran's Day parade and field show
competition. In addition to playing and marching very well through the
main street of Auburn, many of our members went to shake hands with veterans,
thanking them for their service. I had several folks comment that they
thought this was a very classy and respectful gesture.
The band
had a stellar parade, a great warm up and by far their best performance of the
year in the field show performance. The rain poured down, but it didn't
get in the way of a very clean and passionate presentation of our show this
year.
Afterwards,
we had some very emotional senior speeches, a huge full band retreat, and birthday
cake and pizza. What a night!
The band
reached its potential Saturday night, and realized the artistic vision set
before them by the awesome staff. The staff felt that this was by far the
best overall performance of the year.
I appreciated
many of the comments from Seniors about the importance
of self reflection and self assessment that are an important part of our
philosophy. With that in mind, competitively, the band finished 2nd in
the parade in their class (with the highest musical score of any band in the
parade, regardless of class.) and 3rd in the field show, garnering best music
and outstanding drum major trophies. Of all the 22 bands from all classes
that competed in the field show and parade, our band's combined parade and
field show scores placed us 3rd overall. Considering the quality of many
of the adjudicators, and the quality of the other bands, that is quite an
accomplishment.
Throughout
the trip, students displayed respect and class.
Thanks to
everyone for making this season a success!
Looking
forward:
Our staff
has already met for a design meeting, and we are excited to get underway for
next year. One thing that we heard loud and clear was that our students
love the philosophy of a very crowd friendly show, with lots of fun elements
that connect with the audience. (i.e. malaguena,
vignettes, drum solos, showmanship, huh!, etc.!) We are looking very
forward to getting to the core of that again with next year's show design.
We will have music chosen and announced
for next year shortly after New Year's.
If you
did not participate in MB this year, we would love to have you back! The
staff is committed to providing the best experience yet, and the more students
we have participating the better! The marching
band is a very unique experience that bonds the group through hard work,
travel, and fun performance. I have heard from many students that
finances are a difficult thing, and I know exactly how that feels. Please
know that we have a variety of options to help alleviate this. Please
don't let that keep you out of marching band next year!
Football in Playoffs!
As you
know, for the first time in a very long time, our football team is in the
playoffs. Coach Casey has worked extremely hard over the past few years
to get the team to this point, and it is a great thing for our school.
Last night, they won their first round game against Benson. This
coming Friday is the first home playoff game that I have been a part of since I
have come to Aloha. It is against the #1 ranked team
in the state, Sheldon. I am very excited, and we want ALL band students
to attend and play for the game. We will not be marching the halftime
show in uniforms, but we are going to have a ROCKING pep band!
Technically, all band students are supposed to play the home games
anyway, but we have usually had the Marching Band take care of it. I am
asking for all band students to come out and play with us in the stands for
this game. Let's rock it! Students get free admission to the game
for playing. We will practice the music in class this week. Meet in
the band room at 6:00 Friday night, dressed in warm blue green and gold!
Go Warriors!
That is
enough to get us through the end of 2009!
Take care
of yourselves and I hope to see you all at the Pep Band Game this Friday night!
-Mr.
Bundy
Band/Orchestra
Director
Aloha
High School
"You'll
find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of
view."
-Obi
Wan Kenobi