Correction to Previous Post

Oops! The date of festival is Saturday, March 1st, not March 3rd. Location will be forthcoming, as soon as MSBOA makes it available to me.

January Updates

Before a few January 2008 updates, I have to look back to the wrap-up of 2007. The Norup and BHS bands both successfully performed their Winter Concerts during the week of December 10th. All bands did a nice job and were generally well-behaved and well-dressed.

I thought a highlight of the high school concert was the debut of the BHS Percussion Ensemble, directed by Adam James, a great percussion instructor, and better yet, just a good guy.

The other personal highlight was the really nice gesture on the part of the marching band kids. They purchased two gift cards, a new director's podium, and a beauty of a Starbuck's Coffee Mug. They definitely know (and support) my habit.

So on to January. I'm very excited for this weekend, as BHS is being represented by 8 of our most talented band students in the MSBOA District IV honors band. This select group is made up of the best musicians from the high schools in Oakland County, and rehearses this Friday and Saturday, putting on a concert Saturday evening. Translation--hard work. They have the opportunity to work with Scott Boerma, a very talented conductor and composer, and the new director of the Michigan Marching Band. They are playing one of his, in my opinion, most exciting pieces, titled "CityScape." It was commissioned to be an exciting entrance piece for the University of Illinois Wind Symphony for their concert in Carnegie Hall. The concert is free to all and will take place at 6:00 PM at the Clarkston High School Performing Arts Center.

In other news, the high school students are looking ahead to District festival on March 3rd. We're playing some really good literature. I'll post more detailed links to the pieces and composers soon.

Norup students are looking ahead to band jam concerts in April, and will begin work on class-specific and cross-curricular IB projects, including a 7th grade unit on the music of New Orleans. Study of this content will correlate with study of hurricane and other weather issues on the bayou.

That's all for now...

Reminders about Winter Concerts

Just a reminder about this week's band concerts:

The Norup Bands will perform Wednesday, 7:30 PM in the Norup Gymnasium. Featured bands include the 6th, 7th, 8th, and jazz bands. Call time for students is 6:45.

The Berkley High School bands will perform Thursday, 7:30 PM in the BHS Auditorium. Featured groups include the Concert Band, Percussion Ensemble, and Marching Band. Call time for students is 7:00 PM for Concert Band, 7:15 PM for Marching Band.

All are welcome to come!

Event Listing for University of Michigan Programs

I just wanted to supply the link that shows all School of Music, Theatre and Dance events. As you'll see, there are tons of events every week, and all (except some musicals and plays) are FREE.

http://uuis.umich.edu/events/calendar.cfm?sponsor=155

Good charts...

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/11/videogame-halft.html

Pictures from the Norup/Burton Halloween Parades

Getting to be November...

Well, it's getting to be November. That means a number of different things across the band program. At the high school, the marching band is transitioning to almost full-time focus on concert music, but still wearing the marching "hat." We made two trips to the middle schools this week to try and expose the kids there to what we do. It was fun. Probably most fun of all was watching the kindergarten kids at Norup react to the music. Half the kids danced and conducted unabashedly. The other half looked as though they were trying to catch flies in their mouths, lost in thought or observation. One little girl reacted in a scarily sophisticated way--first reacting to the cymbal crashes by throwing up her hands at each one, and then predicting when they would come.

It's a real pleasure watching the progress toward the December concert from the 6th grade band all the way up to the high school bands. As much as I know that I'll never be satisfied with where each group gets (which is a good thing), I can't help but appreciate the synthesis and hard work on display. "Irish Tune from County Derry" is a good example. On its face, the piece is both simple and daunting. Simple to the eye and ear--just "Danny Boy" after all--but awkward in its scoring, bring exposed woodwinds into the highest tessituras at pp and ppp, and trombones to high G and A. But starting just recently--starting today, in fact, the kids are starting to get it. Starting to develop the most important piece of all--the aural concept. The Norup students are no different. The pieces are starting to materialize as distinct wholes instead of disjointed surface readings.

I hope to hear some similar stories from the other directors I meet this weekend. I'm attending an Early Careers conference for band/orchestra directors in Mt. Pleasant. Hope to gain some good teaching strategies, etc. while there.

Last, this looks pretty fascinating:
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/sacks/?ref=banner&name=SacksNYTimes