Summer Market Day
Saturday, July 1 at noon is the deadline for Market Day orders. The Skokie School District 73.5 PTA is once again giving proceeds from the summer Market Day orders to our band program. It’s real easy to order online through the Market Day website. Just be sure to register with the Skokie School District 73.5 PTA as your school!
Pick-up for all orders is Wednesday, July 5 at 4:40 PM at Middleton Elementary School. Thanks for your support!
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Posted: June 26, 2006 | PermaLink
2006 Midwest Clinic Clinicians Announced
While the topics and schedules haven’t been posted yet, the Midwest Clinic has announced who will be presenting sessions at next December’s Conference.
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Posted: June 16, 2006 | PermaLink
Photos for Publicity and Concert Program
Publicity photos are due to the Midwest Office by September 15. This doesn’t leave much time once school starts. Finding locations for these photos has been one of my priorities this week. While I had considered various Chicago-type locations for our publicity and concert program photos, we’ve opted instead to choose Skokie locations.
Things aren’t completely set, but they’re close enough to post. We’ll take our full ensemble and section photos both indoors and outdoors. We’ll select the best from the two sessions to use. Our outdoor photos will take place at the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park. The Sculpture Park is a very unique collaboration between the Village of Skokie and not-for-profit organization which selects and installs a world class sculpture exhibition. For our indoor shots we’re looking at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts. Hopefully that will work out, we’ll be able to get some very nice formal shots there.
Fortunately two of our district parents were nice enough to donate their photography skills for these sessions.
(For topic suggestions or questions relating to our Midwest performance I can be contacted via email: cdestefano@skokie735.k12.il.us or through the contact page on our website.)
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Posted: June 16, 2006 | PermaLink
Meeting with the Mayor
This past Tuesday morning a couple parents and I met with Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen. I don’t know if our meeting with the Mayor seems unusual or not, but at least in this case we knew we should set it up. Mayor Van Dusen is not only extremely visible in our community, but he is also a very strong supporter of the arts and schools. The Village Board is always one of the first to congratulate us on our successes. The Mayor attended our Spring Concert a few weeks ago…all two hours of it, and it’s not usual to see him at one of our elementary school musical performances. Hopefully he’ll be able to attend our Midwest Clinic performance in December.
On our agenda were several items including fundraising, publicity, and how we might use our Midwest performance to promote the Village of Skokie. I had originally thought that maybe we were meeting with him a little too early, but it turned out to be perfect timing. He was gracious to spend nearly 90 minutes with us, and he gave us terrific guidance in terms of how to approach building community support of this performance and ways that the Village can and cannot help.
(For topic suggestions or questions relating to our Midwest performance I can be contacted via email: cdestefano@skokie735.k12.il.us or through the contact page on our website.)
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Posted: June 16, 2006 | PermaLink
Website Issues
It appears as if a recent minor upgrade of PHP by our webhost broke some of our scripts. I think I fixed all of the problems, but if you run across anything that doesn’t seem to be working, please let me know so I can fix it right away!
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Posted: June 15, 2006 | PermaLink
Skokie Review/Pioneer Press Article
An article about some of our recent accomplishments, including our Midwest invitation, appeared in today’s Skokie Review. This link will probably break in a week, but we’ll update the address on the press page on our website. We have some other press stuff in the works, but have been a little slow moving on this with everything else going on.
Tuesday, we’ll be meeting with Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen regarding our Midwest Performance.
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Posted: June 8, 2006 | PermaLink
Pioneer Press Article
If you haven’t already seen the great article by Mike Isaacs in this week’s Skokie Review, make sure to run out and buy a copy!
Posted: June 8, 2006 | PermaLink
The First Rehearsal
I had wanted to type something up before we met today describing my planning, but spent all day running around getting ready for the rehearsal.
We normally don’t meet after graduation. This is certainly a special case however, and I arranged to have next year’s Symphonic Band meet during our normal Tuesday afternoon time from 2:10 - 3:30. I had one main goal for this rehearsal…to create, as Peter Boonshaft calls it, as many “pearl” moments as possible in those 80 minutes. It’s important to me that the kids left feeling good about the band and motivated to work hard and practice this summer.
Placed on their chair for when they entered was a simple 12 measure homophonic chorale, all 12 major scales, and two works we’re considering for our Midwest program. I sat the kids alternating between the experienced and inexperienced. Even after ten years I’m amazed by how much the younger kids learn from observing the older kids. We’ll maintain a similar seating, paired with aggressive part rotation, through our band camp in into our September Concert.
I was particularly anxious to start the chorale work. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. We spent nearly 50 minutes on the chorale. I know it sounds like a lot, but I anticipated this time would be the best opportunity to create those “pearl,” or near perfect, moments…a chance for the kids to hear what they are capable of accomplishing. So, at least for me, the time flew by. More specifically we spent extensive time on, in no particular order:
- Tone, Pitch, and Balance
- Breathing
- Improving the maturity of our sound by improving our ability to play a tongued, sustained line
- Developing an internal subdivision of the pulse
- Mouthpiece buzzing and singing
- Listening to sounds besides their own
- Giving shape to the phrase
- Raising our standards
This is not an atypical list, we spend virtually every rehearsal focusing on these items. The pace was extremely fast. We began by playing the soprano line in unison, went to two parts, and ended performing the chorale as written. I varied the way we were performing (as written, slurred, tongued, secco, subdivided in 8ths, subdivided in 16ths, brass buzzing, everyone singing, varying tempo & dynamics, etc) it quite often to keep them from just going through the motions. We had some real wonderful moments. Once we finished working the chorale I felt not only relieved, but excited about our potential. I never worry about technique, that’s easy to beat into them if necessary. A mature, characteristic sound is something I’m always concerned about, and I feel good about where we’re starting. If we do what we need to do, we should develop into a really fine ensemble. I’ll do my best to try to document that development here.
We don’t spend nearly enough time on scales in general. Some find success with a scale of the week type system. I never seem to follow through with that sort of thing. So when we do major scales, we do all 12. The scales got bit shorted today, but we did spend time on each of them.
The last part of the rehearsal was spent sightreading and lightly rehearsing two tunes we’re considering for our program. We then dismissed for the summer until our camp in August, although I will work with certain individuals and sections between now and then.
Off to finish packing up my room!
(For topic suggestions or questions relating to our Midwest performance I can be contacted via email: cdestefano@skokie735.k12.il.us or through the contact page on our website.)
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Posted: June 6, 2006 | PermaLink
June 3 Meeting
I can’t remember ever being so excited to go to a meeting, much less one on a Saturday.
It won’t surprise anyone who has been to even one Midwest Clinic that everything they do is first class. The materials were meticulously prepared. The binder…the very thick binder…we were given will be a huge resource as we prepare and plan for our performance. Most of the meeting detailed the different rules, guidelines, and expectations for our concert. The meeting was followed by a luncheon in one of the banquet rooms of the Palmer House.
Without a doubt, though, the best part of the day was meeting and talking with the other performing conductors and the Board of Directors. It’s amazing to hear how these fine educators and teachers are handling the different challenges of bringing a group to Chicago to perform. Without exception, the members of the Board of Directors were outgoing, friendly, and genuinely interested in how they could help. There is a definite sense of community and a feeling of everyone being in this together. This 60th Anniversary Midwest Clinic is planned to be the biggest one yet. I can’t say enough how proud we are to be a part of it.
I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned before, but there is a new requirement for music selection this year. The Board has selected several works performed at Midwest in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. We are required to program one work off of this list. Many of the works haven’t been performed much, if at all, since their Midwest Clinic premier. The intent is to provide a historical perspective while also reviving some very deserving works. Since one of our previously reserved works was on the list, I was able to avoid the mad rush on the reservation system later that day to secure one of these pieces. Even so, I did reserve a couple more works on the list. Having flexibility in the programming is good. Switching out one work for another often has a domino effect on the rest of the program. Even though I’m very secure with our original selection, having additional options to meet this programming requirement may come in handy when the finishing touches start being placed on our program.
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Posted: June 6, 2006 | PermaLink
Student Entries #5
With graduation approaching. Several 8th graders reflected on what band has meant to them:
Allison (clarinet):
Band has been an amazing experience for me. It has taught me so much beyond just how to play an instrument. Besides notes, fingerings, rests and dynamics, I’ve learned discipline, character, the importance of hard individual work, the importance of helping each other, and much more. No matter how hard it was to get up in the morning, or how much homework you had from missing class, everyone understands the importance of band. There are so many people in band who you never thought you’d be friends with, but band ends up bringing you together. The feeling you get when you’re hard work is band is recognized is unmatched by any feeling. I’ll never forget what I learned in band. Whether it be the people I met, the places I went, or the things I learned.
Ana (flute):
Band has given me a deep appreciation and love of music that I completely lacked previous to this experience. I honestly don’t understand how I survived my first eleven years without it. Band has been a place where I feel connected to every single person in the room, and I will truly miss that feeling. So when faced with the question, what has band meant to me, the only honest answer is that it has meant the world.
Dennis (saxophone):
Band was a place where I could get away from school and the worry of grades. It was a place where I could play music and have fun doing it.
Nicole (flute):
Band meant so much to me I can’t even put it into words. Band taught me to love and appreciate music and that is something I will never forget.
Camille (clarinet):
Band was a place for me to have fun. A place that I could enjoy myself and be myself.
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Posted: June 2, 2006 | PermaLink