Random Thoughts for the End of August
I’ve been reading Pathways: A Guide for Energizing & Enriching Band, Orchestra, & Choral Programs by Joseph Alsobrook. I’m only about halfway through, but wow, it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite band related texts. In the next several weeks we’ll be trying to institute some of his thoughts to help with our Midwest preparation.
REHEARSALS
Things really feel in full swing now. We’ve started working on three of our Midwest works for a concert in four weeks. The band certainly seems to be more than one week better since camp, but I’ve been recently frustrated by what seems to be a general lack of urgency in rehearsals. This is certainly not a reflection of me! Our next concert is four weeks away for crying out loud!
Anyway, I’ve taken a multi-pronged approach to refocusing the kids’ efforts. At rehearsal Tuesday afternoon, I played the kids a couple tracks from Hill Country Middle School’s Midwest performance in 1999. That jolted them back to reality…the kids were blown away by how well that band played. I’ll continue to play various recordings of the premier middle school bands so that the kids understand clearly where the bar is set.
Goal setting has been an integral part of our program for the last several years. I had actually considered skipping this assignment this year, but changed my mind when it became clear some students needed a little more direction and ownership in their learning. Their goal sheets are due tomorrow. It’s always interesting to see what the kids are hoping to accomplish each year.
Finally, just as I shared with last year’s band all of the congratulations we received at the end of last year, I’ll be sharing with the kids the many emails I receive each week that state that they can’t wait to hear our performance at Midwest.
I think most would agree that it’s a fine line. It’s important to shield the kids from the bulk of the pressure that I’ll be feeling as the performance approaches. At the same time, it’s essential that they realize the significance of this performance and not take it lightly. Hopefully these steps will strike the balance. If not, we’ll try something else!
PROGRAM
Our program must be submitted to the Midwest Office by September 15. I believe our program is set. After considerable thought…and good judgment (I think), I switched out one of the harder works on our program for an easier work by the same composer. What finally sold me was that the new work is on the 60th Anniversary list the Board of Directors compiled. It’s also listed in Volume One of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, and has a short feature for one of our stronger players. This, plus the improved rehearsals of the last couple days, has made me very comfortable with our program. It has a nice balance of difficulty and I truly believe that they are all works that our audience should, and will want to, program with their own ensembles.
(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: August 31, 2006 | PermaLink
Lots of Schedule Changes this Week!
Be sure to check the lesson schedules in your classroom this week. Because of the new MAP testing at McCracken next week there have been several revisions to the schedules that were mailed home this summer:
- Symphonic Band Clarinets and Alto Saxophone chair auditions are Monday
- Symphonic Band sectionals are spread out throughout Monday through Thursday…check the schedule!
- 6th grade students, for the most part, have their placement auditions on Wednesday
- All 5th graders are scheduled for Friday
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Posted: August 26, 2006 | PermaLink
The Read-Through
If you’ve been following along, you know that we had a two-hour rehearsal this morning to read through our anticipated Midwest program for the first time. I have to confess to two things:
1) While planning this rehearsal, I was surprised by how excited and nervous I was for the kids to play the stuff. I couldn’t wait to get up and get to school.
2) I recorded our first time through a new warm-up chorale this morning…and I just can’t post it. It was that rough, and my ego won’t let me do it.
I know it’s frustrating without titles, but we’ll continue keep it under wraps until the program is approved by the Midwest Board. I was very pleased with how the kids read the five easiest pieces. Once we got about 75 minutes in, though, things started falling apart, especially concentration wise. I was very surprised by how poorly a grade three-ish baroque transcription went…the independence of parts really seemed to catch them off guard, and it went downhill from there. Maybe it was the way I scheduled the rehearsal, from easiest to hardest, but the two hardest works were just short of train wrecks. We’ll spend a little time the rest of the week on one of them, just so I can be sure it’s going to go by December. Fortunately we still have a little time here to make some alterations to the program if necessary.
My current plan is to work on the three medium difficulty pieces for our next concert in late September, we’ll also prepare two other works that we won’t be performing at Midwest…probably something easier, and something harder. While we’re preparing this program, we’ll also dabble in some of the harder works because there are only four weeks between concerts. We’ll save the easier stuff for our mid-November concert, which only has a three-week preparation window. After that point we’ll have five weeks to put the whole program together for Midwest.
So the breakdown, at this point, looks like this:
August 18: Band Camp Concert – No Midwest Works
September 27: Joint Concert Lincoln MS, Park Ridge – Three Midwest pieces, Two non-Midwest pieces
October 24: Fall Concert – The three most difficult Midwest pieces, one or two super easy non-Midwest pieces
November 13: Fall Concert #2 – The easiest four Midwest pieces, maybe repeat anything that didn’t go well on the last two concerts.
December 18: Official Midwest Preview Concert – Complete Midwest program
December 22: Midwest Clinic Concert – Complete Midwest program
We have a couple other performances thrown in that aren’t directly related to our Midwest performance. These will provide a nice change of pace for the kids, especially in terms of repertoire.
It certainly feels like things will be very frantic early in the year, but I love a couple things about this model. I particularly like that by November 13 we’ll have performed everything we’re playing at Midwest at least once. Having five weeks to put the complete program together won’t feel as hurried. There will be enough pressure as we approach December 22 without having to worry about cramming in the preparations for the last tune or two.
I’ve been told several times that these four months are going to just fly by. There are times that I wonder if we’ll have the time to fix some of the issues that just take work and patience over time. Regardless, though, it’s nice to have finally started the preparations. I know our kids and I are going to work as hard as we possibly can over the next several months. We’ll see where that takes us!
(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: August 22, 2006 | PermaLink
Student Entry #6
From Jeanine, 8th grade flutist, and 3 year member of the Symphonic Band regarding our band camp:
I would wake up knowing there would be a long day ahead, but I also knew it would be a day of improvement. Every day we had masterclasses, sectionals, small ensemble groups, and band rehearsal. All of these prepared us even more for our Midwest Clinic Performance. It was great that our new band came together before the start of the school year and progressed during only five days. I was truly surprised by how good we sounded at the end of the week at our concert. Now, I wonder from now until December what we will sound like after the next four months of preparation. I know Midwest is going to be the highlight of my years in band as well as everyone else’s. I realize that Mr. De Stefano has many things on his list that he would like us to accomplish as a band, and I think that if we practice, focus during band, and have fun at the same time, by the end of the year you won’t believe we were even the same band as before.
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Posted: August 20, 2006 | PermaLink
Band Camp
Well…we just finished our weeklong band camp. Things have been so crazy I haven’t even had a chance to post about it yet. This isn’t something we normally do, but added it in preparations of our performance at Midwest. In fact, I had the great idea of recording the first time through our warm-up chorale and posting the mp3. Unfortunately I thought of that great idea after the rehearsal had started. Oh well…maybe we’ll record next week. It won’t be a true reference of where we’re starting, they’ve made a lot a progress, but might be interesting none-the-less.
I had a few goals for our week:
1) To get a great jump on the year by cramming in about a month of work and pedagogy into the five days.
2) For the band, especially the new members, to develop a sense of belonging and pride in the Symphonic Band.
3) For the end of camp concert, the first concert of the year, to be successful.
It was extremely successful. A tremendous amount of planning, work, and money has gone into providing this experience for the kids. It was an amazing week.
As I mentioned previously, I modeled the camp after ISYM at the University of Illinois. The typical day looked like this:
8:00 – 10:00 Symphonic Band Rehearsal
10:00 – 10:15 Break
10:15 – 11:15 Sectionals
11:15 – 12:00 Lunch
12:00 – 12:50 Brass Choir, Woodwind Choir, Percussion Ensemble, or Masterclasses
12:50 – 1:00 Break
1:00 – 2:00 Small Chamber Groups, Percussion Ensemble, or Masterclasses
2:00 – 2:15 Break
2:15 – 3:45 Symphonic Band Rehearsal
Today, the kids had two performances: a chamber music recital in the afternoon and our Symphonic Band Concert at 7:00. The kids played great. The program was a bit easier than I had originally wanted:
• Majestica – Brian Balmages (FJH, Grade 1+)
• Music for Queen Mary – Henry Purcell, arranged by Robert Garofalo (Grand Mesa, Grade 2)
• Wolsey’s Wilde – William Byrd, arranged by Doug Hartzell (Grand Mesa, Grade 2)
• Battale Pavane – Tielman Susato, arranged by Bob Margolis (Manhattan Beach, Grade 2)
• Psalm 42 – setting by Samuel Hazo (Boosey & Hawkes, Grade 2)
• The Olympic Spirit – John Williams, arranged by Eric Osterling (Jenson/Hal Leonard, Grade 2)
There was some harder stuff in the folder, but it just wasn’t going to happen. Well, it might have happened, but it wouldn’t have been worth it. We invested a bit of time in them early in the week, but after a certain point I just didn’t feel like beating the technique into them. It was the right move, we were able to spend the rest of the week on more important things…tone, pitch, blend, style, and playing expressively.
We had a great staff of 10 sectional coaches that we hired to run the morning sectionals (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Alto Saxophone, Low WW, Cornet, Horn, Trombone, Tuba/Euphonium, Percussion). While they mostly worked on the band music, they are all excellent teachers and spent time worrying about the long term as well.
Monday and Wednesday afternoons were chamber music times. The band was divided into 12 different small chamber music ensembles guided by 8 chamber music coaches. I’m a bit ashamed to write that this was the first real chamber music experience for most of the kids. The recital went better than it should have given the limited rehearsal time. There were several really nice moments, and only a handful of train wrecks.
Tuesday and Thursday were our masterclass days. We had some fantastic people (freelance musicians, private teachers, DePaul studio professors) come in to give a total of 16 different sessions for our kids.
An enormous amount of information was heaped on the kids this week. I’m sure it’ll take several days and weeks for them (and me!) to sort through and absorb it all.
The ability of the band is pretty close to what I expected it to be, although the kids were much more rusty on Monday than I was hoping they’d be. We have a lot of work to do on our brass tone. The section sound is okay for this time of year because of the strength of our leaders and our solid tuba section, but several of the individual sounds are just too immature. Our oboes made tremendous progress this week in tone development, pitch, and blend. There is more to be done, but I couldn’t be more proud of the effort they put into it this week. Julie DeRoche worked with our clarinets on Thursday, they were a completely different sounding section the next day. Unbelievable.
We have a couple things over the next couple days, nothing necessarily post worthy though. Tomorrow is our first car wash, Monday is our photo shoot for our program and Midwest program book, Tuesday we read through our Midwest program for the first time. We’ll only perform 2 or 3 works from our anticipated program at our next concert on Sept. 27. Now that our program feels more set I’m able to work out the preparation cycle for the music we’ll be performing and the addition pieces I’d like to work on to help us get ready.
(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: August 18, 2006 | PermaLink
Random End of Summer Thoughts
FUNDRAISING
Since we are an Illinois band, we do not have the hefty transportation costs normally associated with a Midwest Clinic performance. We do, though, have several needs associated with our Midwest performance and preparation:
- Design, photography and printing of our Midwest Concert Program (3000 copies)
- Salaries for staffing a special band camp we are having for our students
- Additional masterclasses and clinics for our students as we prepare for Midwest
We are also working on a special project, one that I’m not positive that will work out, so we’ll keep that secret for now. How’s that for a teaser?!?!
Basically, we’re looking to raise $15,000. Not much compared to what the other groups have to raise, but still significant, and definitely the most “per mile” of the groups performing this year…we’re only 15 miles from the Chicago Hilton and Towers.
While I’m anxious about it, I’m confident that we’ll be successful. Our parents are working really hard to make sure we have what we need for our preparations and performance. They are committed to the ideal that our students’ Midwest experience should not be diminished because we are local. This is the most we’ve tried to raise in such a short amount of time. We’ve gained a lot from visiting some of the other performing groups websites to see the types of things they are doing to raise money and promote their accomplishment.
The bulk of the summer was spent planning several things that we hope will raise the necessary funds. Our typical fundraising projects are usually fairly modest. These fundraisers will be expanded and redirected to pay for our Midwest expenses. They include a summer Market Day order, our donation/sponsorship program, carwashes, a book fair through our local Barnes and Noble, and some small grant writing projects.
Our website is outstanding. I would think it is about as popular as a middle school band website can get with about 2700 unique visitors each month. At least through the next several months, we’ll give the $$$ a little more presence on our site. We’ve started accepting online credit card donations on a trial basis. This is new for us, so we’ll see how it works out. Until now, our online fundraising has been subtle through a support page and by participating in affiliate programs recommending books and recordings. It doesn’t bring in a lot of money each month, enough to purchase a CD or two every few months for our listening library, but it’s also zero work.
We’ll be expanding our donation/sponsorship program with a three-pronged letter writing campaign to alumni, out-of-state relatives of performing band members, and Skokie businesses. For the later, we’re borrowing an idea from the Winter Park High School Band by selling ads space in our concert program. We’ll also be thanking the larger contributors ($250+) in our Midwest Concert Program, on our website, and through a full page ad in our local newspaper.
PROGRAM
I’m feeling pretty good about where our program is right now. We’ve changed one work in recent weeks. We’re at 10 pieces. One of them I still go back and forth on, but at least right now, the program is pretty set. I have to keep some other pieces reserved though, just in case a publisher doesn’t get a piece printed in time. It’ll get done, but the last thing I want to be doing is scrambling at the very end because of some unforeseen circumstances cause a delay.
The day before school starts we have a two hour rehearsal to read through our anticipated Midwest Program. Mostly, I want to be sure that the program plays as I expect it to with this group of kids. This will give me time to make some switches if there are any major issues. Hopefully, though, I’ll be able to submit our program by the end of August, a couple weeks before the deadline.
I’m excited about our program. It should not only showcase our kids, but will hopefully highlight several outstanding works that our audience will want to program with their groups.
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Posted: August 12, 2006 | PermaLink