Program Submission
September 15 has been looming since our very first Midwest Memo. Today was the deadline for submitting our concert program to the Midwest Board for approval. If you’re a regular reader, you know I had every intention of submitting early. Instead, I ended up spending a good portion of the last week playing with and tweaking the program order. I even flipped the order of two pieces just before my final proofing.
Our student teacher proofed the program one more time before I emailed it in. Good thing, he caught a couple errors caused by that last second re-ordering of two tunes that I had missed. Once the corrections were made, the electronic copy was sent and the hard copy was driven to the Midwest Office. It was a great relief to have the program finished and turned in.
(Speaking of our student teacher, with the conclusion of his student teaching he’ll have completed his degree and certification and will be looking for a band position, leave or otherwise, starting in January. He’s the goods…a talented, hard working teacher that I recommend without reservation for a middle school or high school position. Shoot me an email if you’d like to check out his resume for an opening.)
We’ll know if our program is approved by early October.
Our program…still no titles until approved:
Selection One (2006, manuscript, Grade 3)
Okay, one title. Essanay Fanfare by Douglas Akey - commissioned for our performance at the 2006 Midwest Clinic. Besides being a wonderful composer, Doug was formerly the band director at Hendrix Jr. High School, which performed at Midwest in 1992. This is our fourth time we’ve commissioned a work from Doug.
Selection Two (2006, new, Grade 2)
More later.
Selection Three (1957, old, Grade 2)
This was the last addition to our program. It replaced another harder work by the same composer. This three-movement suite was included in the 60th Anniversary List compiled by the Board of Directors.
Selection Four (2005, old, Grade 4)
When I first heard this work I was stunned that it wasn’t performed last year. It’s definitely the hardest work on our program, and should “knock ‘em dead.” The audience, that is, not the kids. It’s placed early in the program as recommended in our guidelines.
Selection Five (2005, new, Grade 2)
More later.
Selection Six (1999, old, Grade 2)
More later.
Selection Seven (1939 POP, old, Grade 3)
Our march. Unfortunately it’s out of print, but it’s a great one by a composer on the required march composer list.
Selection Eight (1953, old, Grade 3)
Baroque transcription on the 60th Anniversary List. More later.
Selection Nine (2006, new, Grade 1)
There were several quality grade ones released this summer. My favorite was snagged before I could reserve it. This was a very close second.
Selection Ten (2006, new, Grade 3)
This is the final movement of a work we commissioned a few years ago. It’ll be the perfect finale to our program.
I continue to be very pleased with our program:
- A traditional march
- 4 contemporary works, only one overture
- 1 transcription…although my original plan hoped to have two
- 2 works from the 60th anniversary list, 3 pre-1960 works. 3 classics and hopefully several destined to be classics.
- 3 arrangements of folk literature
- A nice variety of difficulty and styles
Now we just have to learn all this stuff!!!!
(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: September 15, 2006 | PermaLink
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
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
Midwest Pre-Conference Performances
Buried in the back of the binder we received from the Midwest Office at the June meeting is a green sheet titled “Program Planning Suggestions” from the Board of Director’s Performance Coordinating Committee. There’s some great advice on this page dealing with program selection and pacing. Even a suggestion to make sure the students drink plenty of water before the performance to avoid dehydration since the ballroom stages become quite warm.
Number 8 reads: “If you have an opportunity to perform your Midwest program two or three times before you arrive in Chicago, your students will know how to pace themselves and have much more confidence in their performance.”
This is something I’d really like to do. One of the things I’m struggling with, as I’m sure the other directors are is well, is striking a balance in the scheduling, especially in December. Our classes run through December 22, which means our students will essentially miss three days of school attending and performing at the conference. It’s important that I’m sensitive to this fact…both in the amount of school they miss prior to the performance and in terms of evening commitments leading up to our performance.
We are trying, as best we can, to make our “official” Midwest Preview Concert as much of a Skokie event as we can. It will be part benefit concert, part celebration, and hopefully a good time for everyone who attends. We’ve rented the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts on December 18, the Monday before Midwest, for this performance. We’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s very exciting. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and hope that it’ll be something we’ll be able to hang onto for future years.
Having this concert four days before our Midwest performance is nice for a couple reasons. It’s close enough to our concert for it to feel like part of the Midwest experience for the kids, but far enough away that we still have several rehearsals following it to put the finishing touches on anything that the performance exposes. I’m also excited that most, if not all, of our guest conductors will be able to join us for this concert as well. We’re optimistic that we’ll be able to draw a nice sized audience for this concert. We are also actively searching for a sponsor to underwrite the costs associated with the performance.
The rest of our concerts have been scheduled as well:
August 18 Band Camp Concert
September 27 Exchange concert with Lincoln Middle School (Park Ridge)
October 24 Symphonic Band Concert
November 13 Symphonic Band Concert
November 20 Concert at Meyer Primary School
December 7 Winter Concert with McCracken Choirs
December 18 Midwest Preview Concert
December 22 Midwest Clinic Performance
This isn’t much different from our normal schedule. We don’t usually have the mid-November concert, and with school starting significantly earlier this year we were able to slip in the late September concert. Once our program is approved by the Midwest Board I’ll break down how our preparation of the pieces will fit into this framework.
The only thing left to figure out is when to perform our complete Midwest program for the school. Ideally we’d be able to find a time to play the full program for the middle school and another time to play for our elementary school. This would give us the three performances of the program prior to our Midwest performance. We’ll see what the administration and I are able to work out.
(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: July 27, 2006 | PermaLink
Summer Preparations
It’s been a little while since I’ve posted. While a lot of work has gone into preparing for the school year, there are a lot of loose ends that need to be tied before I post in greater detail.
Band Camp
We don’t normally have much in the summer. When I first started teaching I’d offer lessons and spend countless hours at school teaching, organizing, and planning. I’m just too old for that now!
After calling around to some directors that have brought groups to Midwest in the past, I found that most held some sort of summer band either in the form of a camp, or weekly rehearsals. For some, it was something they regularly do, and their Midwest preparation was fitted into their normal summer.
Our camp is being modeled after the University of Illinois Summer Youth Music program. I had the privilege of guest conducting one of the junior bands there last summer and was blown away by the experience the kids received. It’s going to be a great week, with rehearsals, sectionals, masterclasses, chamber music, and a concert at the end of the five days.
While I’ll try to post even more specifics later, my basic hope for the camp is to be fun, set the tone and work ethic for the year, and hopefully we’ll be able to cram about a month’s worth of instruction and development into five days.
Fundraising
Other than planning our August camp, our parent group has been meeting to discuss how we’re going to raise funds to pay for our various expenses related to performing at Midwest. The concert program is the largest of these, but our band camp won’t be cheap either.
I’ve learned a lot by visiting the websites of the other performing organizations to see how they plan on raising money for their performances. The Instrumentalist Midwest Profiles of the last separate years were quite helpful as well. We’re taking several of their ideas to incorporate into our campaign. Instead of doing several new activities, we’ve added a little, but will invest most of our energy expanding some of our existing fundraisers.
I’ve got a whole post on our fundraising efforts already finished. It’s just waiting on a couple details to be set before I publish it.
Program
After school let out, I took a couple week break from thinking about our program. I really wish I could say our program is completely set and ready to submit to the Midwest Office for approval, but I’m just not completely happy with it yet. Most of the program is set, with two spots a bit in limbo.
We’ve commissioned a work to premier as the first piece on our program. I got a little bit nervous when I read Greg Snyder’s interview in the Instrumentalist this month. He mentions that commissioning a work his first time around was stressful. He wasn’t specific as to why, though, so I’m trying not to imagine nightmare scenarios in my head. We’ve commissioned this composer before, he writes very well at our level, and I’m sure that what we receive will be exactly what we’re looking for.
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Posted: July 18, 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
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