Newsletter 15

Newsletter for January 22, 2009

Contained within:

1) Links to the right for recorded music from Winter concert
2) Finals - projects and grades
3) Reviews are DUE Tuesday Jan. 27
4) Advanced Symphony "FINAL" reminder
5) Boston payments - due tomorrow - Friday Jan. 23
6) Fruit pickup Friday Jan. 23
7) Exciting news
8) Waltz Night wrap up
9) No Advanced Symphony rehearsal Tuesday Jan. 27
10) Congrats to All City students

1) To the right you'll find links to most of the substantial music we were to perform in December. The recording quality is not perfection, and I did not edit the recordings - a few of the pieces really should have been recorded a few more times to get the 'best' take, but I feel that these recordings are representative of where we were the first week of January after a 3 week break. Advanced Symphony pieces will be up soon - check back. I will most likely take these links off after I'm sure that everyone's heard them.

2) Finals are approaching. Here's a quick run down of what the 'final project' grade entails:

Period 1/2: We've been doing a big 'sight reading' unit. Students will be asked to reflect both on the pieces we played and on their experience sight reading. The grade will be assessed by a combination of participation, effort, and attitude, and completing the reflection assignment in class on Wed Jan. 28. On Thursday Jan. 29 we have a guest coming in to lecture on music history.

Period 6: We've been working individually or in small groups for the past 2 weeks. Students will perform for each other on the final period and will assess each other's playing. Grade is a combination of self assessment, participation, performance, attitude, and effort.

Period 7: We've doing working in 8-15 member ensembles. Each ensemble will perform for the class on during the final period. Grade is a combination of self assessment, group assessment, participation, performance, attitude, and effort.

3) Reviews are due Tuesday January 27 by the end of the day. One review must be live (unless other arrangements have been made) and the other may be of a DVD or CD recording. This is a large percentage of the final grade, so please contact me if there are any issues.

4) Advanced Symphony has an official final - it's at 11:30am on Friday the 30th. Attendance is manditory (Pippin pit students will be excused early). It will be a 90 minute 'final' (actually, we're rehearsing... )

5) Those going on the Boston trip - payment is due tomorrow, Jan. 23 (this date was published back in September). By this time, all students should have checked in with me to confirm balance and room arrangement. HUGE thanks to Missy Page and crew for all the tallying of the fundraisers - you are amazing!! Yay!!!

6) Fruit needs to be picked up on Friday - Mrs. Wittman has sent many emails about pickup - she needs parent volunteers to staff pick up times. Thanks to her and Glenys Loewen-Thomas for all their hard work! This was a VERY successful fundraiser.

7) The A wing and auditorium manager asked Education Foundation for, and received, a grant to permanently install microphones from the ceiling in the auditorium and to spiff up our recording equipment. Also, the speakers in the auditorium will be re-hung and fixed. We'll also receive an MP3 recorder for classroom recording purposes. This is big news and will greatly help us with our recording equipment in the A wing! Thanks to Marianne Stipe and the Education Foundation for making this happen!!!

8) Waltz Night was a blast! Great work by all the performers and guest performers. Fantastic organization and work effort by our dedicated parents - special thanks to Kelly Culver! We made over $1000 for the Boston students!!

9) No Advanced Symphony rehearsal on next Tuesday afternoon - see you at the 'final'.

10) Congrats to Lauren Culver, Skyler Young, Aida Behmard, and Paul Zukowski for being accepted into All City. Congrats too to those who auditioned but didn't make it this year - you all worked so very hard and I'm so glad that you've represented West so well!

Sorry for the long catch up message.
~Daryl S.
silberman_daryl@salkeiz.k12.or.us