Thursday Boot Camp

Ron Kilde!!!! Wow - what a treasure Salem has! Ron is an incredible jazz violinist, and has a great personality to boot. Ron brought his band to West Salem to play for us today; Trumpeter Paul La Freniere, Guitarist Larry Fleetwood, and upright Bassist Roger Webster. The played favorites including Lady Be Good, a Fiddler on the Roof medley, and What a Wonderful Life. If you'd like to see them play live, go to Cascade Baking Co. on State Street downtown any Saturday late morning... they play there weekly.

Here's the orchestra recap:
String Orchestra - we played through another Harmonic exercise warmup - they did a great job on their own this time!!
Sinfonietta - we "got" the Syncopated Clock down!! What a fun piece to play together...
Chamber Orchestra - worked more intensely on Serenade Triste - and then enjoyed listening to, and following along the music to, Tchaikovsky Serenade - what a great piece!

Thanks to all who attended. I look forward to seeing everyone on the 8th and 9th of September - 2009-10 is looking like it's going to be a fantastic year for the Titan Orchestra program!!!

Wednesday - Boot Camp

Yoga - Yoga - Yoga - Yoga. Nothing warms my heart like a roomful of Titans doing yoga! We did yoga all together, en masse. We sun saluted, triangled, down dogged, and balanced - all to an eclectic mix of recorded music!

Today String Orchestra showed off their scale abilities, then read some music, with the assistance of some of the other orchestra students. Sinfonietta played chorales in small ensembles and tackled the Syncopated Clock again. Chamber Orchestra rose the the challenge of playing chamber music for one another - we heard Serenade Triste, a 2 violin/viola trio by Telemann, and Mozart's Eine Kliene Nachtmusik 1st movement as a trio.

I'm so excited about how well things are going!

Last day of Boot Camp Thursday...

Tuesday - Boot Camp

Now we're rollin'! Tuesday was fun!! String Orchestra deconstructed Rockin' Robin a little bit more. Sinfonietta did wonders with a Bach chorale and started in on Syncopated Clock (Leroy Anderson - the Zinn arrangement). Chamber Orchestra played Anderson's Blue Tango, an awesome new piece called Serenade Triste, and then we tackled a little bit of Tchaikowsky's Serenade, first movement (boy, do we love that piece!!!).

We had the pleasure of hearing Danny Seidenberg, Noah Seitz, and Chris Woitach play UnBande - interesting group. Here are some web links for them:

Danny and UnBande - www.unbande.com

Noah Seitz - www.keizeracademyofmusic.org

Chris Woitach - www.affmusic.com

See ya tomorrow!
~Daryl S.

Some fun news articles...

Just to lighten up your end 'o summer:

James Taylor and the BSO (Boston Symphony Orchestra)

Soprano falls into pit

(I wonder if the string musicians were ok... they didn't comment on that in this article...)

Lost $600K Violin + Taxi + GPS = Happy Reunion

Baseball and Barber of Seville (wish we were in Washington D.C.)

Enjoy!

Monday - Boot Camp

Wow - what a great start to Boot Camp! We tuned, we played, we listened, we chatted... good times! Thanks to graduated seniors Jessica T and Jessica P for coming to visit and play with us! We had Georgienne Young, Danny Seidenberg, and Susan Miller from Salem Baroque here to play Couperin, Leclair, Arne, and San Martini for us - it was really neat to hear the harpsichord and get into this very special performance practice.

To all those who didn't bring pencils or your check/cash - please bring that in ASAP.

Freshman - please bring your medical release form tomorrow!!!

See ya for Tuesday for UnBande and more playing!!
~Ms. S

BOOT CAMP MONDAY - bring a pack of pencils

Yup, it's in 2 days... Monday is the start of Boot Camp!!

Bring your instrument (upper strings) and a pack of pencils (there are school supplies all over the place... please pick up a pack of 10-12 pencils to bring to Boot Camp).

See previous posts for times - note that Chamber Orchestra will be done at 2pm, not 1:30 as listed earlier.

See you Monday!
~Ms. S

New Band Director and Assistant Band Director appointed!!!

In case you haven't been following the A-wing news at West, Mr. Griffith has resigned as assistant band director at West effective this past June and Dr. Nail will be leaving us as of the end of December. After an exhaustive search, we're very excited about the gentlemen we welcome to the A-wing: Todd Zimbleman - West band director as of January 4, 2010 - and Luke Warren - West assistant band director effective August 2009. Dr. Nail will co-conduct the symphony the months of November and December and Mr. Zimbleman will take over his responsibilities in January 2010 - I'm very excited to work with both Dr. Nail and Mr. Zimbleman this year!!!

The following is excerpted from the West Band newsletter:

August 2, 2009
Welcome to this season’s first Music Booster Newsleter!
New Band Director and Assistant Band Director Chosen

The West Salem High School Band Boosters is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Todd Zimbelman as our new Band Director. Mr. Zimbelman comes to us from Southridge High School in Beaverton where he has been Band Director for the last three years. Previously he was Band Director at Grants Pass High School and before that taught music at the University of Oregon. Not only did Mr. Zimbelman take Southridge to the number one position in the state in Marching Band, but he also took their Wind Ensemble to the number one position at the state finals this year. His ability to bring the most out in his students is one of the many reasons for his strong reputation as one of the premiere music educators in the state.

Dr. Nail, upon hearing this news, said that Mr. Zimbelman is an outstanding music educator and will continue to build upon our already strong reputation. He could not be more pleased with the choice as he holds Todd in very high regard. Ike welcomes Mr. Zimbelman and looks forward to working with him during the transition over the first half of the year.

Mr. Zimbelman will begin working with our Marching Band as soon as he can transition away from his duties at Southridge. Beginning with the start of the new school year, Mr. Zimbelman will be working as band director at Clagget Creek Middle School, filling in for their current band director who is going to be out on maternity leave. His official first day at West Salem High will be January 4, 2010. However, he will be working with our students during this transition period.

We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Luke Warren as our new Assistant Band Director. Mr. Warren comes to us by way of Portland State University where he just completed his Masters Degree program in Music Education. Luke received his Bachelors in Music Performance on the bass trombone from the University of Oregon in 2004. Luke was not only a student of Mr. Zimbleman at U of O, but he also worked with him at Southridge as an assistant working with their marching band. Mr. Warren will be joining us in time to start working with our students during marching band camp. He will also be performing similar duties to those of Mr. Griffiths during the school year.