Choir Newsletter; October 16, 2015

Choir students and families,
Here's this week's newsletter. Key points and new information are in bold type. 
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A link to each post will be sent through the choir Twitter and Facebook accounts, to whatever parent emails I have on file, and to the students through Google Classroom. 

The beginning section will always be about curricular choir and the following information will pertain to the extracurricular activities, so you only need to read what applies to your student.  The most updated and comprehensive calendar is always on bataviamusic.org. 

Curricular Choir

• It's Concert Week! Hard to believe our concert is almost here. We are excited to share our music with you. The concert is Thursday, 10/22 at 7pm. Call time for students is 6pm. I expect the concert to last about an hour. Of course, the concert is mandatory for students.  
• Concert Dress code for all choirs: ​Black dress pants or skirt, black dress shirt, black socks and dress shoes, which each student must provide for themselves. Most performances will include robes, which BHS will provide.
• MusicTheory.net (MTN): Students will periodically have assignments on MusicTheory.net to work on issues like note ID, key signature ID, Intervals, ear training and more. It will all be set up through Classroom. We walked through a couple assignments this week. Those will show up in PowerSchool under the "Written Assignments" category. Here's a link if you want to give it a try! 
• The Grade Level Expectancies (GLE's) will also use SightReadingFactory, as it is important for the test to look like what they've been practicing. On weeks when GLE assignments are due, the normal Thursday assignments will no be there. Instead, students will have two SRF drills that are matched to the difficulty level of their choir. These GLE drills will be due on certain Fridays at 5pm. The next GLE is due tonight, October 16.  It has been available to students since Thursday, Oct 8. 
• Lisa Fredenburgh visits Varsity on Monday, 10/19. Dr. Fredenburgh is the Director of Choral Activities at Aurora University. I got the chance to work with her this summer at a graduate class I was taking, and I'm so excited to have her right next door!
• The syllabus for all choirs is on the choir page of the BataviaMusic.org. Students received a hard-copy in class. You should have been shown the syllabus and signed off on it. You can see if your student has turned theirs in by checking PowerSchool for the "Syllabus Contract" assignment, due 9/4.

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Help wanted! 

• I'll need a few more people to help take leadership in specific ways and make Festival of Carols a reality. Please read the Madrigal section below. 
• We have all of our ushers for next week's concert. Thanks so much! Ushers, please meet at the BFAC Stage Door at 5:40pm.
• I'd love to update the website and social media with pictures from last year. If you have any you would be willing to see displayed publicly, even if it is a student who has graduated, please send me the picture or a link.
• If you are willing to help in any way, please contact Mr. Barsch at peter.barsch@bps101.net or sign up directly at www.bataviamusicbuffs.org (click "Volunteer Sign-up" from the home page).

Showchoirs

• We had a Parents' Meeting about Show Choir in the choir room on Thursday, 10/8. Here is the Powerpoint from that evening.  
• Showchoir rehearsals will start on November 9, but we may have informal vocal rehearsals as our songs arrangements come in. Ideally, we'd like to be able to focus on the choreography as soon as possible once the season starts. 

• The most updated and comprehensive calendar is always on bataviamusic.org. Just select the groups you are interested in, and you'll see their rehearsal and performance schedule. If you find what you believe to be an error or discrepancy, please bring it to my attention!
• Volunteer sign-ups will be set up on www.BataviaMusicBuffs.org soon. 

• NIU Choir Day Field Trip: On Wednesday, 10/14, Chamber and Treble Choirs went to Northern Illinois University for Choir Day, which brings high school choirs together to perform for fellow choir members, directors, and NIU faculty members Eric Johnson and Mary Lynn Doherty. This year's guest clinician is Dr. Sharon A. Hansen. We got helpful, useful feedback on our pieces and got a chance to see NIU's wonder Chamber and Concert Choirs perform. 

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2015-16 Concerts

• Thursday, October 22: Fall Choir Concert 
• Tuesday, December 8: Kaleidoscope Concert Dress Rehearsal – During school day 
• Wednesday, December 9: Music Department Kaleidoscope Concert 
• Thursday, Dec 10: Festival of Carols Dress Rehearsal at Shannon Hall (TBA) 
• Fri-­Sat. Dec 11-­12: Festival of Carols at Shannon Hall (Chamber & Treble) 
• Tuesday, February 23: BHS Music Festival­ Concert 1 (Chorale & Alpha) 
• Wednesday, February 24: BHS Music Festival­ Concert 2 (Treble & Varsity) 
• Thursday, February 25: BHS Music Festival­ Concert 3 (Chamber) 
• Thursday, May 5: Spring Choir Concert (This date is still tentative)
• Thursday, May 12: Music Senior Awards night (This date is still tentative)
• Other Important Dates:

Saturday, November 7: ILMEA Senior Festival                Saturday, November 14: ILMEA Jazz Festival                Wednesday, March 2: Showtime! 
March 7-­11 ­Curricular Choir Placement Auditions

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Madrigals

• Madrigal Season is fast approaching! Initial plans for the event are under way. This year, every student in Chamber and Treble Choirs will be performing at this magical event. 
• We had a Parents' Meeting about the Festival of Carols in the choir room on Thursday, 10/8. Here is the Powerpoint from that evening. 
• We still need a few parent volunteers to help with this event. More specific requests will come soon.  

1. All volunteer sign-ups are on the www.BataviaMusicBuffs.org (Click Volunteer Sign-up). If you have any questions about how you might help, please contact Mr. Barsch at peter.barsch@bps101.net.

Did you notice...

• ...we have a concert next week? 7pm start time, 6pm call for students. The concert is mandatory for students, of course. 
• I have it on good authority that the Cubs will sweep the Mets, so there won't be a game that night!