Choir Newsletter; October 9, 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. 

I. Curricular Choir

• ILMEA Results! The results from Tuesday's auditions are in, and BHS had 8 students earn their place into the extremely competitive Senior Chorus. Congrats to Laura Hix, Justin Knautz, Kayla Little, Amanda Maher, Marcelo Nylund, Natalie Sweeney, Matt Skirmont, and Ben Zinser. Congrats also to Adi Alley, Alyssa Gao, and Sophia Damico for making the orchestra, Julia Lekander for making the band and John Hix for making the Jazz Band. The festival is November 7 at Glenbard East HS. 
• 9th grade ILMEA: For the first time ever, District 9 of ILMEA will be having a 9th grade choir. After conducting auditions in class last week, Anna H (Soprano), Emily T (Alto), Robbie M (Tenor) and a Bass (to be named later) will join quartets from all of the other ILMEA District 9 schools for a festival choir. It will be held at the same festival as the Senior Chorus on November 7th at Glenbard East HS. Congratulations!
• 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.
• 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
• NIU Choir Day Field Trip: On Wednesday, 10/14, Chamber and Treble Choirs will go 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. Permission slips are due ASAP, and can be downloaded here. 
• 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 on October 16.   

II. 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:

                 Tuesday, October 6: ILMEA District 9 Chorus Auditions (Chamber) 
                 Thursday, October 8: Showchoir parent meeting 7pm
                 Thursday, October 8: Madrigal (Chamber & Treble Choir) parent meeting, 8pm
                 Saturday, November 7: ILMEA Senior Choir, Band, and Orchestra Festival
                 Saturday, November 14: ILMEA Vocal and Instrumental Jazz Festival
                 Wednesday, March 2: Showtime! 
                 March 7-­11 ­Curricular Choir Placement Auditions (During Class)

III. 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 need 5 more people to serve as ushers for our 10/22 choir concert. You can sign up to help here. 
• 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).

IV. 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.  
• Here are some highlights of that meeting: 

1. Troubadours will be entirely made up of Treble Choir students this year, and we will have different students serving the food. This change is meant to give them comparable rehearsal time and a clearer role in the evening.
2. We will be caroling at a few retirement homes, community event and elementary schools during the first week of December. 
3. Ms. Valerie Bennington will be serving as the volunteer coordinator this year. Thank you!
4. We need a few parent leaders to head up volunteer teams over Decorations, Food, Costumes, Publicity, etc. 
5. We need a few parent volunteers to help those leaders do alterations, set up & take down, ticket sales, etc.
6. 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.

V. 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. 

VI. Did you notice...

• ...we need more people to usher for the concert on 10/22? Thanks for considering it!