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On Monday, February 26th, the YCSD Band Program will hold its 5^th Annual Town-Wide Band Concert (a.k.a. BANDAPALOOZA!) in the YHS Gym.  All band students grades 5-12 will participate.  This is a wonderful experience for all of our students – fostering positive relationships between all levels, and allowing our youngest band students and parents to see the full progression of our band program.

As in years past, due to fire codes and the possibility of exceeding the maximum gym capacity, we ask that YHS band parents and families please not attend this concert as audience members.  Ms. Kluga apologizes for this and thank you for your understanding.  (If it is any consolation, the YHS Concert Band and Wind Ensemble students will each be performing a selection that you will already have heard at our Swing Dance).  However, we do need parent volunteers.  If you are interested in helping us achieve this intensely logistical feat, we would love your help!  Please e-mail Ms. Kluga.

Our unit on the music of the Swing Era is a quick 6 weeks. Professional recordings of the weekly lesson homework assignments are posted on the YHS Band Dashboard to guide at home practice.  Extra help sessions are available weekly after school.  Students should see Ms. Kluga for an appointment. Ms. Kluga’s goal is for all students to experience success – please let Ms. Kluga know how she can help.

We are almost ready to post our Winter Concert recordings.  Ms. Kluga is still hopeful that someone has a recording (video or audio) of:

Sparks (Concert Band’s 2^nd song)

Jazz Christmas Medley (Saxophone Ensemble #2)

Chanukah Festival Overture (the CB&WE combined ensemble’s 1^st song)

If you do, please send it to Ms. Kluga!  Ms. Kluga feels terrible that we encountered a technical glitch and are missing these songs – she would like to post a complete concert recording with all ensembles represented, for all to enjoy.

All students were sent home with their new music for our next concert.  To help guide their practice, professional recordings are now available on Dashboard – please sign in and click on the “Professional Recordings” link on the left side bar. Concert Band, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band music are all posted.  Happy practicing!

Our next concert performance is Saturday 2/10/18 at 7:00, in the YHS GYM.  This is our 10^th annual Swing Dance and Concert (unbelievable that this is #10!).  All YHS Band students are required to attend.  It is both a concert, and a dance, and everyone is invited!  (Yes, parents, you are invited!  Don’t let your student tell you otherwise J).  This is a well-attended and fun evening for our entire Yorktown community (last year we had over 300 audience members ages 2 – 92!).

A flyer is attached.

INFO: On Saturday 2/10 at 7:00pm the YHS Gym will be transformed into a 1940’s Night Club, complete with bandstand, dance-floor, linen-clad tables and as much Valentine’s Day ambience as we can muster.  The YHS Concert Band, Jazz Band, and Wind Ensemble will perform Swing Era music for your dancing and listening pleasure!  Light refreshments will be served. Swing Era attire encouraged.  Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for non-band students and senior citizens.  The evening will begin at 7:00 with a one-hour swing dance lesson by a professional dance studio.  Live music (provided by your students!) and dancing 8-10:30pm.

Congratulations and Bravo to all YHS Band students on a beautiful performance at Wednesday’s Winter Concert!  Mrs Kluga is very proud of you all, both for your musicality and for working together to ensure our concert logistics went smoothly!

And, many thanks to the band parents who donated food items, or their time, to create our post-concert celebration.  Special thanks to Mrs. Serafin for coordinating the on-line donations.  What a special evening for our learning community!

Due to a technical glitch, unfortunately we are missing recordings of the Concert Band’s 2 songs.  If anyone has files they could share, the students and Mrs Kluga would greatly appreciate it!

We hope to have the full concert recordings available for download at www.yhsbands.com later this week.

Our newsletter is created by band students, to give our learning community an overview of the band events (so far) from our year together. Many, many thanks to all students who contributed articles, and especially to Senior Kaitlyn Nuebel for her hard work managing the layout and editing!  The newsletter is beautiful and is attached, in case you were not able to secure a copy at the concert.  Enjoy!

Was a great success!  Using a portion of the profit from this year’s Citrus Sale, we purchased over $200 worth of warm clothing, toiletries, toys and treats for our second grader, Ayden.   Thank you so much as well to the families who sent in extra gifts! The students and Mrs Kluga are so happy that we have this opportunity to give back.

All students are required to pick up their ENTIRE order in the YHS Band Room between the hours of 2:30 and 6:30pm.  See you then!

Thank you in advance to our many parent volunteers, and to those donating food items throughout the day.  Your help is so appreciated and so integral to the success of this very logistically intense event.  Special thanks to band parents Adriana Beaudreault and Teresa Ryan-Onatzevitch for organizing the parent volunteers and food donations!

Our next concert performance is Saturday 2/10/17 at 7:00, in the YHS GYM.  This is our 10^th annual Swing Dance and Concert.  All YHS Band students are required to attend.  It is both a concert, and a dance, and everyone is invited!  (Yes, parents, you are invited!  Don’t let your student tell you otherwise J).  This is an eagerly anticipated, well-attended and fun evening for our entire Yorktown community (last year we had many senior citizens attend and enjoy the evening with us!).  More details to follow.

Our concert is Wednesday 12/13, at 7:30 in the YHS Auditorium.  Students will need to arrive by 7:00 to warm up.

Please review the dress requirements below for our concert (as found in the Band Handbook, which you all received back in September).  Our professional and unified visual appearance is an important part of each performance. Hopefully some items are already part of your student’s wardrobe, and all are available at your local department store.   Please contact Mrs Kluga with any questions.

*In particular, ladies’ skirts must fall below the knee.  Please wear black dress pants if you can’t find a skirt that falls below the knee*

Concert Dress – (as found in the YHS Band Handbook).

Photos of good examples of concert dress for boys and girls are attached.

Ladies:

·       Black dress pants or LONG black skirt. LADIES, LONG MEANS YOUR SKIRT FALLS BELOW THE KNEE.  (no black jeans/jeggings/tights/yoga pants)

·       Black Blouse– longish sleeves (no sleeveless shirts or spaghetti straps)

·       Black stockings

·       Black Shoes (no flip flops)

Gentlemen:

·       Black Dress Pants (no black jeans/track pants/sweat pants)

·       Black, Button-Down, Long Sleeved Shirt

·       Black Socks.

·       Black Shoes

To celebrate our student’s performance, we will host a reception in the cafeteria.  Look for an e-mail in the coming week from Band Aid Core Helper (BACH) Mrs. Serafin with info as to how to donate a food item, or to help us set up/clean up.  Thank you!

As you know from the JB Calendar, this week our rehearsal is WEDNESDAY from 7:30-9:00.  This is our final rehearsal before our concert, and will take place with the Tech Crew in the auditorium. Please be ready to help set up the stage.

As noted above, our Winter Concert is Wed. 12/13.  Please arrive to the auditorium by 6:20 so we can successfully complete our sound check.  Thank you in advance for being prompt.

Forms and payment info were distributed in class last week (many thanks to our YHS Band Treasurer, senior Michael Blaney, for his work preparing this information!). If possible, the down payment and permission slip are requested by Friday 12/8.