Winter Band Concerts

Tuesday, October 28, 2015

M&M and Luke both had their winter band concerts on the same night so DH and I had to split up.


I don't have any pictures of M&M's band for the concert - except for some blurry ones!

Marching Band Preview Show - Luke

Friday, August 14, 2015

It is weird having Luke in a different marching band than M&M! We will see how things go once the competition season begins! Luke's high school got a new band director at the end of the school year last year (and it is a relatively new school) - so they are starting fresh this season. The band is quite a bit smaller than M&M's band so they will compete in a smaller class size. It will be interesting to see how the new director is and how the new band will do things compared to M&M's band.

Luke's band did a family preview/parent meeting at the end of their 2 week summer band camp so we could see the progress that they had made up to that point. They were pretty close to having the whole show put together - I think they had all but one of the three movements on the field. Here are a few pictures from it:

Libby Gardner Concert 2015

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Every spring the band, orchestra and choirs at M&M's school perform at the Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah for the end of the year performance. It is a little bit of a pain to travel there and it is a long day for the students who have to leave right after school and are gone until late in the evening, but it is an amazing concert hall acoustically for their performance. M&M performed with the Wind Symphony (the top band at the school) as well as the early morning Symphony group (they meet twice a week from 6-7 a.m.). It's a tiring concert for the wind instruments who play in the early morning group as well as the band! They played some hard songs! (The acapella choir was the first group to perform and they have a new teacher this year. They were amazing to listen to! Such a talented group for a high school!)

Colt of the Quarter

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

The mascot for Luke's school is the colt so every quarter they have the teachers nominate students for an award that they call the Colt of the Quarter. After they select a certain number of nominees, the teachers vote on two students for the award for each grade - one boy and one girl. These are students that not only have good grades but that are upstanding students and examples to those around them. They keep the winner a secret and announce it at an assembly in front of the rest of their grade. They mail a letter home to parents to write a little bit about their student and to invite them to the assembly - without letting the student know. Unfortunately Luke was involved with the jazz band that performed at the assembly so he saw me and MJ in the audience when we arrived because the jazz band was already sitting on the stage warming up.

So they had all of the nominees come up to the stage and then they announced Luke as the winner for the boys for 8th grade. Then he had to go back up on stage to perform with the jazz band - and he had a solo with one of the songs. Afterwards they invited the winners and their family members to the office for some refreshments.

8th grade nominees for 3rd quarter. Interesting choice for Luke's shirt that day - it has a picture of Snoopy sleeping on top of his dog house and it says "Slacker" above it!

Luke playing his solo

Jazz Band Festival

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Luke's school started up a jazz band for the second semester. They meet 2 days a week before school. Luke has been playing tenor saxophone and has been enjoying himself. He is the only tenor sax and has had a few solos. They have a small group but they have a lot of fun and performed well before a judge at this festival.

It was a crazy day with driving kids around and we had a decent sized spring snow storm as well!

View from out back deck.

View from our front porch.

Band concert - Luke

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

As you can see, this was a busy week! Here are pictures from Luke's pre-festival concert:

Band concert - M&M

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

M&M's band had their pre-festival concert:

It is hard to get a picture of M&M while the band is playing because she is in the middle of the band, so here are some pictures of her walking on stage.

On the last song they had the middle school students join them on the stage.

District Honor Band - Luke

February 19, 2015

Luke was invited to play in the middle school District Honor Band this year. They spent 2 days practicing and then had the performance in the evening. They played some neat songs and I think that Luke enjoyed the guest conductor.

Fall Band Concert

Wednesday, October 29

This is M&M's band and early morning symphony group.  They had their fall/Halloween concert just right before the marching band went to St. George for the state competition and BOA competition.

Spring Band Concert 2014

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Luke's last performance with his former middle school band.

Crazy Saturday

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Saturday was super crazy because M&M and I both had separate performances at the same time (District Honor Band for M&M and Sounds of the Season for me).  So both DH and I missed her performance. :(  Thankfully some friends of ours were able to give her a ride there and she got a ride back home with another friend.  Kitty got a ride to the play (since she had to be there early and I wasn't going to be home in time).  I had just enough time after my afternoon concert to go home and get the kids in the car to leave for Kitty's play.  Crazy as it all was, Kitty's play performance time was right in between my two concerts so M&M and I (and my parents) were able to attend.  DH got home from his Guatemala trip and hopped in his car with his ticket for the play and met us there - he arrived just after it started.  After the play was over M&M and I had to take off for our next concert and DH rounded up Kitty and the rest of the kids and headed over to the high school for the Sounds of the Season concert.

Wind Symphony

Tuesday, October 22

M&M made it into the Wind Symphony at her high school - which is the top band.  She has really enjoyed it and it has been a good experience to be exposed to harder music with more serious band students.  They had their first concert towards the end of October.

Country Fest Parade

Saturday, June 15

M&M's marching band participates in a parade that our city holds each spring.  Last year we were out of town for it, but this year M&M was able to march for it.  Unfortunately they were towards the beginning of the parade and we had a prior commitment that morning and were not able to get there in time to see the band.  Maybe next year!

Spring Band Concert 2013

Thursday, May 23

Tonight was M&M's end of the year band concert.  She has had a fun year that has been a little frustrating at times.  There were not a lot of 9th graders in her group so the teacher moved more 8th graders up that were not quite at the same level as the 9th graders.  They played some fun songs for this concert though and M&M had a couple of solos with one of the baritone players where you could hear her really well.  She is definitely looking forward to playing with the high school group next year!

M&M is on the far right with her bassoon.

District Band Festival

Tuesday, March 19

M&M's band performed for a judge and got the highest rating you can get.  It's been fun as she gets into better groups and plays some more challenging music.  Also as she gets better and you can actually her the bassoon in parts of the music!  This year I went to watch them perform in front of the judge during school hours since DH and I missed the first part of her concert for parents.  I was able to videotape her band while they performed for the judge.  Here are a couple of pictures that I took before they started.

M&M is on the back row on the far right.

Congrats M&M!

A couple of weeks ago M&M auditioned for the Wind Symphony group for the high school she will be attending next year.  This is the top band group at the high school and is composed mostly of juniors and seniors.  The high school teacher came to her school and auditioned anyone who was interested immediately following school.  M&M just found out yesterday that she made it into the group and so did a fellow classmate of hers who plays clarinet.  She is super excited!  The high school teacher has been excited to have her come play for them ever since he heard her play last year when she was in 8th grade.  They have not had a bassoon player the last year or two at the high school.

District Honor Band

Thursday, February 21

M&M was invited to play in the District Honor Band this year.  Each school in the district is allowed to send a certain number of students and somehow they work it out with the other teachers so that they have the correct number of each instrument for the group.  They were given the music ahead of time and then they met twice during school hours to practice and then had their concert the evening of their second rehearsal.  The director seemed like he would have been a fun person to perform with and M&M enjoyed having another bassoon in the group.

Here is my low-quality, ipad photo that I took:

If you click on the picture to view a larger version of it, M&M is sitting on the right side of the stage, about the 3rd person from the right on the second row.

Christmas concerts

M&M's band concert was Wednesday, December 12th.

Blondie's school orchestra concert was the following evening, Thursday, December 13th.

They both performed well.  We are a little disappointed in M&M's band this year.  There are not a lot of 9th graders that are in the band program so the top band is a very small group and they have moved up some of the 8th graders to make the group a little bigger, but that means they are not quite as good.  M&M is definitely looking forward to moving up to the high school next year.  Blondie's school orchestra is amazing!  Her teacher has been teaching there for several years and has an excellent program going at the school.

Unexpected praise

M&M has been playing the bassoon now for a little over a year and she loves it!  She has been self taught with some tips found on the internet and a few pointers from one of her orchestra teachers.  Other than that she has learned everything on her own.  When she first brought the bassoon home her band teacher had shown her how to put it together before she left school and I had bought a few reeds to try from a local music store.  We printed off a couple of fingering charts from the internet and then she has practiced and figured things out on her own.

The other day the band director from one of the local high schools stopped by her band class to drop off some marching band registration forms.  He came in while the band was in the middle of practicing a song and when M&M turned around to see who it was, he was standing right behind her.  In front of the whole class he told her that she sounded really good and had good tone and her tonguing was really crisp and clear too.  M&M's band teacher then said to M&M, "Tell him how long you've been playing."  M&M said that she had been playing just a little over a year and the high school director was amazed.  He then asked her where she would be going to high school (her school feeds into at least 3 different schools).  She said that she would be going to the high school where he teaches and he pumped his fist in the air and said, "YES!"    M&M was quite embarrassed by the whole scene because it took place with the whole band class watching her!

M&M's last band concert she had a solo part and we could actually hear her playing from the audience.  It was quite exciting and she did really good on it.  We had several neighbors in the audience who afterwards came up to us and complimented her on her performance.  (I will try and get a video clip of the solo up on YouTube for those that are interested.)  The bassoon is not a common instrument and it is typically not a solo instrument.  It is one that blends in well with the rest of the band/orchestra, supporting the melody parts and is hard to hear most of the time.  This last concert though I could hear her on several parts other than her solo as well.  We're pretty pleased with how well she is doing and hope that she will continue to enjoy music.

Since she will be going into 9th grade next year she is allowed to participate in the high school marching band, even though she will still be at the middle school.  She has attended a 2 day clinic on marching band and just last week we went to an info meeting to find out more about the costs and the time involvement.  I think she has decided that she wants to do it and it should be a good experience for her and a chance to meet and interact with a lot more people her age and with similar interests.  And no, she will not be marching with the bassoon!  She has kept up her playing on the flute a little bit and will either be marching with the flute or the piccolo.  Right now there are no piccolos in the marching band so she is a little hesitant to be the only one!  The downside to the marching band is that she would not be able to play soccer in the fall and she also will not be able to play in the after school area orchestra that she is in this year.  (Although she's not too bummed about the orchestra because she was trying to talk us out of having her do it next year anyways.  She thinks the music is too boring and she unfortunately hasn't enjoyed it a ton.  Maybe the group at the high school level will be more exciting for her to play with.)

M&M finishes 7th Grade!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Last day of school for M&M!! She had a great school year! She made some really good friends and really enjoyed the change in format from Elementary School. She even managed to get straight A's all year long!!

For band she ended off the year playing bassoon and has really enjoyed it. It is a much different instrument from the flute! We also were able to check out an oboe for the summer so as soon as I get her some reeds for it she can start learning to play that as well. She will be in the Symphonic (Advanced) Band next year and is looking forward to that - although a lot of her friends will be in the Concert (Intermediate) Band. They will hopefully all stick with band though so they can join her in Symphonic the following year.