All Hands on Deck

Dear Parents,

There's a meeting for Chili Bingo Night, open to all parents, on Tuesday night at 6 PM in the band room. We need "all hands on deck" in order to help coordinate the event.  Without you, this event would not be possible!

We also are still in need of chili entries.  I'll have copies of the entry application available for students to take home, and I'll also have copies at the meeting.

Thanks to you and your students for selling tickets! We have about 1/3 of all students who have sold at least 10, with several who have sold over 100 tickets!  All tickets and money need to be returned by Thursday, March 26.  Take advantage of the presale ticket price of $1.00 each by purchasing from your students.  Raffle tickets go up to $1.50 each on the night of the event.

Chili Bingo Night is a required event for jazz band, and optional for everybody else and their families.  As the people running it and hosting it, attendance is definitely encouraged.  If you have never attended this event, it's a great evening of fun for the whole family.

Advanced Band at UNR on March 23

Thank you to the Advanced Band students who showed great focus, attention to detail, and musical excellence at UNR as they performed for Dr. Chamberlin.  The students began by listening to a Wind Ensemble rehearsal.  It was great to have the students see a college-level band making mistakes, working together, marking parts, and improving their sound.  Dr. Chamberlin was able to make some amazing suggestions and the improvement in their sound was very noticeable!  If you'd like to see a recording of part of the clinic, go to www.facebook.com and find "Friends of CMS Bands and Orchestras."  You'll find a recording of the band playing Sound Innovations Fanfare.

Dr. Chamberlin conducts the CMS Advanced Band on Monday, March 23. 

Jazz Band Festival - March 30

The NZNMEA Jazz Festival is on March 30 at 6 PM in the Community Center.  Call time for jazz band students will be 5:30 PM in full concert attire.  The concert should be done around 8 PM.  The Jazz Band will be performing for students from Carson High School, Douglas High School, and Churchill County Middle School.  As soon as I have a specific itinerary from Mr. Zabelsky, I will pass that on to you. This concert is free to the public.

NZNMEA Band Festival - April 1

The band festival is on April 1, all day, in the Community Center.  With a total of 26 performing groups, students will have a large audience, and they'll be able to hear other groups in the area.  I sent home a flyer on Friday with the students in Concert Band, Intermediate Band, Advanced Band, and Advanced Strings.  Let me know if you did NOT get this and I'll email you a copy.

Other Events and Special Guests

We will be having a few guests coming in to work with the students over the next couple weeks.  This will help them prepare for festival and grow as musicians even more.

March 25: Mr. Sadler, our principal, will rehearse periods 1 and 3.
March 27: Walt Lovell, retired band director from Elko High School, will conduct a clinic with all classes.
April 13: Dr. Ehrke, clarinet and saxophone professor at UNR, will work with all bands and hold master classes at lunch.


Practicing

I have also given students (period 1-4) specific spots to look at each evening.  Ask them what I wanted them to work on and they should know.  I have some specific items that, if worked on at home, will really help us polish the music for our festival performances. We are well on our way, and I look forward to a great performance next week.

I hope to see some of you at the meeting.  Thank you.

-Mr. Jacques-

Events Galore!

Dear Parents,

This is an update on all the upcoming events.  With everything going on seemingly at once, read through this closely and let me know if there are any questions about any specific events.

Chili Bingo Night - March 27

Thank you for getting the students off to a great start with selling raffle tickets.  So far, I have had about 300 tickets returned to  me after just one day of being back.  I'm encouraging students to grab as many tickets as they think they can sell. I'm also reminding them to let you, the parents, take some to sell at work.  I'll be attaching a flyer to an email shortly that you can also print and display prominently at work and show to friends, family, and neighbors.

Chili Bingo Night is a required event for jazz band, and optional for everybody else and their families.  As the people running it and hosting it, attendance is definitely encouraged.  If you have never attended this event, it's a great evening of fun for the whole family.

Speaking of Chili Bingo, we're still in need of some help with a few things, such as entering chili, and helping out at the event.  Does anybody have experience running a Bingo game?  Let me know if you can help in any way.  We'll have a planning/organizing meeting on Tuesday, March 24, at 6 PM. and you're all invited.  If you'd like to help run this wonderful event, please attend and we will get all the final preparations underway.

Jazz Band Festival - March 30

The NZNMEA Jazz Festival is on March 30 at 6 PM in the Community Center.  Call time for jazz band students will be 5:30 PM in full concert attire.  The concert should be done around 8 PM.  The Jazz Band will be performing for students from Carson High School, Douglas High School, and Churchill County Middle School.

NZNMEA Band Festival - April 1

The band festival is on April 1, all day, in the Community Center.  With a total of 26 performing groups, students will have a large audience, and they'll be able to hear other groups in the area.  In order to minimize lost class time, here's the information for each group:

Concert Band/Advanced Strings: 7:30 AM Call Time at the Community Center.  Advanced Strings performs at 8:20 AM.  Concert Band performs at 9:20 AM.  They will ride the bus back to school at 9:45 AM for the rest of their classes.

Intermediate Band/Advanced Band: 9:45 AM Call Time in the Band Room (after attending first 3 class periods of the day).  Students will ride the bus to the Community Center where they will remain for the rest of the day.  Intermediate Band performs at 10:30 AM.  Advanced Band performs at 1:25 PM.  They will be picked up by parents any time after 2:30 PM (festival finishes around 5 PM).

Other Events and Special Guests

We will be having a few guests coming in to work with the students over the next couple weeks.  This will help them prepare for festival and grow as musicians even more.

March 18: Amber Vedova, trumpet player and music education major from UNR, will work with all classes.  She might be my student teacher next fall, so she's volunteering to help out.
March 23: Advanced Band workshop with Dr. Reed Chamberlin and the UNR Wind Ensemble.
March 25: Mr. Sadler, our principal, will rehearse periods 1 and 3.
March 27: Walt Lovell, retired band director from Elko High School, will conduct a clinic with all classes.


Practicing

I have also given students (period 1-4) specific spots to look at each evening.  Ask them what I wanted them to work on and they should know.  I have some specific items that, if worked on at home, will really help us polish the music for our festival performances.

Thank you!

-Mr. Jacques-

It Begins...

Dear Parents,

The Chili Bingo Night Fundraiser is now officially upon us!  A huge thanks goes out to some incredible students: Regan, Adelynn, and Jacob, as well as parents/volunteers: Raynell Heaton, Jen Simkins, Vicki Crickon, and Cheryl Richetta, for preparing the prize list by putting in incalculable hours of calling, emailing, collecting, and begging (well, not quite) businesses.  Here is everything you need to know, and then some.

On Friday, March 13, each student received an envelope with a prize list and 10 red tickets.  They may sell as many as the'd like!  Here are the important facts that students must remember about selling these tickets:

• They MUST collect the money at the time of sale.
• They need to include the following information on each ticket:
• Buyer's name
• Buyer's phone number
• Item number (if the buyer wants their tickets to go towards a specific item)
• They must bring the tickets AND the money back to Mr. Jacques.  (buyer does not keep the tickets)

This fundraiser is extremely profitable because the profit margin is 100%.  All prizes are donated.  Also, since the band/orchestra is running this by themselves, we will receive every dollar raised through not just the raffle, but through Bingo games, food sales, and the silent auction that are all taking place on March 27.  

This raffle is unique because you can choose which item you want to win.  Your chances of winning what you want will increase, and you won't win anything you don't want. 

Students can come back for as many tickets as they want!  You are encouraged to go to your neighbors, relatives, friends, and coworkers and help your students sell.  There are top prizes for students, and they were very excited to know what they might be able to win:

• Sell 10 tickets: Receive 1 free ticket for the item of your choice.
• Sell 100 tickets: Receive a $5 gift card to Starbucks OR Jamba Juice
• Sell the most tickets in your class: Receive free pizza from Pizza Factory AND a free pass to an attraction of your choice at Wild Island
• Sell the most tickets in the entire program: Receive a $50 gift card to the business of your choice!
• If everybody in a class sells at least 10 tickets, they will all receive a barbecue lunch and an in-class party.

Our fundraising goal is $7,000 and with your support, we can easily surpass that amount.  

I'll be updating the newsletter again with the usual news and updates later this weekend.  Enjoy the beginning of an amazingly fun and profitable fundraiser!

-Mr. Jacques-

Chili Bingo Update

Dear Parents,

We are now one week closer to Chili Bingo Night and our band/strings festival.  The bulk of this newsletter is focused on those two events for now.

Chili Bingo Night

Raffle sales begin for the students on Wednesday!  In the past week, I have received some amazing items, such as summer gondola passes at Heavenly, season pit passes to the Reno Air Races, and a guitar from Absolute Music.  You should have all received a letter home with your student last week, but in case you didn't, here are some details:

Students will be asked to sell at least 10 raffle tickets for prizes.  If a band or strings class ends up with all students selling at least 10 raffle tickets each, the class will be rewarded with a barbecue lunch!  Top sellers also have the chance at earning prizes, such as Best Buy gift cards, pizza gift certificates, and more. If anybody has items that they would like to put together for a silent auction or raffle basket, I'd definitely welcome it.  Here's the sign up: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c094eaba82ea6f85-chili

Band Festival

Each year, students will participate in a band and orchestra festival (except for beginning classes).  They perform in front of a panel of judges for an overall rating.  I will share more about this in later newsletters.  As a competitive and judged performance, I expect students to learn notes and rhythms as soon as possible so we can make music in rehearsals.  The band and orchestra festival is on April 1 at the Carson City Community Center.  As the hosting school for the festival, we need parents who have April 1 off to consider helping.  I will also ask a few 8th grade band and strings students for their assistance running scores and being stagehands.  I will have detailed information on call times and performance times next week.

Other Upcoming Events

March 23: Advanced Band Workshop with UNR Wind Ensemble
March 30: NZNMEA Jazz Festival, Community Center
April 24-25: Reno Jazz Festival, UNR Campus


What should your student practice?

Concert Band: Colliding Visions, Lux Prima, Dramatico
Intermediate Band: Epic, An Irish Air, Stonybrook Overture
Advanced Band: Sound Innovations Fanfare, A Childhood Hymn, Shackelford Banks
Advanced Strings: Concerto Grosso, Momentum, Classic Bits and Pieces, 2 Celtic Dances
Beginning Band: Method Book: #125-142
Beginning Strings: Method Book, Classic Bits and Pieces

Just a reminder: please make sure your students are practicing the new music and only counting practice log time on these selections. They can still play through the other pieces for fun, but it should not be counted towards their time.

The Next Steps

Dear Parents,

Wow! What a great Band-O-Rama performance last week!  Mr. Stokes, our superintendent, came up to me and complimented the performance done by all the middle school students.  I shared the video and did a self-assessment project on Friday with the students and they were generally very proud of their performance (as they should be).

Now, it's on to the next steps.  Students are switching gears and learning new music for their music festival on April 1, and Chili Bingo Night is on March 27.

Band Festival

Each year, students will participate in a band and orchestra festival (except for beginning classes).  They perform in front of a panel of judges for an overall rating.  I will share more about this in later newsletters.  As a competitive and judged performance, I expect students to learn notes and rhythms as soon as possible so we can make music in rehearsals.  The band and orchestra festival is on April 1 at the Carson City Community Center.  As the hosting school for the festival, we need parents who have April 1 off to consider helping.  I will also ask a few 8th grade band and strings students for their assistance running scores and being stagehands.  Let me know if you'd be able to help.

Chili Bingo Night

Chili Bingo Night is March 27 from 6-8 PM in the CMS Cafeteria.  This fundraiser is traditionally the largest of the year for the music program.  This year, I'd like to see us raise $7,000.  This would put us at our ultimate goal, allowing us to purchase the instrument storage cubbies!  Additionally, some of the proceeds will help offset the participation costs for the Advanced Band on their spring trip.

Students will be asked to sell at least 10 raffle tickets for prizes.  If a band or strings class ends up with all students selling at least 10 raffle tickets each, the class will be rewarded with a barbecue lunch!  Top sellers also have the chance at earning prizes, such as Best Buy gift cards, pizza gift certificates, and more. I will be sending home more information later this week. Ticket sales will begin on Wednesday, March 11th.

Other Upcoming Events

March 30: NZNMEA Jazz Festival, Community Center
April 24-25: Reno Jazz Festival, UNR Campus


What should your student practice?

Concert Band: Colliding Visions, Lux Prima, A Mix of Mozart
Intermediate Band: Epic, An Irish Air, Stonybrook Overture
Advanced Band: Sound Innovations Fanfare, A Childhood Hymn, Shackelford Banks
Advanced Strings: Concerto Grosso, Momentum, Classic Bits and Pieces, 2 Celtic Dances
Beginning Band: Method Book: #125-142
Beginning Strings: Method Book, Classic Bits and Pieces

Just a reminder: please make sure your students are practicing the new music and only counting practice log time on these selections. They can still play through the other pieces for fun, but it should not be counted towards their time.