Hello Hornet Orchestra Families! I am reaching out to let you know of a date and location change for our Fall Festival for Strings this year. It was originally listed in your calendar as being on November 7th is now on November 8th at the AISD Performing Arts Center. So sorry for the last minute change, there was a sudden issue with our original venue and had to find a new home for the String Fest. I think it will be a great opportunity for the beginning orchestra students to play in a beautiful concert hall and a great chance for you to enjoy what your tax dollars paid for! Please see the attached document for the itinerary and help your child bring this back signed by next Friday 10/27 so we have permission to transport them to and from the event. Please remember that all are invited to enjoy the performance at 12:15pm! If you are interested in chaperoning, I am still looking for a couple more volunteers. You can sign up here: http://signup.com/go/gBxmOgB Thank you for your support of your young musicians! Jeni Berecek and David Jarrott
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Hello Kealing Orchestra Families!
This is a reminder of our concert and dinner event coming up next Wednesday October 11th 5:30-8pm at Kealing. Since this even is different than our other concerts in the past, I encourage you all to look over the information sheet attached that includes schedule information and who should be where and when. Please note that we still want students to be present at school at 5pm to make sure we are all in place for our performances. During the time the students are not performing or not in the theater, you are welcome to eat with them in the cafeteria. The only exception being that Hornet (beginner) Orchestra members will be sitting in the theater during the first part of the concert so we can escort them on stage for their performance. Remember that if you would like to have dinner with your child and family, to please get dinner order forms and money in by this Friday 10/6. We also have finally received our orchestra polo shirts from the printer! We will get shirts out to all students that need one, but please have your child bring in $20 as soon as you can to cover the cost of the shirts. As always, if money is an issue, please let us know. The rest of the uniform should be black on bottom and black shoes (see handbook). We look forward to seeing you all next week! Jeni Berecek and David Jarrott Kealing Orchestra Families, Our first concert of the year is coming up on Wednesday October 11th and this year we are starting a new tradition of having our first concert be a performance and dinner experience to promote string player fellowship and community. The dinner will be a fun way for orchestra members, family, and friends to celebrate our young musicians and will also serve as a small fundraiser for the guitar and orchestra programs. Please see the attached form for the details, performance schedule, and the dinner order form. If you plan on attending the dinner (which we hope you do!) you must turn in the bottom part of the form and the money into a director before Friday Oct. 6th so we can get numbers to the caterer. Help us take care of this as soon as you can! Also, for those of you that will need an orchestra polo, we are waiting for the screen printers to finish the order and expect then the end of this week or by next week. We will send out a notice when we get them in, so we can get them to children. We ask where possible, that students bring $20 for a shirt. The last thing is that I will probably need a few parent volunteers to help with set up, clean up, student monitoring, and selling of spirit stickers/shirts. You can sign up to help here http://signup.com/go/fUhuuWi . More specific information about what exact times students should be where is coming out next week, but expect to have them at Kealing by 5pm regardless of what orchestra they are in. We can’t wait to share the results of our hard work soon, and thank you for supporting your young musicians! Jeni Berecek and David Jarrott
Hello Kealing Orchestra Families!
During Back to School Night on Tuesday Mr. Jarrott and Ms. Berecek discussed ways of staying in contact with all that is going on in touch with the Orchestra program. We also had a google form you can fill out if you have not been receiving Charms emails or if you want us to know about the ways you might be able to help the orchestra! Take a second to fill that out here . We are also on Facebook! Kealing Orchestra now has a private Facebook group were we can share information about concerts and events, share the good news in orchestra, and live stream concerts. Request to join the group here. Other items of business we tried to touch on during Back to School Night was the need for everyone to start making sure they are getting together their uniform for our concerts. Please check the handbook for what to get for your child's specific group. The Orchestra Polo shirts will be ordered soon, so if you need one or need a new size, they will be coming soon, stay tuned for updates on that! Symphony families, check the Symphony page on this website for links to the specific uniform pieces to get. We also wanted to mention that information about the end of the year trip should have gone home. Look over the trip letter and discuss with your child about participation in this exciting event! Stay tuned for updates about how you might be able to pay trip fees online (we are still working out the details, more info soon!) We are so excited to kick off a new school year, thank you for sharing your children with us! For the new school year, we are hoping to extend our orchestra communications into the social media realm. Please take a few minutes to answer this questionnaire so we can figure out the best way to serve the parent and student needs. Our goals in creating a social media platform is to share vital information and updates, show everyone great things happening in the classroom, and create a positive online presence for students and parents. This questionnaire can be filled out by parents, students, or other family.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCfcTH5GEKiChIrcC94dbt0-rZsmjEnnrYc5NqVm3lv2l3rQ/viewform?usp=sf_link Thank you! Hello Kealing Orchestra Families!
As the school year is just around the corner, we again want to say welcome to the orchestra, for our new comers, and welcome back, for our orchestra veterans! Mr. Jarrott and I have so many exciting plans for this upcoming year and can’t wait for you to be a part of it. This email is to let everyone know of the supply needs for our class. EVERYONE in orchestra will need the following items:
Each orchestra class uses a specific method book that we ask families to purchase. Please make sure the book that you buy is for the student’s specific instrument. These books can be found at any of your local music stores (Strait Music, Westbank String Shop, Blackerby Vilolins, Violins Etc), or online at retailers like Amazon.com.
Note: The books may either say “Essential Elements for Strings” OR “Essential Elements for Strings 2000” on the cover. Either is fine. But please DO NOT PURCHASE a book that has a cover like this: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-Strings-Violin-Book/dp/0793533597/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470849203&sr=1-4&keywords=essential+elements+for+strings This is an old edition we do not use. Correct books look like this: https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Elements-Strings-Book-Violin/dp/0634038176/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470849447&sr=1-1&keywords=essential+elements+for+strings for the specific instrument. For Concert, Philharmonic, and Symphony Orchestra students (not Beginners), we ask that every student has a personal tuner that they bring each day. There are many kinds that can be found at music stores, but you must keep in mind that the tuner should affix to the instrument to pick up the sound. Tuning apps on phones or devices are great for personal practice, but do not work in a group setting. We suggest tuners like the Snark Clip On Chromatic Tuner, or a Korg Chromatic Tuner with the addition of a Korg clip on contact microphone. We appreciate you taking care of these needs as soon as you can. A check for materials will occur during the second week of school. If there is financial need in acquiring these things, please let us know, we are very happy to help where we can. Thank you again for your support of your young musicians and get ready for a great year! Hello Parents and Students! This is a friendly reminder that while we are getting all our rest and relaxation in, that we should not be neglecting our orchestra obligations entirely! For those students entering into Concert, Philharmonic, and Symphony Orchestras should be learning and practicing their Etude for the All Region Auditions coming up in October. This is the first of 3 excerpts that students will be asked to play at the audition in October, and the next two will be released at the beginning of the school year. Might as well get this one learned and out of your way so you can focus on the two new ones as soon as you get them. Students that were at Kealing at the end of the school year in June all received a copy of the etude music to start practicing. If your child is either coming from another school, or strangely can't seem to find the music, please see the files below to print out your own music. Pay attention to the instrument, since the etude is different for each instrument. Happy Practicing!
Hello Kealing Orchestra Families!
As we approach the summer break, I wanted to encourage any and all families to look into summer music camps for string players. As we know, a lot can be lost over the summer, especially when it comes to a skill-based endeavor like learning a string instrument. Having your child in a summer music camp can help students at any level of ability keep their skills up, have fun playing music in a new setting, and meet other string players and teachers. I have seen students grow so much as musicians and young people after attending a summer music camp, and find they progress more quickly in the fall and come back having had exciting musical experiences! Here are a few links to summer music camps in the area and around Texas. (Mr Jarrott puts in a special shout out for Texas State String Camp since he was a counselor there years ago!). Some registrations end around the end of the month, so take a quick look! Texas State String Camp http://www.music.txstate.edu/stringcamp/Registration.html Longhorn Music Camp https://lmc.music.utexas.edu/ Baylor Summer Music Camp http://www.baylor.edu/busmc/ Texas Lutheran University Summer Music Academy http://www.tlu.edu/about/community/summer-music-academy/ UNT Summer String Institute http://ssi.music.unt.edu/ I also have to plug the Arts Camp I was a counselor at in Interlochen, Michigan. A wonderful enriching program in a beautiful northern Michigan setting! http://camp.interlochen.org/summer-arts-programs There are probably other camps I am missing, but most major universities offer summer strings for beginner-intermediate-advanced players. If you find or know of another great camp, let me know and I can spread the word. Thank you! Hello Kealing Orchestra Families! This a reminder that our first concert is coming up next Wednesday October 12th at 6PM in the Kealing Theater. Students must be at Kealing and ready to warmup with us at 5PM. Attached is a run down of the day and what students need to bring and where they need to be when. As always students are welcome to stay with us after school until 5PM. We are looking for a parent or two to help us watch over our "Orchestra Think Tank" from 3-5PM in the cafeteria. We just need adult supervisions for a few tables of orchestra students in the cafeteria where students have a study hall/homework doing place before the concert. Please let me know if you are able to help. Another note to parents: during the concert, we are asking that you cycle in and out of the theater to allow all parents to see their child perform. You of course should stay in the theater for your child's performance, but if you can leave the seats for other parents afterwards that would help with overcrowding. We will be streaming the concert to the cafeteria if you would like to watch or need to attend to a small child. We are asking that the students plan on staying and supporting all the other orchestras that night, especially since we will have a concert reflection covering all the performances the next day. If your child is not yet equipped with their uniform needs, take care of that in the next few days if possible. Also, cellos and basses should plan on bringing their home instrument as we cannot all share the school instruments at the same time. Mr. Jarrott and I are so excited to share all of the orchestras hard work with friends and family next week! They have all been working hard and should be proud of the program they will share with you. Jeni Berecek
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