Great Concert...Great Year!

We had a wonderful concert on Tuesday night. Many parents came up to us telling us how wonderful the band sounded. We have posted mp3 files of both the band concert, and the Bluebonnet Classic Festival performance. We want to thank the parents for your incredible support throughout the year.

On a personal note, Mr. Wagner will be working this summer on getting together a Del Rio Middle School Band site similar to this one. Updated information will be posted on this site, as well as on the official SFMMS Band page on the school district's servers. I will not be sending out emails in the same way next year. I will have a sign-up form similar to the one on this page. All news posts to the blog will be emailed out that way. This saves time and allows me to better serve the students. Simply fill your email address into the form on the page, click Submit, and then reply to the verification email that is sent to you. This will be the last of these updates that I send out the same way. If you are interested in getting further updates on the SFMMS Band, including updates on when the DRMS Band website becomes available, please subscribe using this form.

Time Changes

We have a couple of important time changes to tell you about for the next few days with the SFMMS Band.

Solo Contest
The solo contest that is scheduled for tomorrow will begin at 8:00 instead of 9:00. This will accomodate those students who need to be in and out early. This will also allow everyone to be finished earlier. Students do not have to stay the whole time, and the earlier you get there, the earlier you will find out your ratings and get out of there!

Spring Concert
Because of the heavy rains this week, the Del Rio High School jazz concert has been rescheduled to this Tuesday May 15th. This is the same day as our concert. We have decided to work this conflict out and will begin the 6th Grade concert at 6:30, and then we encourage everyone to go to the Paul Poag Theater for the jazz concert at 7:30. Students should be in the gym before 5:00 so we can begin rehearsing then.

Other Important Dates

• Monday May 14th will be the SFMMS choir and strings concert in the SFMMS gym
• Thursday May 17th will be the DRMS choir concert at the Paul Poag Theater
• Tuesday May 22nd will be the DRMS band concert in the Del Rio Middle School Cafeteria

Bluebonnet Classic Results!

On May 5th, 2007, the San Felipe Memorial Middle School 6th Grade Beginning Band made history as the first 6th grade band from Del Rio to ever compete in a band contest. The band played Infinity March by James Curnow, Galactic Episode by John O'Reilly and Mark Williams, and Atlantis by Anne McGinty as a performance in the Bluebonnet Classic Music Festival at HF Stevens High School in San Antonio. The band was conducted by Joel Wagner and Daniel White. The band earned three First Division Superior ratings with an average score of over 285.1 out of 300. This was the highest score from any beginning band or choir in the two day competition. This netted both a First Division trophy as well as an Outstanding Performance trophy. Each of the three judges also made it a point to personally congratulate the band directors for the band's outstanding performance.

After the competition, the band members spent the remainder of the day at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and traveled back home to Del Rio in style on charter buses. Upon arrival to the recently renovated San Felipe Memorial Middle School campus at approximately 1:00am, the students were greeted by numerous parents who were all too glad to cheer, applaud, and honk their horns in celebration of the momentous occasion. Celebration once again erupted as Mr. Wagner victoriously carried the two trophies into the Band Hall.

The band's final performance, which will include all three competition pieces, will be held in the San Felipe Memorial Middle School gymnasium at 7:00pm on Tuesday May 15th. Please come support these hard-working students. Admission is free.

Related links:
mp3 downloads of the band's performance

Elementary Tour Recap

What an excellent job our band students did as we visited all 8 of the elementary campuses in Del Rio this past week! We heard so many compliments from parents, principals, and teachers. The bus drivers were also appreciative of their behavior on the buses. The band students truly represented San Felipe Memorial Middle School very well this week. You have much to be proud of!

As a result of the tremendous work that has been done, we are going to make some changes to this week's rehearsal schedule. Instead of going every day, we will have our regularly scheduled rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday from 3:30 to 5:00. We will not have any formal rehearsals on Wednesday or Thursday, although students are encouraged to come in and practice before and after school all week long. We will have a brief run-through on Friday from 3:30 to 4:15.

Then we get on the buses at 6:45 Saturday morning to travel to San Antonio. We have filled up the spots we had available to ride the bus. Thank you so much to all of the parents who have responded. The fact that we had to turn away some parents means that our students should stay safe all day long! We have an All Star Band travel permission form that will be sent home on Monday. If your child is going to be going on the field trip and be gone Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, then please be sure to either send that to school with them on Tuesday, or else make arrangements to bring it up to the school later in the week. Without this travel permission form, students will not be allowed to travel out of town with us.

We also have a solo & ensemble contest coming up on May 12th. We will spend the classes during the week of May 7th - 11th working on those. Students may also come before and after school every day that week for extra help or to work in groups.

Thank you so much for allowing us to work with your children! They definitely make both Mr. Wagner and Mr. White proud!

This Week And Next Week

This week, we have after school rehearsals for the SFMMS All Star Band! Tuesday’s rehearsal will be from 3:30 to 5:30. Wednesday’s rehearsal will again be from 3:30 until 5:00. We will be going on our elementary tour on Thursday and Friday.

On Thursday, we are scheduled to perform at Garfield, North Heights, Ruben Chavira, and Dr. Fermin Calderon. On Friday, we are scheduled at Dr. Lonnie Green, Buena Vista, East Side, and Lamar. We will have lunch at Mr. Gatti’s on both days. We will leave aftter school has begun and return around the normal time of the final bell. If you are interested in joining us for one or both days, please let us know!

Next week, we have after school rehearsals scheduled Monday through Friday from 3:30 to 5:00. GT students will be going on a field trip for some of those days and those absences will be excused. More info should be coming home and will also be posted here again in the next few days.

We already have more than enough parents who have expressed a desire to go with us. Thank you so much for your interest! Unfortunately, we cannot take everyone with us. If you are going with us, you should have already received a note letting you know. If you haven't yet gotten one, ask your child to find out why not! Again, thank you so much for everything that you do for your child's education.

All Star Band Info

Thank you so much for everything that you do to allow your children to be a part of our lives! We want to remind you about the Del Rio Solo & Ensemble Contest coming up on Saturday May 12th for all eligible students. We also want to remind you about the Band Spring Concert on Thursday May 17th. Both of these events will take place at Del Rio Middle School. We are also planning on having an end of year party after school on Friday May 18th. If you are interested in helping us organize this, please let us know.

Everything from here on only applies to the students who are involved in the All Star Band and will be traveling on the elementary tour and Fiesta Texas trips.

With the conclusion of the fifth six weeks grading period, we have nearly finalized the All Star Band students who will be performing on our elementary tour and for the Bluebonnet Classic Band Festival in San Antonio on May 5th.

We have four more rehearsals between now and the elementary tour. These are scheduled for Tuesday April 17th, Monday April 23rd, Tuesday April 2th, and Wednesday April 25th. The rehearsals will be in the band hall, and will begin after school at 3:30 and end at 5:00. We will have Mr. Rios from Del Rio High School working with us on April 24th and the rehearsal will end at 5:30. Pizza will follow and all All Star Band students are welcome to stay until 6:15pm.

The following week, we will have rehearsals every day until 5:00. These rehearsals will hep us finalize the concert program before we travel to San Antonio. We are aware that there is a field trip to NASA that week, but there will be no conflict with our schedule. We believe that we still have room available for a few more parents to travel with us to San Antonio. The only cost to travel with the band is your time and assistance that day. We will provide a free band t-shirt and Fiesta Texas ticket to any parents who will be traveling with us. We are sending home confirmations this week for those parents who have expressed interest in traveling with us. Nobody has heard anything back from us on it yet since we were waiting until grades were finalized before confirming anything.

Finalized schedules for the elementary tour and Fiesta Texas trips should be sent out next week with students. They will be posted to the band website, calendar, and blog as soon as we have them ready.

Scheduling Update

April and May are quickly approaching and with them come numerous performances for the SFMMS Band. Mr. Wagner, Mr. White, and the students have been working hard learning music that we will play for our elementary tour on April 26th and 27th. In order to go on the tour, students must have qualified to be a member of the All Star Band and attend at least four of the six rehearsals listed on the paper that they received in class on Friday.

We also have our competition in San Antonio scheduled for Saturday May 5th. All students attending the elementary tour may go on this trip if they attend four or five after-school rehearsals during the week following the tour from April 30th through May 4th. The total cost for the trip is $100, which includes meals, charter bus, contest fees, and Fiesta Texas admission.

Final payments for these accounts should be turned in by April 17th. It's easy to remember because this is both TAKS day for the students and tax day for the adults. We get two extra days this year!

We also have our Solo & Ensemble contest scheduled on Saturday May 12th. It will be held in the morning at Del Rio Middle School. The solo performance will be part of the final exam grade in band. Students who do not attend the contest will be expected to perform their solo for the class on May 18th.

Also, mark May 17th on your calendars, as this will be our final band concert at Del Rio Middle School. All students are expected to perform at the concert, regardless of academic eligibility. This concert will be another part of the final exam grade.

As always, the calendar on the SFMMS Band Website includes all of these events.

Band Update

Well, we are definitely still alive here at San Felipe Memorial Middle School. We have had a lot of hard work so far this semester and are excited about some of the things that we have planned for the remainder of the school year.

Two weeks ago, Mr. White and Mr. Wagner both went to the Texas Music Educators Association convention in San Antonio. While we were there, we picked up a copy of a book entitled, “How to Make First Chair” that thoroughly addresses practice issues and gives extremely helpful advice on how to successfully learn to play any instrument better. We were so impacted by the book, that we are implementing many of the concepts discussed in the book into our classes. “How To Make First Chair” is required reading material for many exemplary band programs throughout the state. It is easy to read, and even has tests available for students to earn AR points for their reading classes. We are encouraging all of our students to order the book. The list price for the book is $16.95 each, but if we are able to get 30 students who are interested in purchasing it, the cost can be as low as $12.95 each.

We are quickly approaching spring break. This means that the counselors from Del Rio Middle School will soon be coming to talk to the students about seventh grade. We encourage every student in band to continue in band into seventh grade and experience some more of the fun experiences that band brings. As they get to seventh grade, there are a lot more performances and competitions that are available. We have spoken with each of the students individually and tried to answer some of the questions that they may have about seventh grade electives. If you have any questions, then please do not hesitate to ask us and we will answer the ones we do know and do our best to find an answer for those questions we are unsure about.

Spring Break also brings practice incentives. The students will get Spring Break Practice Packets next week. Be looking for those.

Another item we want to bring to your attention is that the Glenn Miller Orchestra will be performing a big band concert at the Paul Poag Theater on Thursday March 8^th beginning at 8:00pm. This is a great opportunity for you and your child to go hear great musicians playing woodwind and brass instruments.

Preparation is under way for our All Star Band trip to San Antonio on May 5^th. We still have room for a few more parents to go with us. In order to compete with us, students must have earned 100 All Star points and have their balance paid in full by Tuesday April 17^th. More information will continue to come as we get closer to the departure.

Again, thanks for everything that you do to support the students of the SFMMS Band. We could not do what we do without the ongoing support of parents.

Fundraising Update

The SFMMS Band and choir have done phenomenally well with the discount cards. We are in the process of wrapping the project up and it appears that we are going to end up selling right around 1,000 cards after everything is settled. Great work!

We also want to update you with on a few dates that are upcoming this semester. First of all, because of the weather-related school cancellations last week, we will not have Presidents Day off on February 19th. We will, however still have Good Friday off on April 6th. The last day of the school year will now be Monday May 28th.

We have our All Star Band trip to Fiesta Texas planned for May 5th. We are still developing an itinerary for the Elementary Tour, but that will be in late April or early May. We are doing our very best to ensure that there are no conflicts with the GT trip to Houston. Those students who wish to participate in these trips must be sure that they have earned 100 All Star points. Additionally, no students who fails a class on the fourth or fifth six weeks report cards will be allowed to go. Further All Star points may be earned with scale pass-offs between now and Spring Break. Those scale sheets are being passed out this week.

We have already heard from a handful of parents who would like to go to San Antonio with us, but if you are interested in joing us, we still have room for more parents!

Happy (And Busy) New Year

Welcome back! We hope all of you had a blessed Christmas season and want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. School is back in session and we have a lot of stuff to tell you about.

I'm sorry about the late notice, but the first thing we want to mention is our field trip on Friday. We will be going to the Paul Poag Theater to see a concert performance. The students will all go to their first period class, be dismissed shortly after that, load the buses around 8:30, and be back to school around 11:30 in time for lunch and the remainder of the school day. In order to travel with us, every student must have the Travel Permission Form returned to the band directors. Extra copies of the Travel Permission Form are available through email or in the band hall.

We would also love to have some parents join us. If you are available from 8:00 to noon on Friday and would like to supervise children and be entertained in the process, please let us know by the end of the day on Thursday. Again, I apologize for the late notice.

The second item is to let you know that our spring fundraising project has begun. The SFMMS Band and Choir are selling discount cards which may be used continually through January 31st, 2008. Discounts are available from The Brown Bag, Good Auto Sales & Lube, Hot Pit BBQ, Jett Bowl, McDonalds, Quizno's and eleven other local restaurants. These are great deals and we want to thank the sponsors for making this possible.

All sells before January 18th will be eligible for prizes, but you are more than welcome to continue selling the cards through the end of the month. The primary purpose of this project is to raise money for the All Star Band trip to a band competition in San Antonio followed by the rest of the day at Fiesta Texas. The competition will take place on May 5th. The cost of the trip will be $100 for each student who qualifies for the All Star Band. Every item sold in the fall and every card sold in the spring will add $3 into the trip account and each student who sells 30 items and cards will have the trip costs paid. Any balance due after the two fundraising projects may be paid to the band.

This is the first time that either of the sixth grade bands or choirs will be going to a competition of this nature and we are excited that your children will be able to earn the privilege of going on the trip. We will have room for about ten parents to join us on that trip as well. If you are interested, please let us know and we will get further details to you within the next month.

Again, welcome back. We are excited to have the opportunity to continue working with your children and anxious to discover what the rest of this school year holds.