Dear Director,
September 4,
2007
Welcome to a new year! I hope
that you had a wonderful summer, and I’m looking forward to working with you
this year as Middle School Band Rep. I’d like to take a moment to explain some
things to you about this year’s Honor Band, as changes are in the wind.
First off, we have an awesome
Guest Conductor for the Middle School Band. Jim Mazzaferro is back, and will do a great job for our kids! For
those of you who also participate in the Sixth Grade Honor Band, you should
know that Mike Hannickel is our
Guest Conductor. I’m looking forward to the opportunity for my students to work
with both of these fine educators and I hope you are, too!
Students selected for the
CMEA Capitol Section Middle School Honor Band must be in 7th or 8th
grade and are expected to attend ALL
rehearsals. There will be no exceptions. Directors that have students selected to participate must also attend auditions
and ALL rehearsals or arrange to have
a district employee (i.e. school principal) represent you. You are responsible
for your students. Directors not in attendance at all rehearsals or
represented by a district employee at all rehearsals will not be allowed to
participate the following year. This
is a CMEA-Capitol Section rule that has been adopted by member directors. Any
possible exceptions to the rule will be at the discretion a vote by the
attending directors.
Audition Night will be held at Cavitt Junior High
School on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 4:30 PM.
The fees are as follows:
Student
Fee: $17.00
per student (includes commemorative T-shirt)
School
Fee $20.00
CMEA members
(includes a $10.00 commission fee per school)
DO NOT mail recordings or
fees. Fees are to be paid in ONE CHECK, and should be made payable to CMEA-CAPITOL
SECTION. Fees must be paid at the audition meeting in order for your students
to participate, and will cover the expenses of the honor band plus the conductor’s
honorarium. A refund of $12.00 will be made for each recording not accepted.
There will be a general
meeting of all participating directors on the day of the concert, January 12th,
2008. The meeting will begin at 10:00 AM. We will discuss and evaluate this
year’s procedures and select conductors for next year. Please come to this meeting with a list
of potential guest conductors for both the middle school and 6th
grade honor bands.
NEW! Typable PDF Application Form
To
complete your application for the Middle School Honor Band, you will need to
visit the CMEA-Capitol Section website at http://www.cmea-cs.org,
and click on “Honor Groups.” Our Cap Section Webmaster Don Wersky has worked very hard this summer to make this
technology available to us, and it is really going to help in processing the
paperwork end of this job. What you need to do is to type in all of your
information the Middle School Honor Band Application Form online, and then
print it out and get it signed by your principal before bringing it to Audition
Night.
Scales and Rudiments are now available online
This
is another change for this year. There are no scales or rudiments in the packet
this year, although they are required of all students auditioning. Go to the
Cap Section website and download the scales and/or rudiments that you need for
your students. You will notice that the scales are different this year.
Remember that this is a change you voted on at the Director’s Meeting in January,
as we are aligning our requirements with those of CBDA/All-State Band.
Heads-up: this is the last year that you will
receive audition music in the mail.
Due
to the tremendous costs incurred in mailing audition music to everyone, as well
as the copyright issues that are involved, next year you will no longer receive
the music in the mail. By late August of 2008, you will be able to go to the
Cap Section website to view the 2009 audition music list. At that point, you
can either purchase or borrow the appropriate books so you can get the music to
your students who would like to audition. This is in line with the policy of
CBDA/All-State Band.
MENC Renewal
For
those of you who wish to renew your MENC membership when you come to Audition
Night in November, you will need to bring your completed renewal form along
with your Honor Band Application. You can download the MENC renewal form from
the MENC website (http://www.menc.org).
Click “Renew Membership” on the left side to find the form.
CDs and Tapes are still accepted for auditions
As
we discussed at our January meeting, both recording mediums will still be
accepted. When you come to Audition Night, please ensure that you bring a boom
box capable of playing back both!
Not all music of this level
has a string bass part. If you
have a student accepted on string bass you will be responsible for transposing
the tuba part for them on the pieces that do not have string bass parts.
If you have any questions,
please feel free to email me or leave me a voice mail.
Email: ahaynes@eureka-usd.k12.ca.us
School
voice mail: (916) 791-4152, ext. 138
(Please do not give out my contact information to your
students or their parents.)
Here’s to a great 2008 Honor
Band! I am looking forward to
seeing you in November!
Musically yours,
April Haynes
Middle School Band
Representative
CMEA Capitol Section