Director's Update
2-20-19
Good Evening Parents and Students,
We just returned from the Texas Music Educators Association Convention last week. I am so thankful to be able to attend this convention every year and collaborate with some of the finest teachers in the state of Texas and in our country. I appreciate our administration allowing us to attend this convention. I hope that the things we directors learned can help our band program continue to get better.
Here are a few announcements and reminders for this week and the near future:
1. Congratulations to Cade Mahlen and Will Saumell on being named drum major for the 2019-2020 school year. We appreciate the hard work by them and all of those who tried out during the three days of camp.
2. This Friday, February 22nd, will be our Solo and Ensemble Contest at The Woodlands College Park HS. Dress for this contest will be: Solid black clothing on bottom with black dress shoes and black socks, black belt, white long sleeve dress shirt for gentlemen and school dress code appropriate white top for ladies (no bling). Ladies may wear a solid/mostly black dress if they would like. Percussionists only will wear all black. Gentlemen must be clean shaven and all hair needs to be of natural color. As a reminder, each student will receive a grade for their performances at Solo and Ensemble so please encourage them to be practicing their music. Unfortunately, ineligible students will not be able to participate with us at this event. The students will be told if they are ineligible no later than Thursday when we get the final grade report. There will be a concession stand at the contest so please send a little money with your student so they can eat dinner. Also, if your student needs to be picked up by someone from the contest once they have finished all of their events please send a written note or an email to us by Friday.
The schedule will be:
11:38 Load percussion instruments during B lunch
12:08 Band students who have D lunch will have to eat lunch during C lunch
12:38 C Lunch ends/everyone comes to the band hall/load tubas, bari saxes and euphoniums
12:45 Meet
12:50 Load buses
1:00 Depart for College Park HS
2:00 Arrive at College Park HS/unload
4:00 Contest begins
8:30 Approximate end of contest/load instruments and buses
10:00 Arrive at HHS/Go Home!!!
3. Those who are taking a solo to solo and ensemble contest need to bring their $25 accompanist payment to Mr. Holland by Friday, March 8th. The band is paying the accompanists more than the $25 for their services but we are only charging the students $25 in an effort to ease the financial burden. Please take care of this so that your student does not have to go on the fees and fines list.
4. Next Tuesday, February 26th will be our HISD Pre-UIL Concert in the HHS Auditorium. This is an opportunity to play our UIL Contest music for 3 judges and receive valuable feedback so that we can perfect our music for the UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest in April. It is also a good opportunity for the parents to come and hear what your students are working on. This is because most parents are unable to attend our contest in April as it is during the work day. The band will wear their full uniform for this concert just as we will for UIL Contest. All grooming rules apply to this performance as well. We are trying to make this performance as close to the real thing as possible. This concert is also required for everyone regardless of their eligibility because it is a concert that is part of our curriculum and we are assuming that everyone is going to be eligible by the time of contest. This year the HHS bands will perform first, followed by the MPMS bands. The High School student schedule is as follows:
4:30 HHS Wind Symphony Warmup in Dance Room
5:00 HHS Wind Symphony Performance
5:00 HHS Wind Ensemble Warmup in Choir Room
5:20 HHS Symphonic/Concert Band Warmup in Dance Room
5:30 HHS Wind Ensemble Performance
5:50 HHS Symphonic/Concert Band Performance
*** Each student will need to get into uniform at the band hall 30 minutes prior to their band’s warmup time and need to be completely ready 10 minutes prior to that time.
5. We are currently in our first week of our new sectional schedule for Concert and Sight Reading Contest. All students will have two rehearsals per week. Below is an excerpt of the Spring Schedule that everyone received back in December. We have paper copies of these at the Band Hall also if the students need a copy.
From this point UIL Concert & Sight Reading Contest is only 6 weeks away. Starting Monday, Feb. 12th through Thursday, April 12th, the after school rehearsal schedule will be as follows:
Mondays
4:00-5:30-Full Symphonic/Concert Band
4:00-4:45-WS B. Cl/Bassoon/Tenor/Bari Sax/Bones/Tones/Tubas/Perc.
4:45-5:30-WE Flutes/Oboes/Clarinets/Alto Saxes/Trumpets/Horns
Tuesdays
4:00-4:45-Full Symphonic Band/Concert Band
4:00-4:45-WE B. Cl/Bassoon/Tenor/Bari Sax/Bones/Tones/Tubas/Perc.
Wednesdays
4:00-5:30-Full Wind Ensemble
4:00-4:45-WS Flutes/Oboes/Clarinets/Alto Sax/Trumpets/Horns
Thursdays
4:00-5:30-Full Wind Symphony
6. For those students and parent chaperones going on the trip, please log on to www.superholiday.com and follow the instructions in the attached handout to create your online trip account. Each student and parent chaperone must complete this individually. Please fill in all demographic information but DO NOT send any payments through this website. All online payments should be submitted through Charms. Regarding the lodging information, ALL STUDENTS should select Quad Occupancy while ALL CHAPERONES should select Double Occupancy. Please complete this no later than Monday, February 25. If you have any questions, please email Mr. Holland at dmholland@huntsville-isd.org .
7. Please remember that the last trip payment is due Friday, March 1st. By this time the trip should be paid for in full for your student. If there is an issue with that happening by then please contact Kristen Burnett at hmb.president@gmail.com
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637
Good Evening Parents and Students,
We just returned from the Texas Music Educators Association Convention last week. I am so thankful to be able to attend this convention every year and collaborate with some of the finest teachers in the state of Texas and in our country. I appreciate our administration allowing us to attend this convention. I hope that the things we directors learned can help our band program continue to get better.
Here are a few announcements and reminders for this week and the near future:
1. Congratulations to Cade Mahlen and Will Saumell on being named drum major for the 2019-2020 school year. We appreciate the hard work by them and all of those who tried out during the three days of camp.
2. This Friday, February 22nd, will be our Solo and Ensemble Contest at The Woodlands College Park HS. Dress for this contest will be: Solid black clothing on bottom with black dress shoes and black socks, black belt, white long sleeve dress shirt for gentlemen and school dress code appropriate white top for ladies (no bling). Ladies may wear a solid/mostly black dress if they would like. Percussionists only will wear all black. Gentlemen must be clean shaven and all hair needs to be of natural color. As a reminder, each student will receive a grade for their performances at Solo and Ensemble so please encourage them to be practicing their music. Unfortunately, ineligible students will not be able to participate with us at this event. The students will be told if they are ineligible no later than Thursday when we get the final grade report. There will be a concession stand at the contest so please send a little money with your student so they can eat dinner. Also, if your student needs to be picked up by someone from the contest once they have finished all of their events please send a written note or an email to us by Friday.
The schedule will be:
11:38 Load percussion instruments during B lunch
12:08 Band students who have D lunch will have to eat lunch during C lunch
12:38 C Lunch ends/everyone comes to the band hall/load tubas, bari saxes and euphoniums
12:45 Meet
12:50 Load buses
1:00 Depart for College Park HS
2:00 Arrive at College Park HS/unload
4:00 Contest begins
8:30 Approximate end of contest/load instruments and buses
10:00 Arrive at HHS/Go Home!!!
3. Those who are taking a solo to solo and ensemble contest need to bring their $25 accompanist payment to Mr. Holland by Friday, March 8th. The band is paying the accompanists more than the $25 for their services but we are only charging the students $25 in an effort to ease the financial burden. Please take care of this so that your student does not have to go on the fees and fines list.
4. Next Tuesday, February 26th will be our HISD Pre-UIL Concert in the HHS Auditorium. This is an opportunity to play our UIL Contest music for 3 judges and receive valuable feedback so that we can perfect our music for the UIL Concert and Sight Reading Contest in April. It is also a good opportunity for the parents to come and hear what your students are working on. This is because most parents are unable to attend our contest in April as it is during the work day. The band will wear their full uniform for this concert just as we will for UIL Contest. All grooming rules apply to this performance as well. We are trying to make this performance as close to the real thing as possible. This concert is also required for everyone regardless of their eligibility because it is a concert that is part of our curriculum and we are assuming that everyone is going to be eligible by the time of contest. This year the HHS bands will perform first, followed by the MPMS bands. The High School student schedule is as follows:
4:30 HHS Wind Symphony Warmup in Dance Room
5:00 HHS Wind Symphony Performance
5:00 HHS Wind Ensemble Warmup in Choir Room
5:20 HHS Symphonic/Concert Band Warmup in Dance Room
5:30 HHS Wind Ensemble Performance
5:50 HHS Symphonic/Concert Band Performance
*** Each student will need to get into uniform at the band hall 30 minutes prior to their band’s warmup time and need to be completely ready 10 minutes prior to that time.
5. We are currently in our first week of our new sectional schedule for Concert and Sight Reading Contest. All students will have two rehearsals per week. Below is an excerpt of the Spring Schedule that everyone received back in December. We have paper copies of these at the Band Hall also if the students need a copy.
From this point UIL Concert & Sight Reading Contest is only 6 weeks away. Starting Monday, Feb. 12th through Thursday, April 12th, the after school rehearsal schedule will be as follows:
Mondays
4:00-5:30-Full Symphonic/Concert Band
4:00-4:45-WS B. Cl/Bassoon/Tenor/Bari Sax/Bones/Tones/Tubas/Perc.
4:45-5:30-WE Flutes/Oboes/Clarinets/Alto Saxes/Trumpets/Horns
Tuesdays
4:00-4:45-Full Symphonic Band/Concert Band
4:00-4:45-WE B. Cl/Bassoon/Tenor/Bari Sax/Bones/Tones/Tubas/Perc.
Wednesdays
4:00-5:30-Full Wind Ensemble
4:00-4:45-WS Flutes/Oboes/Clarinets/Alto Sax/Trumpets/Horns
Thursdays
4:00-5:30-Full Wind Symphony
6. For those students and parent chaperones going on the trip, please log on to www.superholiday.com and follow the instructions in the attached handout to create your online trip account. Each student and parent chaperone must complete this individually. Please fill in all demographic information but DO NOT send any payments through this website. All online payments should be submitted through Charms. Regarding the lodging information, ALL STUDENTS should select Quad Occupancy while ALL CHAPERONES should select Double Occupancy. Please complete this no later than Monday, February 25. If you have any questions, please email Mr. Holland at dmholland@huntsville-isd.org .
7. Please remember that the last trip payment is due Friday, March 1st. By this time the trip should be paid for in full for your student. If there is an issue with that happening by then please contact Kristen Burnett at hmb.president@gmail.com
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637
| HMB Trip Registration.pdf |
2-12-19
Good Morning Parents and Students,
I know you have missed my emails but there has not been quite as much going on lately but here are a few things for the near future.
1. The last trip payment was due Friday, February 1st. If you are behind on your payments at all there will be a band parent here after school today and before school on Thursday to take money and write receipts. Our last trip payment is due Friday, March 1st so please keep that in mind.
2. Drum Major Camp started last Friday and will conclude today after school. Next Monday, February 18th will be the try-out. This is a little earlier than normal for drum major tryouts but we wanted to do them a little earlier this year because of the band trip.
3. This week, Wednesday the 13th through Saturday the 16th all of the band directors in the district will be gone to the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic and Convention in San Antonio. This year is a special trip because our own Emily Gray made the All-State 5A Symphonic Band and will be traveling with us there to perform. Just to give you an idea of how big an honor this is, there are about 72,000 students from around the state that enter the All-State process and only around 1700 make an All-State group. This is also the first time in 8 years that the HMB has put someone in the All-State Band! Congratulations Emily.
4. While the directors are gone to TMEA this week this is a great opportunity for the students to get a lot of great work done practicing their solos and small ensembles for our Solo and Ensemble Contest that is coming up soon. The students will have all class period to be able to practice. I also want to remind the students of my expectations about their behavior while we are gone. I expect Mrs. Record and the substitute teachers to be treated with respect and for everyone to follow the instructions we leave for them.
5. Speaking of the Solo and Ensemble Contest. It will be held Friday, February 22nd at The Woodlands College Park High School after school. I will send out a detailed schedule next week but for now here are the highlights. For those taking a solo they will need to get us their $25 to pay for their accompanist. That needs to be to us before Friday the 22nd. The students will need to wear black on bottom/white on top dress clothes. White dress shirts for guys/girls and white blouses for girls is appropriate. Gentlemen may also add a tie and/or jacket if they wish. Ladies may wear majority black dresses as long as they are school dress code approved. They will need to bring a little bit of money for the concession stand.
6. Tuesday, February 26th will be the HHS/MPMS Pre-UIL concert in our HHS auditorium. This is where each band will play their 3 UIL pieces for judges who will provide us feedback as we get closer to our UIL contest in April. Again, I will send out a detailed schedule next week.
7. The 4th 6 weeks ends this Friday. Please help your student make sure that they are passing ALL of their classes by the end of this week or they will be ineligible for Solo and Ensemble Contest. This is not good for them or the rest of the band.
8. This is just a quick reminder that our new sectional schedule begins next Tuesday, February 19th. Please check the spring calendar that we gave out so that everyone knows when their 2 sectionals are.
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637
Good Morning Parents and Students,
I know you have missed my emails but there has not been quite as much going on lately but here are a few things for the near future.
1. The last trip payment was due Friday, February 1st. If you are behind on your payments at all there will be a band parent here after school today and before school on Thursday to take money and write receipts. Our last trip payment is due Friday, March 1st so please keep that in mind.
2. Drum Major Camp started last Friday and will conclude today after school. Next Monday, February 18th will be the try-out. This is a little earlier than normal for drum major tryouts but we wanted to do them a little earlier this year because of the band trip.
3. This week, Wednesday the 13th through Saturday the 16th all of the band directors in the district will be gone to the Texas Music Educators Association Clinic and Convention in San Antonio. This year is a special trip because our own Emily Gray made the All-State 5A Symphonic Band and will be traveling with us there to perform. Just to give you an idea of how big an honor this is, there are about 72,000 students from around the state that enter the All-State process and only around 1700 make an All-State group. This is also the first time in 8 years that the HMB has put someone in the All-State Band! Congratulations Emily.
4. While the directors are gone to TMEA this week this is a great opportunity for the students to get a lot of great work done practicing their solos and small ensembles for our Solo and Ensemble Contest that is coming up soon. The students will have all class period to be able to practice. I also want to remind the students of my expectations about their behavior while we are gone. I expect Mrs. Record and the substitute teachers to be treated with respect and for everyone to follow the instructions we leave for them.
5. Speaking of the Solo and Ensemble Contest. It will be held Friday, February 22nd at The Woodlands College Park High School after school. I will send out a detailed schedule next week but for now here are the highlights. For those taking a solo they will need to get us their $25 to pay for their accompanist. That needs to be to us before Friday the 22nd. The students will need to wear black on bottom/white on top dress clothes. White dress shirts for guys/girls and white blouses for girls is appropriate. Gentlemen may also add a tie and/or jacket if they wish. Ladies may wear majority black dresses as long as they are school dress code approved. They will need to bring a little bit of money for the concession stand.
6. Tuesday, February 26th will be the HHS/MPMS Pre-UIL concert in our HHS auditorium. This is where each band will play their 3 UIL pieces for judges who will provide us feedback as we get closer to our UIL contest in April. Again, I will send out a detailed schedule next week.
7. The 4th 6 weeks ends this Friday. Please help your student make sure that they are passing ALL of their classes by the end of this week or they will be ineligible for Solo and Ensemble Contest. This is not good for them or the rest of the band.
8. This is just a quick reminder that our new sectional schedule begins next Tuesday, February 19th. Please check the spring calendar that we gave out so that everyone knows when their 2 sectionals are.
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637
| 2019 Spring Rehearsal Schedule |
1-7-19
Happy New Year Everyone,
I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As we get ready to start school back up again this week I wanted to touch base on a couple of things.
1. Attached you will find a copy of the new sectional schedule and spring calendar for the remainder of the year. We gave out copies of this to the students before we left for Christmas break but here it is just in case it did not make it home. Please use these when scheduling doctor appointments, etc. so that your student doesn’t miss out on important rehearsals and/or events.
2. Speaking of the sectional schedule, please make sure that your student is attending their after school sectionals. These sectionals are very similar to our after school marching rehearsals in that they are vital to the band’s success. If there is a conflict please have your student talk to us in advance so we can help them resolve it. We are trying to teach them time management skills among other things and we will help them to work out conflicts with other activities if they will communicate with us IN ADVANCE. We will not be starting after school practices this week but will begin next week beginning Monday, January 14th.
3. Parents of Symphonic and Concert Band members please pay close attention to the sectional schedule for those groups as we are doing something a little differently this year. We will be combining those two bands into one larger band for UIL Concert and Sight-Reading Contest. We believe this will give those two bands a better chance of being successful, especially in sight-reading. Therefore, all Symphonic AND Concert Band members should attend the appropriate Symphonic Band sectional each week.
4. The next trip payment of $300 is due this Friday the 11th. Make sure you don’t get too far behind in your payments as it is difficult to get caught up. As always students/parents can put payments into the booster lock box at any time or you can pay in person on Thursday morning when there will be a booster officer at the band hall before school. If you pay by check make sure it is made out to HBBCI and include a phone # and driver’s license #.
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637
Happy New Year Everyone,
I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! As we get ready to start school back up again this week I wanted to touch base on a couple of things.
1. Attached you will find a copy of the new sectional schedule and spring calendar for the remainder of the year. We gave out copies of this to the students before we left for Christmas break but here it is just in case it did not make it home. Please use these when scheduling doctor appointments, etc. so that your student doesn’t miss out on important rehearsals and/or events.
2. Speaking of the sectional schedule, please make sure that your student is attending their after school sectionals. These sectionals are very similar to our after school marching rehearsals in that they are vital to the band’s success. If there is a conflict please have your student talk to us in advance so we can help them resolve it. We are trying to teach them time management skills among other things and we will help them to work out conflicts with other activities if they will communicate with us IN ADVANCE. We will not be starting after school practices this week but will begin next week beginning Monday, January 14th.
3. Parents of Symphonic and Concert Band members please pay close attention to the sectional schedule for those groups as we are doing something a little differently this year. We will be combining those two bands into one larger band for UIL Concert and Sight-Reading Contest. We believe this will give those two bands a better chance of being successful, especially in sight-reading. Therefore, all Symphonic AND Concert Band members should attend the appropriate Symphonic Band sectional each week.
4. The next trip payment of $300 is due this Friday the 11th. Make sure you don’t get too far behind in your payments as it is difficult to get caught up. As always students/parents can put payments into the booster lock box at any time or you can pay in person on Thursday morning when there will be a booster officer at the band hall before school. If you pay by check make sure it is made out to HBBCI and include a phone # and driver’s license #.
Sincerely,
John F. Green
HISD Director of Bands
Huntsville Hornet Military Marching Band
441 FM 2821 East
Huntsville, Texas 77320
Office 936.435.6147
Fax 936.435.6637