Hello WMS Choir Families! Happy New Year! The WMS Choirs are kicking off the new year with a bang! We have lots of things going on that you should know about so please make sure to read all of the details below! January Newsletter in a Nutshell I Have A Voice Singing Competition (Signed Permission Forms are required for student participation) Music Literacy Post-Test (Same as the pre-test that students took in the fall) 8th Grade Treble Choir Concerts & Trip to Grand Rapids Music Booster Scholarship Audition Application 5th Grade Visits & 6th Grade Honors Choir Performances 2nd Semester Preview I Have A Voice Singing Competition I m excited to share that we are planning to record and submit a video recording of students performing a new song we ve been working on called, I Have A Voice in a national choir competition. You may visit www.nobully.org to find out more information. All students included in the video must have a permission form completed and submitted by Monday, January 14th. I provided paper copies to all students who expressed interest on Friday. The form is also available at the end of this newsletter. The video submission deadline is Tuesday, January 15th. Please let me know if you have any questions. Music Literacy Post-Test This is the same as the pre-test that students took in the fall. Students have shown excellent improvement in their music literacy over the past semester. Students have had access to the pre-test all year and may take it as many times as they want for practice. As I have repeatedly explained to them, it is most important that they memorize the information rather than memorize the test. We will continue to apply their knowledge to new music during 2nd semester. 6th Grade students will take the test on Tuesday or Wednesday (A/B day) and 7th Grade Treble Choir students will take the test on Wednesday. 8th Grade Treble Choir students have been keeping extremely busy with other preparations for the Michigan Music Conference (more on that in a bit) so they will not be taking this test. 7th & 8th Grade Tenor and Bass choir students just took this as a pre-test on Friday as Mr. Wangeman and I have been melding our two individual approaches to teaching music literacy. We re both learning a great deal from each other as teachers and the students in TB Choir are demonstrating amazing music literacy skills, especially in their sight-reading abilities with new music! It s an exciting opportunity to team teach these amazing young men!
8th Grade Treble Choir Concerts & Trip to Grand Rapids The 8th Grade Treble Choir has a very busy two weeks ahead Wednesday, January 16th Guest clinician, Virginia Kerwin (Executive Director, Michigan School Vocal Music Association) Thursday, January 17th Dress Rehearsal at St. Francis during school (5th & 6th Hour) Please wear travel attire during the day (blue jeans, choir t-shirt, & choir jacket) Bon Voyage Concert at St. Francis (arrive by 6:45, concert is from 7:30-9:00) Please wear all black formal concert attire. Friday, January 18th (Half Day) After School Rehearsal until 3:00. Pizza lunch will be provided. Friday & Saturday, January 25th & 26th (MMC Trip) I will send a detailed trip itinerary to 8th Grade families in a separate letter. Music Booster Scholarship Audition Application Applications are online this year and the deadline to submit is this coming Wednesday, January 16th. 5th Grade Visits & 6th Grade Honors Choir Performances On Wednesday-Friday, January 29-31, 5th grade students from all westside elementary schools including schools that have students who attend both EMS & WMS will visit WMS to find out more about their opportunities in music during 6th grade. This is a significant change from previous years. In the past WMS music students and staff have toured to these schools on 3 or 4 different days throughout November, December, and January. We believe that this new approach will be better in several ways. One specific change is that we will have 6th grade honors choir students performing for the 5th grade students when they visit instead of the Madrigal Singers from 7th & 8th Grade. Similarly, the band will have 6th grade honors band students perform instead of Jazz Band. We believe that this will give current 5th grade students a more realistic expectation of what they will be part of in 6th grade. It also gives some of our current 6th grade students a wonderful opportunity to showcase their talents, skills, and hard work which we believe will inspire the 5th grade students! We re very excited to see our friends in the orchestra program also transition from using HS students for the performance to using MS students. Ms. Pylvainen is doing wonderful things with our growing orchestra program! It is exciting to see all of the individual programs within the music department thriving and striving to do their personal best! I m blessed to work with amazing colleagues and tremendous students! We do still hope to provide Madrigal Singers, Jazz Band students, and select Orchestra students will additional performance opportunities that involve local elementary students. Stay tuned for more information about this later in the year.
2nd Semester Preview I ll have more details about 2nd semester in the February Newsletter. Here s a sneak peek Tuesday, February 12th: Female Vocal Arts Day (7th & 8th Grade Treble Choirs) @ WSHS I m still working on creating a special event for 6th grade girls Wednesday, February 20th: Male Vocal Arts Day (6th-8th Grade Boys in Choir) @ WSHS Tuesday, April 9th: 7th & 8th Grade Concert @ Lars (w/ Guest Clinician, Dr. Williams) Wednesday, April 10th: Special Guest Clinician, Dr. Brandon Williams (Rutgers University) will work with all students throughout the day @ WMS April 15th-30th: Spring Fundraiser (more details to come in future newsletters) Tuesday, May 14th: Madrigals & 6th Grade Honors Choir Concert @ Lars Thursday, May 23rd: Music Booster s Concert (Participating Students...TBD, but not 6th Grade) June Concerts currently on the calendar will most likely be moved to different dates. The current dates were added automatically to the calendar based on last year s concert dates. Stay tuned in February for new dates for end of the year concerts for each grade level. Any additional activities will be communicated as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued support! Please see the next two pages for more info about the I Have A Voice competition. Sincerely, Mr. Emerick Dee
Hello WMS Choir Families! I m excited to share that we are planning to record and submit a video recording of students performing a new song called, I Have A Voice in a national choir competition. Please visit www.nobully.org to find out more. All students included in the video must have a permission form completed and submitted by Monday, January 14th. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you! Sincerely, Mr. Dee
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