Orchestra Newsletter

September 2026

Setting the Stage for a Great Year!

RCMS Orchestra Families,

We have had a great start to the 2026-2027 school year. Thank you for helping us get all of our back to school sign-up forms turned in on time and helping our students get all their supplies quickly. It was great to see so many families come through our room during open house. We are settling into daily classroom routines and most classes are already working on music for our first performance.

I will send out an orchestra newsletter about every 4-6 weeks throughout the year, communicating details about all of the events coming up for that portion of the year. You will be able to find all of our newsletters on our website at all times through a link on the front page of our site and under the Resources tab.

Thank you for keeping up with our orchestra calendar throughout the year and being aware of what activities are required of our students. Please always notify Ms. Harvey of any known conflicts as soon as possible so we can work on solutions together. You can follow a spreadsheet version of our calendar, which will be linked on the front page of our website at all times. You can also use the calendar page of our website to view a google calendar.

I am already impressed with how fast every class is moving, from 6th through 8th graders, and I'm getting excited to help all of the students perform for you for the first time at our Fall Concert in October!

~ Ms. Harvey

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday, 9/2 - Back to School Party

Wednesday, 9/9 - Fall Fundraiser Kickoff

Wednesday, October 7 - Philharmonic Orchestra After School Rehearsal

Wednesday, October 14 - Prelude Orchestra After School Rehearsal

Friday, October 16 - FALL CONCERT

Saturday, October 24 - All-Region Auditions

Back to School Party

Our annual back to school party will be Wednesday, September 2 at Interskate in Lewisville.

We hope to see lots of orchestra students and their families there!

All orchestra students and their family members are welcome.
Students may also attend by themselves (Ms. Harvey will be present the whole time)
If a student's siblings are attending a parent must stay to supervise any non-orchestra student siblings
Entry is $12 per person and students are recommended to pre-purchase tickets using the link below. Skate rental is included in entry fee.
Complimentary pizza and drinks for orchestra students (2 pieces of pizza and one drink). Family members may purchase pizza for $2 a slice and $1 a drink.
The Interskate concession stand will also be open for additional food/drink purchases.
Students must have a waiver filled out to attend. Please fill out ahead of time with the link below to ensure fast entry.

Link to purchase tickets

Link to waiver

All-Region Sectionals

All-Region audition participation is expected of our Chamber Orchestra students and optional for our Philharmonic students. This is not typically something any 6th graders would participate in unless a student has multiple years of prior experience.

From now until auditions on October 24, weekly after school sectionals will be offered for students planning to participate in all-region auditions. Any student planning to audition should make every effort to attend our sectionals to get the most help possible on their music. Sectional days were chosen to accomodate the most students of each instrument based on their after school schedules, but we know that there are a few students who have conflicts. Students who cannot attend their weekly sectional can visit with Ms. Harvey about other opportunities for help on their music.

All sectionals will be until 4:30, and students should always be picked up at the back of the school by the cafeteria.

Mondays: Viola, Wednesdays: Cello, Fridays: Violin. Bass to be determined, most likely during cowboy time advisory period.

All Region Auditions:

Auditions are Saturday, October 24 at Northwest High School. Students will not receive a time assignment until very close to the audition date. However, parents can let Ms. Harvey know if you have a conflict and I am able to put in a request of AM or PM for the student when I register them. Unfortunately I can't put anything more specific than that. Please let me know as soon as possible of any conflict. Once official entries are due about 2 weeks before the event, not further changes can be made.

Students and parents will receive more detailed information about the audition site and audition procedures as this event gets closer.

Fall Fundraiser

Our first fundraiser of the year will begin on September 9. On that day, students will receive information in class about participating, and more information will be sent home to parents. Our fundraiser will primarily be a donation-drive style of fundraiser with an app students and parents can use to send information to family members and family friends. Students will also receive a suggested per-student fundraising goal to help them understand their individual role in our group fundraising goal.

It is important that all of our students participate in our fundraiser. If we meet our goal with our fall fundraiser, we typically do not need to do another fundraiser in the spring. Meeting our fundraising goal ensures that we keep activity fee and field trip costs as low as possible for our students. Fundraising revenue is often the only funding source we have for certain class materials, auxiliary personnel such as contest clinicians & sectional coaches, contest entry fees, and contest field trip transportation, among other needs. With just the few field trips per year our students participate in, we spend a couple of thousand dollars on bus transportation alone. Our fundraiser is how we ensure we can continue to offer these important opportunities for our students.

Orchestra Activity Fee

Our annual activity fee will be due by September 24. Families are encouraged to turn this in as soon as you are able to.

Prelude $35, Philharmonic $45, Chamber $55. Refer to our handbook for a full description of what is included in the student's fee for their group.

Fee Reductions:

If your child qualifies for free or reduced lunch, they may qualify for a reduction in their fee. I provided students a paper with their fee amount written on it. Please have them let me know if they feel they didn't get this from me.

Receipt Notifications:

Families who have already paid their fee will start receiving email notifications confirming this as I enter those payments into our Presto tracking system. Presto is an office management system we use in fine arts. You may receive a receipt later than when the a fee was actually deposited. Ms. Harvey manually enters deposits in Presto for tracking purposes at a later time after the deposit has been processed with our school secretary.

Payment Methods:

At this time, orchestra does not have an online payment option. Any fee will need to be turned in to Ms. Harvey as cash or a check made out to RCMS Orchestra. Some DISD programs have been rolling out an online payment option over the past year, but this is being started up one program at a time. Unfortunately our orchestra is still on a waiting list to be trained and added to the district's online portal option called In Touch.

Fall Concert

Our first concert of the year will be on Friday, October 16

Concert Start: 7:00 PM - RCMS Cafeteria

Each orchestra will have a required call time before each concert. This ensures Ms. Harvey has adequate time to tune and warm up each orchestra for a successful performance. It is a part of the student's performance assessment grade for the concert that they are present on time.

Prelude Call Time: 6:00

Philharmonic Call Time: 6:15

Chamber Call Time: 6:30

Dress Code: Orchestra t-shirt (coming soon) and jeans

Parents will be allowed in the cafeteria at the start of their child's call time if you'd like to go ahead and come in and wait for the concert to start. Students may also be dropped off.

All students and audience members will enter at the back of the school next to the cafeteria.

All orchestra student are expected to be in attendance at every concert, as these are curricular, graded assessments for our class. While we know that Friday concerts can be awkward for some families, every effort is always made to plan our campus fine arts activities around the very tight athletics schedule and a number of non-school days in October. If a major conflict arises with a performance date, please let Ms. Harvey know.

We have a long-standing tradition of kicking off our performance season with a themed concert. This year's concert is Pirate and Sailor themed. Students will wear their orchestra t-shirts for the concert, and they will be welcome to add any pirate-related accessories they might like to help us add to the festivities of our concert!

After School Concert Rehearsals (Prelude and Philharmonic Orchestras)

Our Prelude and Philharmonic Orchestras are made up of students from multiple class periods, and some students do not get to hear certain instrument parts in their daily class period. Because of this, we will have at least one after school rehearsal prior to each performance to ensure that all students get to play together before the concert. These rehearsals are required for students to attend.

After any orchestra activity, students should always be picked up at the back of the school at the main back entrance next to the cafeteria. Ms. Harvey needs to be able to see that every student has been picked up, so we need all students to wait in the same location.

Prelude After School Rehearsal for Fall Concert: Wednesday, October 14 3:45-5:00

Philharmonic After School Rehearsal for Fall Concert: Wednesday, October 7 3:45-5:00

Practice Records

On Monday, August 31, students will receive our first weekly practice record of the year. On the practice log, students track their practice time outside of class time. We will turn in our weekly practice log each Monday for a grade throughout the year. Our first one will technically be due on Tuesday 9/7 due to the labor day holiday.

We ask that students get a parent signature or initials once per week on their log to help ensure accuracy on their reporting since most practice is done at home for most students.

We never want practice logs to be a burden for families. In the early stages of learning an instrument, extrinsic motivation such as logs, grades and rewards, can be important to developing the student's practice habits, organization, and work ethic. Students will also complete a short weekly journal entry as a part of their grade. Individual practice is the most important tool for each student's progress and the progress of our group as a whole. We want students to learn to see individual practicing as a commitment to their own growth and also to their team.

Our weekly expectation is for students to practice:

Prelude - 90 minutes

Philharmonic - 120 minutes

Chamber - 180 minutes

Students may divide up their practicing based on their own schedule, and take their instruments home on whatever days work best for them to practice. Students are recommended to practice as many days as they are able to - practicing for a short amount on multiple days tends to be a little better for progress than large chunks on less days.

Thank you for taking a look at our first newsletter of the year!

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