RCMS Orchestra

September 2024

Crownover Orchestra Families,

We have had a great start to our year the first few weeks in all of our orchestra classes. I am enjoying getting to know our new students and getting started on another year of orchestra with all of our returning students. I always tell others that one of my favorite parts of teaching orchestra is that I get to work with students for multiple years and see them grow as a person and a musician over all of that time. Whether it's your first year or your final year in our orchestra program I know we will be able to work together to make it the most rewarding year possible! We have some major events starting to come up in September and October that you will learn more details about below. We will have a group newsletter go out over email once every roughly 4-6 weeks with details about upcoming events for that period of the year. Our current newsletter will always be available on our website at all times as well. Thank you for looking over important information about our first events of the year and please let me know of any questions.

~ Ms. Harvey

Upcoming Events

September 9-23 - Fall Fundraiser

Week of September 9 - After School All-Region Sectionals begin (for students planning to audition)

Wednesday, September 11 - Back to School Party at Interskate

Thursday, October 3 - Guyer Orchestra Fall Concert

Thursday, October 10 - All-Region entry fee due

Friday, October 11 - Stampede Day (school carnival during school day) - some students will volunteer to work orchestra booth (haunted house)

Tuesday, October 15 - Orchestra Activity Fee Due ($35 Prelude, $45 Philharmonic, $55 Chamber)

Friday, October 18 - Philharmonic required after school rehearsal until 5:15

Monday, October 21 - Prelude required after school rehearsal until 5:15

Wednesay, October 23 - FALL CONCERT

Saturday, October 26 - All-Region Auditions

Fall Fundraiser

Our first fundraiser of the year is September 9 - 23. If we meet our fundraising goal we will typically do only one fundraiser per year.

Goal: $75 total in donations and/or profit per student. If we meet our goal, we will raise the necessary funds for our needs for this year.

Recommendation: $100 in donations and/or profit per student. If many students reach our recommendation, we will raise helpful extra funds to achieve goals such as purchasing extra classroom supplies, upgrading technology, or lowering the cost of some extra-curricular activities.

What is our fundraiser for?

Fundraisers are critical to the success of our orchestra program. While our classes receive a budget from the district to cover basic instructional needs, anything beyond that is covered through fundraising. This includes contest entry fees, field trip expenses, extra supplemental instructional supplies, uniforms, hiring of clinicians and sectional coaches for contest preparations, and extra-curricular expenses such as food or supplies for social events. Typically our biggest expense is simply transportation to off-campus events, which costs our program thousands of dollars per year. Our ability to do the competitions and events that our students look forward to so much each year is dependent on our success at our fundraising. We hope that all of our students take the time to get enrolled in our fundraiser and strive to meet our goal to ensure a successful year for our program.

Who is Participating:

Our fall fundraiser is a fine arts department fundraiser - all fine arts classes are conducting the same fundraiser, but our profits are kept within the class that the student enrolls in. We do have many students who are in 2 fine arts classes - in this case, the student needs to enroll in only one class for the fundraiser, and they will be fundraising only for that class.

6th graders in 2 fine arts classes: 3rd period orchestra students will fundraise for ORCHESTRA. Most 6th students will be told to fundraise for the fine arts class they have first in the day, but as orchestra doesn't have 6th graders until 3rd period, we have decided that all 3rd period orchestra students will enroll in orchestra. Orchestra students who are in 8th period will fundraise for the fine arts class they have earlier in the day.

7-8th graders in 2 fine arts classes: Students and their families will decide which class they will enroll in. We ask that you fundraise for the class that you expect to participate in the most activities for this year, as extra-curricular activities are our greatest cost. You may want to compare the calendars of both programs and estimate which program you will be attending the most activities for.

How to enroll in the fundraiser:

The fundraiser is handled exclusively through the Money Dolly app (must be done through the app). Either the student or a member of the student's family will need to download the free app on their device. All other details about how to download the app and participate in our fundraiser can be found on the fundraiser letter the students received from Ms. Harvey, which can be found on our Fundraiser Page of our website.

Back to School Party

Our back to school party is coming up on Wednesday, September 11 at Interskate Lewisville. Students do not need to sign up or pay ahead of time, just show up with your $10/person entry fee and signed waiver at Interskate the day of the event. All students received the flyer and waiver below in class. If you can't find your waiver, please ask Ms. Harvey for another one, you will not be able to attend the party without turning in the waiver at check-in. We will also have pizza and drinks for sale. Remember that family members are welcome! We hope to see you there!

Additional Details:

Outside food may be brought in but NO outside drinks, including water
Inline skates are an extra $6 to rent. Regular skates included in $10 entry fee.

Orchestra Back to School Party 24-25.pdf

Interskate Waiver.pdf

Private Lessons

We have a great number of students who have decided to join our on-campus private lesson program. Some students have started lessons and some students are waiting to start. We have a couple of teachers we were intending to use that ended up not being able to fit certain periods into their schedule. We are working on getting those classes covered by new teachers as we get them approved. Thank you for your patience and we will get those students started with their lessons as soon as we get our preferred teachers finalized with their approval process.

Once a student starts private lessons, you will receive communication from your lesson teacher with their contact information in it. All communication from this point forward about lesson payments, notification about an upcoming absence, etc. should go directly to the private lesson teacher.

Practice Records -

Start Sept. 9

The week of September 9 we will start our first practice logs of the year. Students will receive a printed log sheet that they will keep in their orchestra binder. This week, students will receive this on Tuesday due to the fact that we are in a fundraiser presentation on Monday. Students will track their practicing throughout the week and turn in for a grade each Monday (the first week will be turned in and graded on Sept. 16). Students can practice on the days of the week that work best for them.

We have a time goal that we ask students to reach each week and the student's grade is based partly on their success at reaching this time goal. Part of the student's grade is also a weekly short journal writing entry students will complete in class. Our practice time expectations are set through careful consideration and study of what is expected in programs similar to ours.

Prelude - 90 minutes per week (recommended to break up into 30 minute segments)

Philharmonic - 120 minutes per week (recommended to break up into 40 minute segments)

Chamber - 180 minutes per week (recommended to break up into 45-60 minute segments)

The #1 factor in student progress and success is usually their dedication to individual practice outside of class instruction time. Practice logs are a tool in helping students develop strong practice habits and organizational skills that help their success and the success of our whole group.

Students are asked to get a parent signature or initial each week to confirm their practice time. We do not want practice records to be a burden for families to get signed each week. However, parent participation in the practice process helps us train our students to have good practice habits. Honesty on the student's practice log is important in maintaining trust and good standing in the orchestra program. Students are asked to remember that it is better to take a slightly lower grade on a practice record when unable to complete all practicing one week rather than risk being dishonest. Practice records are minor assessment grades and a lower grade a small amount of times barely affects the student's overall average. The greatest affect is when students do not turn these in at all and receive zeros or missing grades.

In the event that there is a major multi-day conflict with a student completing practice time, such as an illness or extended trip out of town, students should feel free to speak with Ms. Harvey about having an exception made on their grade during the affected time.

Open practice time on campus: The orchestra does have open practice time in the orchestra room 3 mornings per week and 3 afternoons per week for students that would benefit from completing some of their practice time on campus. Our practice/tutorial/sectional schedule link is posted on the front page of our website and is also posted inside our classroom.

Mornings: Students may practice before school Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 7:45-8:10. Due to the elementary schedule, Ms. Harvey is only on campus Friday mornings, but we have a teacher volunteer, Mrs. Bourey, who monitors our room for open practice time the other 2 days.

Afternoons: Students may stay to practice Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays until 4:30.

All-Region Entry and Auditions

All-Region auditions are on Saturday, October 26. Region audition participation is expected of our Chamber (varsity) orchestra students but optional for all other classes. Region audition participation is recommended for 7-8th graders or any 6th graders with a significant history of private lessons who are currently in lessons.

Students considering auditioning can learn more about the audition procedures on our All-Region Page of our website.

Students in Chamber have their audition fee built into their $55 orchestra fee. Please let Ms. Harvey know ASAP if the student has a conflict that will keep them from being able to participate so that Ms. Harvey can avoid entering them, and the student can lower their orchestra fee to avoid paying the entry fee.

Students who are not in Chamber will need to turn in $16 to Ms. Harvey no later than October 10 to be enrolled in the audition.

All-Region Sectionals - September 9 through October 25

Ms. Harvey will be holding weekly after school sectionals on the all-region packets for students to get extra help preparing for the audition, starting the week of Sept. 9. It is highly recommended for students to participate in our sectionals but not required due to the fact that the sectional scheduling may not work well for all students. At times, extra sectional coaches will be brought out to work with the students and we don't want anyone to miss this extra help if at all possible. All sectionals will last until 4:30 each week.

Mondays - Violins

Thursday - Violas

Friday - Cellos (students are welcome to participate Howdy Dance 9/13 after school if already planning on that)

Basses to be determined

Students should be picked up at the back of the school near the cafeteria after all after school orchestra activities

FALL CONCERT - Music of Myth and Legend

Wednesday, October 23 - 7:00 pm - Crownover cafeteria

Required call (warm-up) times: Prelude 5:45 Philharmonic 6:10, Chamber 6:30. For warm-up, parents may drop students off or come in the building and wait in cafeteria while warm-ups are taking place.

All students and audience members enter through back doors of school by cafeteria

Dress:

7-8th grade orchestras formal uniform (will be checked out in October)

Prelude Orchestra - orchestra t-shirt and jeans (shirts will come in most likely early October)

Concert Theme:

We have a long-standing tradition in our program of kicking the year off with a fun themed concert. This year's theme is Myths and Legends. We will be performing pieces based on myths and legends including The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, fairies, trolls, vikings, wizards, and The Lord of the Rings, among others. We also typically like to decorate our performance space according to our concert theme. If anyone has anything you might be willing to lend us as a decoration for the concert, please let Ms. Harvey know.

Don't Forget:

Due to being large groups and having split class period sections, Prelude and Philharmonic will have a required after school rehearsal prior to each major performance.

Philharmonic required after school rehearsal 10/18 until 5:15

Prelude required after school rehearsal 10/21 until 5:15

Orchestra students should always be picked up at the back of the school along the cafeteria side of the building after orchestra events.

Orchestra Officers

Our orchestra classes recently voted to elect their 2024-2025 orchestra officer team. Our officer team will help facilitate orchestra activities and make decisions within our orchestra program on behalf of their orchestra or class period. All students who ran for a position wrote great essays and gave inspiring speeches to their classes. We are happy to introduce our officer team. Please congratulate these students for winning a position and thank them for the extra work they'll do on behalf of our orchestra program this year!

Prelude Representatives: Amelia Safarli (3rd period), Finn Parson (8th period)

Vice Presidents: Evie Pourbahrami (5th period), J.T. Handy (6th period)

Facilities Manager: Anthony Navarro

Historian: Joanna Anoop

President: Victor Columna

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