OMS Band Weekly Updates 9/21/15

Hello everyone,

Sorry they are late but here are the announcements for this week.

All OMS Bands

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Because I am shared staff between OMS and OHS, I will only be available one night a piece for parent/teacher conferences in each building. I will be available for OMS students on Thursday, October 15 and available for OHS students on Wednesday, October 14. If you are unable to attend the night I’m available in your building, I would be happy to meet with you outside of the conferences or talk with you on the phone. Please email or call to set up an appointment.

Music Advocacy Corner

This week’s music advocacy corner features a video from Dr. Jack Stamp who is a well-known composer in the wind band world. In this video, he explains the importance of music beyond how to play an instrument. He goes into great depth about the effects of music making has on the students. It is six minutes long but definitely worth the time to watch.

7th/8th Grade Band

Extracurricular Rehearsal

We apologize for the confusion last Monday. We found out about the power outage around 3:10 PM. By the time we were able to send out an email blast to parents, the tech department had already shut down the internet/email servers. That is why you may have received an email from our OMHS@gmail.com account.

To help rectify this situation in the future, we have set up a Remind account for parents of OMS 7th/8th Grade Band Students. To sign up, parents can text @omsband78 to the phone number 81010. Hopefully our Remind messages will be an easier way for us to keep in touch about the class. With this service, you will be able to receive urgent updates, arrival/departure times, change of plan information, and much more via text messages. Keep this in mind about the service when you are signing up:

• There are no open replies to teacher messages on Remind.

• All messages are recorded in case we need to reference them in the future.

• Your personal contact information is never seen by me or by the school.

• Messages from my class will be sent straight to your phone or email account.

• If I need to send specific information to a select few people in the class, I can message groups of 3+ people.

Thanks for signing up for my class on Remind! If you have any questions about the service, please feel free to contact me.

Fall Concert

Our fall concert is rapidly approaching. The 7th/8th Grade Band will perform in the OHS Auditorium at 7:00 PM on Thursday, October 1. Students are expected to be on stage and ready to play at 6:30 PM. Students should also dress nicely (no shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes, etc). The concert should last roughly 20-30 minutes. All students are expected to help move equipment from the stage back into the band room after the concert has completed.

6th Grade Band

Demonstration Concert Date Change

Due to Parent/Teacher conferences falling on October 15, administration has asked that we reschedule the 6th Grade Band Demonstration Concert. This event will be moved to Thursday, October 29 in the OMS Gym. Students should be in their seats at 6:45 PM and dress nicely (no shorts, t-shirts, tennis shoes, etc). This event should be about 20 minutes. All students are expected to stay after the concert to help move equipment back into the band room. If there are any conflicts because of this date change, please communicate those to us ASAP.

This is a first time event for us at OMS. We will be sending out an RSVP link next week for parents as we will have parents sit with their students so they can experience what their students experience. We will give a presentation of all of our procedures, warm ups, and much more while explaining the purpose for each activity and how it affects your student’s abilities to play.

Due to space constraint, we are asking that the seats amongst the band to be saved specifically for parents/guardians and sent through the RSVP link. With that said, all families are welcomed to attend and seating will be made available around the band.

As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email or call.

Kyle Brubaker

Director of Bands

Olympia Middle/High School