The band trip to ISU on Friday, the 26th, was a lot of fun for us as well as a success. The performance in the competition was good enough to receive a second place finish in our class 1A division. We have received results from the competition indicating that our performing group is on par with schools of larger school populations. A plaque arrived today from the competition which will be added to awards the 2013 band has won! Great year for us.
The middle school band competed on the 27th and was successful in winning a first place at that competition. I am very happy for these students as well in completing a very successful 2013.

The high school band has been accepted for competition in the State of Illinois Band Competition to be held at Illinois State University in Normal, Il on April 26 and 27. The event is a Friday/Saturday schedule with our performance time set for Friday at 3:30 pm at the Center for the Performing Arts on the ISU campus. We will be competing against other bands in our class. The students and I are looking forward to this new performance opportunity. Hopefully we will have a good contingent of Grant Park following us to support our performance.

A very successful day for our student musicians at Grant Park Middle School. First place soloists-Jon Goldenstern, trumpet; Daniel Palan, trumpet; Ethan Schneider, cornet; Andrea Wilcox, trumpet; Katie Williams, snare drum; Mykenna Ekhoff, trombone; Mason Schneider, bass clarinet; Max Markland, trombone; Ashton Loitz-snare drum; Will Schneider, French horn; Maddie Coletti, tuba; Bethany Junker, flute; Hannah Jackson, flute; CJ Rosas, piano; Sam English, clarinet; Erica Reyes, clarinet; Jacob Dickson, alto sax; Kayla Ringo, alto sax; Anisah Hacker, flute.
First place ensembles-Bethany and Sam, woodwind duet; Sam and Kaitlyn, clarinet duet; Ethan, Andrea, Mykenna, Maddie; brass ensemble.
Second place soloists-Gary West, tenor; Jacob Jarski, alto; Alex Delaney, flute; David Wagner, snare drum; Patrick Porter, snare drum; Olivia Garcia, piano.
Second place ensembles-Hannah, Veronica, Anisah, flute trio; Veronica, Anisah, flute duet; Alex, Erica, woodwind duet; Jacob, Kayla, Elle, woodwind trio.
A very good day for the middle school band!

Various shots of GP band participants rehearsing for evening concert

With the beginning of February facing us the end of this week, we are quickly approaching our solo/ensemble and organizational contests for 2013. The high school solo/ensemble contest will be March 2nd at Clifton Central and high school organizational contest will be April 13th at Reed Custer. Middle school solo/ensemble contest will be April 6th at Bradley Central and organizational contest will be April 27th at Manteno. Students are preparing for the solo/ensemble events and I ask that you ask them to play their selection for you either if it is a solo or an ensemble. The more public individual practice–the better!
The second week in March will also be busy for us with RVC for band on the 13th at Olivet followed the next day by a visit from the Millikin Wind Ensemble who will perform at the middle school at 2:00 PM. One of the members of that ensemble is our own graduate, Kelly Lorenz. We will be serving lunch for the Millikin group on the 14th. If you are available to assist please let Mrs. Dandurand or Mrs. Parmely or myself know. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated to insure that our Millikin visitors are given the best Grant Park welcome!
Finally, we are beginning our final fund raiser for this school year. We are offering Manna cards and Butter Braids for sale and we hope you will encourage your students and help us to have a successful event.
Thank you for all of your continuing support.

Welcome to the new school year. Before school rehearsals for jazz band will start on the 27th. We will continue with ms jazz band on Monday and Wednesday with hs jazz band on Tuesday and Thursday until further notice. I anticipate the possibility of an additional group in hs possible this year due to the number of freshmen in the jazz program, but we will see how it all develops and the participation we receive.
Additional performances to our schedule include hosting Kan-Wil on October 11th for ms band and chorus, a hs jazz band performance for Mr. Hanson’s school board meeting on the 30th of October and the visit by the Millikin Wind Ensemble on March 14th. Additional information will be coming out as soon as I know more about each event. The rest of the performance schedule will be handed out to students on Thursday during our first meeting of the year. I will also include the performance schedule on this blog shortly. Any questions or concerns send a message!
Looking forward to another fine year from our students. See you soon.

I am offering summer band classes again this year on Thursdays in June and July like last year. The only difference this year is that I am asking for $25.00 per student/$40.00 per family for the program. Since I will be driving down strictly for the program I hope you will agree that this amount is fair to help pay for gas and some of my time. I realize how important the continuation of the summer program is to the continued growth of the student musicians. Sheets have been handed out to the students to bring to you. If you haven’t seen anything please let me know or question your student.
Rehearsals for the summer will be 4:00-4:45 for incoming grades 6-8 and 5:00-5:45 for high school. If you have any further questions or concerns let me know. I will respond as quickly as possible.

A very good day for the middle school concert band yesterday at Manteno. We received two perfect scores from two of the judges while the third marked us down only one point. The jazz band also performed well although we were scored less than perfect, but really good for our first competition. I was told by Mrs. Lehman that the contest manager, Mike Snyder, wanted her to pass along that we had won “Best of the Day” again this year, but I have not heard that first hand from either Mike Snyder or the IESA. I will let all know as soon as I know for sure. But another “Best of the Day” would be a great accomplishment for out band. Will have to get more aggressive with the jazz band for next year.

Our performing groups had a good day today at Clifton Central even though Ms Lehman would have preferred a higher rating on the mixed chorus but nevertheless we scored sufficiently to be in the running for the state championship again this year. Unless totals are changed in the next few days we will be the runner-up champion for 11-12. Stockton had a very good day at their contest site and are well ahead of us. We are about 80 points ahead of the 3rd place district so we hope that the current totals are accurate. We can only wait until the totals are finalized by IHSA. I am optimistic that we will end up as the runner-up to Stockton. Over all that is another banner year for Grant Park High and all of the students participating in the music program. If you haven’t attended any of our contest performances you have missed the visual of our students looking as good as they sound when they perform. It is quite a sight–I strongly encourage all of you to watch our musicians in concert. I am so proud of them!! Will keep you up to date on final score changes.