Director's Newsletter #18-19, January 5

Director’s Newsletter #18-19, January 5, 2020 Good afternoon everyone! Here is what you will find in this week's newsletter: •AREA AUDITIONS RESULTS •DISNEY PARENT MEETING •2020/2021 BAND FEES •SOLO & ENSEMBLE FORMS •MIDTERMS SCHEDULE AREA AUDITIONS RESULTS Congratulations to the 18 Bronco Band members who competed at the All Area audition yesterday in Austin, TX. The Bronco Band earned 2 chairs in the TMEA Texas All State Ensembles! Logan Francesco earned 9th chair Trumpet and Connor Castillo earned 1st chair Percussion! In addition, Elise Aigner-Varoz on Piccolo (2nd chair), Jonathan Bjerken on Trumpet (10th chair) and Caelan Matthews on Baritone (4th chair) each earned 1st alternates. We are proud of all 18 of you and the work you have put into this year's audition process.

DISNEY PARENT MEETING On Tuesday, January 14th we will have our Disney parent meeting in the Brandeis auditorium. Student/Adults attending and at least 1 parent are required to attend the meeting. It will begin at 6 pm and should not last longer than 1 hour. 2020/2021 BAND FEES This past Wednesday at the booster meeting I discussed our band fees for the 2020/2021 school year. Prior to the start of this year, I discussed that we would not be raising band fees for the 19/20 school year but and increase would be coming for the 20/21 school year. At the booster meeting, I showed where our funds are being used, primarily to support our biggest expense of feeding our students as well as all of our marching band production costs. Regarding a siblings discount, we will not be able to provide a discount to parents who have 2 students in the program. While we are not interested in creating a financial challenge, please understand that we do not get any additional price break on food or items purchased for your students. With that being said, all returning band, guard and field dance members dues will be 4 payments of $150, spread out over 4 months. If fees are paid in full up front, students will receive a $25 discount. Payments will be due on the 5th of each month, beginning in March 2020, ending in June 2020 and will be made online. As I stated at the booster meeting, our goal is to keep your student connected to our program, give them the best experience possible, all while working to achieve excellence. Whether we like it or not, high school band in our classification of 6A has evolved into a costly activity. This amount is comparable to many of the bands we are now competing with. Fees are ranging anywhere from $600 to as high as $2800 for a year depending on contest travel. The median range sits right around $1000. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. SOLO & ENSEMBLE FORMS Next month (February 27th) will be our annual Solo & Ensemble contest at Brandeis. Students participating in the contest pick out a solo that is on the UIL Prescribed Music List, learn it to the best of their ability over a 2+ month time frame, and perform it for a judge. When they perform their solo, it is a UIL rule that they do so with piano accompaniment. While professional piano accompanists are made available via the band staff, payment for the accompanist is a student responsibility. Costs range from $40 - $45 and this includes rehearsals before the event as well as the performance. Students may also find their own piano accompanists and do not have to use an option provided by the band staff. Forms to register for this event were passed out this week and need to be turned into Mr. Cuellar by tomorrow, Monday, January 13th. Learning a solo and performing it is a great avenue to increase student confidence, ability and achievement. While it is not required, we highly encourage all of our wind and percussion students to participate in this event. MIDTERMS SCHEDULE We are in finals week of the semester. Below is a copy of the final exam schedule. Please make sure your student has turned in all missing assignments to their teachers and communicated regarding any grade issues. It is important that they do not wait until the last minute on this. Monday of this week will be the only day of the week that they will see all of their teachers in class. As always, if you have any questions please feel free to contact me at Daniel.Asgari@nisd.net Have a great day! -Mr. Asgari Week 18 1/13/20 - Monday - Jazz 1 Saxes/Rhythm, 4:30 pm - 5:30 pm 1/13/20 - Monday - Varsity winter guard, 4:30 pm - 6 pm -- 1/14/20 - Tuesday - Jazz Combo, 7:45 am 1/14/20 - Tuesday - Disney Student & Parent Required Meeting, Auditorium, 6 pm -- 1/15/20 - Wednesday - Percussion Rehearsal, 7:30 am 1/15/20 - Wednesday - JV winter guard, 4:30 pm - 6 pm -- 1/16/20 - Thursday - Percussion Rehearsal, 7:30 am -- 1/17/20 - Friday - Depart for Disney -- 1/18/20 - Saturday - Disney Week 19 Tentative 1/19/20 - Sunday - Disney -- 1/20/20 - Monday - MLK Day (School Holiday)/Disney -- 1/21/20 - Tuesday - Disney -- 1/22/20 - Wednesday - Disney -- 1/23/20 - Thursday - All Region Clinic, TBA -- 1/24/20 - Friday - All Region Clinic, TBA