Notes From the Common School, April 2007

The Fairfield Center School Music Department is busy, busy with concert preparations and a recording for local Jazz pianist John Cassel, the Maple & June Dairy Day Festivals, the annual Jazz Festival, Middle School District Festival and so much more! But first we need to thank Mr. James Gregoire for putting together the most wonderful fundraiser for the Music Department!! Mr. Gregoire’s St. Patrick’s Day Corned Beef Dinner and Irish Music fundraiser raised over $800.00 which has purchased us a very good used keyboard for the Band Room in the Common School, some small percussion instruments and cords for our (my) electric bass and the keyboard!!!! Thank you to Mr. Gregoire, the St. Albans American Legion, their kind cooks and staff as well as Dr. Laura Bellstrom for procuring the corned beef from Bob’s Meat Market (Thank you, Bob’s Meat Market!) and Mrs. Peg Perrault who did most our shopping! What a beautiful gesture! This equipment will be used by our talented students for years and years to come!! Many, many thanks!!! So, here’s a schedule with details of class work: Saturday, April 14th is the Vermont Maple Festival Youth Talent Show audition date at B.F.A. St. Albans. Students who prepared an act and sent in their forms by March 30th are expected to audition that morning. If you have not received an audition time, please call me immediately. Thursday, April 26th is the dress rehearsal for the students passing the audition for the Vermont Maple Festival Youth Talent Show @ 6:00pm in the B.F.A. St. Albans Auditorium. The Vermont Maple Festival Youth Talent Show takes place on Friday, April 277h , 7:00PM at the B.F.A. St. Albans Auditorium! Come see and hear the great talent representing the Fairfield Center School!! Saturday, April 28th at noon I will be playing in the Vermont Maple Festival with the Joe Levesque Big Band on the Main Street Stage in St. Albans and sometime during the afternoon students who participated in the Vermont Maple Festival Youth Talent Show will most likely be invited to perform on the Main Street stage, too! The Vermont Maple Festival Parade takes place on Sunday, April 29th @ 1:00pm in St. Albans. The Band, Banner & Flag Carriers, Pep Squad, & Candy Tossers will march for the 12th year! Mrs. Julia Jobber, is coaching the Pep Squad. Practices are on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:45 – 4:00pm at the Common School. Please call her at 524-9806 if you have any questions. A pink memo went out to each and every child in the school last week with that info. We are inviting anyone who wishes to join us to represent our fine school. In past years we have had as many as 100 students marching. If you have any of our Tie-dyed T-shirts please return them to the Music Department so we may wear them for our performances. Our outfits are black pants, black socks, black shoes and our tie-dye shirts. Band rehearsals are on Mondays after school from 3:00 – 4:30. IF ANY BAND MEMBERS ARE UNABLE TO MARCH IN EITHER PARADE I NEED TO KNOW NOW!!! I will call each and every student, but it will be a lot easier on me if you just let me know immediately. Participation is very important…when instruments are missing it really affects the ensemble! The crunch is on! Lessons are going great for most students and we have some really serious players! EVERYONE NEEDS TO PRACTICE AT LEAST 15 MINUTES A DAY!!!!! The Northwest Vermont Middle School District Vocal Music Festival took place this year on Thursday, February 8th & Friday, February 9th at Mount Mansfield Union High School in Jericho, VT. We had 22 students who performed in the Middle School Chorus Concert. Congratulations to all! The Northwest Vermont Middle School District Instrumental Music Festival will take place on Friday, May 4th at Enosburg Falls Middle High School and I have been trying my very best to convince all 6th, 7th, and 8th grade instrumental students to take part in this festival as it is a great way to submerse oneself for an entire day in music, make friends with students from other schools and to present large scale pieces under the baton of great guest conductors. Concert at 7:00pm. Blue permission slips went out to all these students in February! The 9th Annual Lester Bowie Jazz Festival is slated for sometime in May at St. Albans City School but scheduling has become a problem. This is open to all instrumental music students in the 6th – 8th grades. More information as soon as it becomes available. The Fairfield School Children’s Chorus will be finishing up their recording debut on John Cassel’s 2007 Christmas CD on Saturday, May 12th at West Street Digital…what a great experience this has been!! We can’t wait to hear the final results! Those CDs will be available in the fall. The Band and all, will march in the June Dairy Day Parade which takes place on Saturday, June 2nd, @ 10:30AM in Enosburg Falls. We will be performing in the Band Competition as well, slated for 12:00 noon in front of the Main Street Review Stand. Spring Concerts Grades 5 – 8 & Band Monday, June 4th @ 1:00PM in the Gym Grades K – 4 & Band Tuesday, June 5th @ 1:00 PM in the Gym The whole school will sing “Sadako”, an international song of peace for these concerts as well as our national anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner” which will be accompanied by the Band. I have been trying to teach all our students about 19th Century history with units on Beethoven and European history as well as what was happening in American history at this time so our concert will feature American songs from that period. Our Kindergarten classes have pretty much firmed up their program preparing “Bingo”, and “If Your’re Happy”…maybe one more… First graders are singing “Mickey Mouse March”, “I Love Trash” and “Yankee Doodle”. Second graders will be singing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” and “The Erie Canal” plus “Polly Polite”…always trying to teach manners… Third graders are preparing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” and two more songs to be selected…Clementine? Baby Beluga? Fourth graders are learning to play the Recorder as well as sing “Fifty Nifty United States” by Ray Charles. They have their hands full. Please encourage your Fourth graders to practice their Recorders several times a week…we have a lot on our plates, learning three songs and Recorders. A little home preparation makes a big difference in the classroom!!! Fifth graders are preparing “Camptown Races” and at least one more song. We have a lot of instrumental students in this class!!! Our Sixth grade students are preparing an American folk Song “The Water is Wide” and we are in the process of selecting one more song for the concert. The Seventh graders are preparing an American Minstrel song from 1833 titled “Ching A Ring Chaw” to fit in with our studies of this period. One more song to be chosen…any suggestions by parents or teachers is greatly appreciated. The Eighth grade students will be performing Stephen Foster’s “Oh, Susanna”, again a song from the mid 1800’s featuring our four exceptional graduating percussionists…Again, any input from parents for one more song is deeply appreciated. In June we are hoping to present the 9th Annual Fairfield Variety Show! Scheduling has become a serious issue….Everyone from the community is invited to perform so if you would like to share your talent please call 827-3071 to register! We would really love to have adult community members share their talents! We already have 18 acts signed up from our students!!!!! S p r e a d t h e w o r d! Whew!! That’s it for right now…please feel free to call me at school 827-3071 or at home 933-2235 if you have any questions or comments. Musically Yours, Miss Scott