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Band Info for the week ahead

Greetings!

Congratulations to the Drumline for taking first place in their division at the Drummit at the Summit competition this weekend. You guys did a great job!

Some notable items for the upcoming week:

Tuxedos: All men in band will need a tuxedo for concert band season. Yvonne Bechtold will be at the school on Monday from 6:30pm to 8:00pm to fit and distribute tuxedos. If your son does not have his tuxedo, please stop by the school during this time to pick it up.

Football: Friday night LSW will host Blue Springs. The call time for all band members is 5:30. I suspect the crowd will be huge for this game. With the movement of the student section to where the music parents previously sat, I’m not sure where we will gather. I would recommend getting there early and cheering loudly for the Titan Pride Band (and the football team too)! As always, we could use some music parents in the band room before and after the game to assist with uniforms.

Marching Festival: I also wanted to forward some information about the upcoming marching band competition season. Information about each festival can be found in the following links. The websites will be updated with the actual performance schedule when it gets closer to the date of the festival.

We believe we have enough drivers signed up to drive the trailers to each of the competitions; however, it’s always nice to have back-ups. If you have a truck and would be willing to drive to a competition, please let me know and I’ll add your name to the volunteer list. We are also looking for a small portable generator to use for some of the competitions that go late into the night. Please let me know if you have one that we can use.

Park Hill: http://www.midwestmarching.com/2013/parkhill2013.htm
Lee’s Summit North: http://www.midwestmarching.com/2013/lsn2013.htm
UCM : http://www.midwestmarching.com/2013/ucm-foc2013.htm
Odessa: http://www.midwestmarching.com/2013/odessa2013.htm

Pictures:
B Johnson Photography works with a lot of the marching festivals and posts pictures of the participants. Her website is http://www.bjohnsonphotography.com/. Here is a link to pictures from Drummit at the Summit

Jeremy Flowers is a music parent who is a professional photographer and has been taking pictures at a variety music events. Here’s the link to his Facebook page.

Thanks again for everything each of you do to support the band!

Nancy Shaeffer
Instrumental Liaison

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Summer 2013

Greetings and welcome to the 2013 Titan Pride Marching Band,

Mr. Harrel and I are in full swing of preparing for this summer and fall. Here are some items of interest to you as you enter into next year.

Marching Band Camp
All members of the band (woodwinds, brass, percussion, colorguard) are to be at camp at the end of July. Please make sure it is in your calendar now. We have changed the way we will do camp this year. We have gone with a more intense schedule per day, but less days. So, if you had already put these dates in your calendar, please read THIS attachment and make necessary adjustments. It is now July 29 to Aug 1.
2013 Marching Band Camp

Fall Marching Band Schedule
The dates on this calendar include all REQUIRED events outside of the school day. The student’s grade is determined, in the fall, primarily by attendance at these events. Please place them in your calendar now. You’ll notice we have scheduled five Saturday competitions. We will NOT be going to all five. We are currently working out some scheduling conflicts before we decide which one’s we will attend, but wanted you to have all five on your calendar as possibilities.
2013 MB Sched April

Drumline Camp
This camp is for the full drumline (battery and frontline). This is an intense week of working on fundamental development, exercises, show music, and comradery. Please make sure your student is in attendance if they play a percussion instrument.
2013 Drumline Summer Schedule

Hosting the Bluecoats Drum Corps
On July 11th, from 6am to 6pm, we will be hosting a DCI (Drum Corps International) group called the Bluecoats. This is a great oppotunity for our kids and families to observe the intensity and dedication it takes to be a successful marching band. We expect all students to attend and observe at least two hours of rehearsal on that day in Titan Stadium. More information to come at a later date.

Physical Exams
ALL members of the marching band MUST have a physical exam done before July 15th (drumline) and July 29th (woodwinds and brass). The physical exam MUST have been performed after February 1st, 2013 and MUST be on the attached form. This can be handed in to the front office at LSW anytime this summer. Please make sure this is done before your son/daughter’s first day of camp, it is NECESSARY!
Physical form

If I don’t get to speak to you until camp, have a great summer!

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Titan Pride Update for Nov. 6th

Well…..the weather prevented us from performing last night, but fortunately, the team once again destroyed its competition, giving us another opportunity to showcase Aerodynamics.

THIS SATURDAY, we will have a home game starting at 1:30pm (earlier than I stated in my last email to you).
Students will need to report to get dressed at 12:15pm.
Weather permitting, we will perform our halftime show as was planned last evening.
This will be the last HOME game of the season, as the semifinal game will either be at Staley HS or Fort Osage HS. Therefore, please come cheer on the Titan Pride in their final home performance of the season.

Another note about the Band Banquet
The banquet, as previously stated, will be on Friday, November 30th.
The dinner line will start serving at 5:30pm with the “program” beginning shortly after 6pm.

Have a great day!

Mr. Thurmond

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Costumes Tomorrow Night

Just clarifying logistics for the game tomorrow night.

  • Students should arrive in costume by 6pm.
  • Costumes cannot include masks of any kind. No student, staff, fan, or performer will be permitted into the game with a mask.
  • Costume of some kind is required. There should be no member of the band in street clothes. This means it MUST be an obvious costume. For instance, I do not want students dressed in their soccer uniform or in warmups calling themselves a basketball player. We need creativity here.

Thanks in advance for helping make this experience worth while.

Have a great day!

Mr. Thurmond

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End of Season 2012

Well, we’ve come to the end of another great competitive season. The Titan Pride has made the school proud. However, we will still perform AT LEAST one more time. The football team has ended the regular season in smashing fashion by beating Truman High School 61-0. Therefore, we have home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Our first home game will be on Wednesday, October 31st
We are asking the students to wear a halloween costume for the game (we won’t be wearing uniforms). The only thing we ask is that their costume is not one that prevents them from being able to play their instrument while in that costume (masks won’t work for wind players). More on this later……..

THIS MONDAY, October 22nd
This is our first day of Symphonic Band/Concert Band. Students auditioned back on September 25th for a spot in one of these two bands, and so our concert season begins.
Students should come to school on Monday with all of the necessary equipment for class, this includes:

a working concert instrument
all necessary items to play that instrument (three new reeds, cork grease, slide grease, slide oil, valve oil…….)
percussionists should have a COMPLETE stick/mallet bag (they will also be receiving guidelines for keeping this in good condition and adding to it this month)
a pencil that can be left in their folder for every rehearsal
a hard-working attitude
the desire to HAVE FUN! while making music

All-District Band Auditions, November 3rd, Staley High School
These are rapidly approaching. Students entered in these auditions will be playing music from their entire audition packet THIS WEEK. They will be signing up for a time on Monday that will be BEFORE school Tuesday through Thursday. Please make sure your son/daughter takes care of this requirement.
We will NOT be taking a bus to this audition, as students will have audition times ranging from 8:30am to 5pm. Please plan to take your son/daughter to Staley that day.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Clifton D. Thurmond

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UCM Info for Parents

Hello!

What a day we had at the Bronco Invitational! The Drumline and Colorguard took first place in our division in the indoor competition. The band got their field performance completed just before the event was cancelled due to lightning. Although there were no results posted, the performance was very good and I’m amazed at the progress that was made from the prior week at Park Hill. Good job band! Keep up the good work!! I really love that final movement and your last formation looked great!!

Continue reading “UCM Info for Parents”

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UCM Festival of Champions Schedule

Well, the last week of marching band (aside from some playoff games) is upon us. We are making one last push to get our best performance to happen this Saturday in Warrensburg. Here is some information for the week:

Monday, October 15th
Drumline Rehearsal, 2:30 – 4:30

Tuesday, October 16th
Full Band Rehearsal, 6pm to 9pm
As last week, students should be in Aerodynamic shirts and black marching shoes/socks.

Friday, October 19th
Football game, call time is 5:45pm for all students except Seniors
All Seniors should report at 5:30pm to get dressed and prepare for Senior Night Festivities. All Senior Parents should report to the track in the stadium at 6:10pm to escort your son/daughter for Senior Night.
After the game, we will load the trucks for Saturday’s competition

Saturday, October 20th
Here is the itinerary for our competition.

Parents, as mentioned in last week’s update, I am selling tickets to this event. They are $13 a piece and that will get you into the whole day’s events. Part of the profit will come back to the band IF you purchase through me. Please send cash or a check made payable to UCM by tomorrow night’s rehearsal or during your PT conference with me later in the week.

New York City Trip
Many students have not made their October 1st payment of $200. Please make sure this is done immediately as we are paying bills every week. Also, please keep informed that each payment is $200 from here on out. Please have them in on the 1st of every month through December.

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UCM Festival of Champions

The schedule for the festival is posted online, and the Titan Pride schedule will be coming out shortly. The drum line (in Black division) performs at 9:52 and the guard (in Black division) performs at 1:00. The Titan Pride band takes the field in preliminary performance at 2:18.

The field show competition is divided into Prelims and Finals. The band is in the Red Division (second largest class), which is based on band size. Top two bands from each class will perform in finals as well as the next four highest scoring bands regardless of their class size. Finals competition begins at 6:30.

Good luck Titan Pride. Let’s finish the year on a high note!

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Bronco Invitational

The Titan Pride band was one of two bands to finish their show before the remaining outdoor performances were cancelled due to lightning. Many of the remaining bands took thier performances inside for judge’s critique only. No placements were awarded.

In the indoor competition, the drum line and color guard both finished first in the Silver Division. Despite the weather, it was a great day to be a Titan!

The full details of the festival are available here.

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Band Pictures

Hello!

Just a quick message to let you know about pictures that have been taken of the choir and band. We have a music parent who is a professional photographer and has been taking pictures at a variety of band and choir events, Jeremy Flowers.

You can view these pictures by going to Jeremy’s Facebook fan page. Thank you Jeremy!!!

Bret Fischer
Band Liaison