Weekly Updates - March 25-29

Dear Parents,

What a busy time in March it has been! We are so proud of our 7th and 8th graders performance at LGPE, and are very proud of our awesome Durham students who participated in Honor Orchestra this weekend!! It was a fantastic concert and we are so proud of them. We hope to have even more participation next year. 

There are a few important updates:

6th Grade - Jamboree is this Thursday at Allatoona High School. Please attend the concert at 7:30 if you can, but students must have a ride by 8pm (the concert shouldn't last more than 30-45 minutes). All 6th grade students should come dressed to school in their DMS Music polo and jeans. Please have your child bring their folding music stand to school Thursday if they have one!!

7th and 8th Grade - We are handing out a lot of new music to prepare for our Spring Concert! Please make sure your child has their Orchestra binder, and that 7th graders also have their Essential Elements book. 

Universal: Everyone should have made their final payment for Universal, including any chaperone payments. (I will reach out to anyone that has not caught up yet.) We are making some final preparations soon since we are a little over a month away!! Don't forget our required parent meeting for the trip is Tuesday, April 23rd at 7pm, with the chaperone meeting beginning at 6pm. More details to come. 

Thank you so much,

Jennifer Aikey

Pre-LGPE Updates for 7th and 8th grade

Dear 7th and 8th grade parents,

We have a busy week and half coming up in Orchestra as we prepare for Large Group Performance Evaluations. (LGPE) 

The Pre-LGPE concert is this Thursday, March 7th at 7pm at Durham. Please have your child arrive at 6:30 for tuning/warm up. 8th grade will perform first, 7th grade will go second. (This is so that 7th grade can sight-read on stage after they play their prepared pieces, which will hopefully be a treat for you parents!!) The whole concert should be finished by 8, if not sooner. Students can wear whatever they wore to school that day, as we want to keep their uniforms in shape for LGPE. 

7th Grade LGPE is Monday, March 11, and 8th Grade LGPE is Tuesday, March 12. PLEASE make sure your child has a ride by 5:30pm at Durham on the day of their LGPE. They should have their entire uniform labeled and preferably in a garment bag to take to school with them on the day of their LGPE. Please make sure they have all parts of their uniform with them, including their black dress shoes!

Please join the Orchestra remind as I will be using this quite a bit over the next week: 

7th grade: text @7grorch to 81010

8th grade: text @8grorch to 81010

LGPE Chaperones: Please meet me the day of your child's LGPE at Durham at 11:15am (7th Grade, Monday) or 11:45am (8th Grade, Tuesday) We are still in need of more 8th grade chaperones!

We have NO Fiddlers rehearsal this week. We will have cello choir tomorrow, but will not have it next week (12th).

Leading up to LGPE, please encourage your child to practice. Our biggest focus is intonation (playing notes in tune) and continuing to work on their musical expression. They had great rehearsals last week and I hope that continues as we prepare. Please email me or Ms. Sanchez if you have any questions or concerns. Thank you!

Jennifer Aikey