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

Weekly Updates - Feb 25- March 1

Dear Parents,

I hope your children enjoyed their week off! 

We are back to it this week as we approach a very busy March ahead of us!

7th and 8th Grade parents: PLEASE make sure your child's uniform fits and is ready to go for LGPE in 2 weeks! We are still in need of 8th grade parent chaperones for LGPE on March 12. 

We will have assessments (playing tests) for all three grade levels soon, so please encourage your child to practice to ensure they will do well on those and on LGPE (7th/8th)/Jamboree (6th). Remember that we have early morning practice available daily at 8:15am, and we have Cello Choir and Fiddlers this week. :)

Thank you so much,

Jennifer Aikey

Weekly Updates - Feb 11-16

Dear Parents,

So far, we are having a great week in Orchestra! The 7th and 8th graders are working hard on their music and several of them have had time in sectionals with instrument coaches. The 6th graders just received the Jamboree information form this week that is due the first week of March. The 6th grade did a great job on the ASO field trip, and a special thanks goes out to all chaperones!

We are still in need of chaperones for LGPE on March 11 (7th Grade) and March 12 (8th Grade). If you are available to help either of those days, please let me know. 

Thank you for your continued support of the Orchestra program!

Jennifer Aikey

Weekly Orchestra Updates - Jan 14-18

Dear Parents,

There are only few updates this week:

Universal 8th Grade Trip: Please make sure you have paid $600 towards your child's trip at this point (or $1200 if you are chaperoning) if possible. The final $245 is due on Friday, February 15. Please email me if you have any questions or concerns. 

Fiddlers and Cello Choir: We have regular Fiddlers rehearsal tomorrow at 8. Please have your child wear their green shirt if they can. If your child is in cello choir, please have them wear their blue Cello Choir shirt this Tuesday. We will be taking club pictures for Fiddlers tomorrow and for Cello Choir on Tuesday. 

Here's a reminder of the dates I sent out last week:

6th Grade: 

Atlanta Symphony Orch Trip (During the school day) - Friday, Feb 7

Jamboree Spring Concert at Allatoona High School - Thursday, March 28 (students go by bus to AHS after school for rehearsal, concert starts at 7:30)

7th and 8th Grade:

Pre-LGPE Concert - March 7th, 7pm at Durham

LGPE 7th Grade - Monday, March 11th, students perform at 2:30pm at McEachern HS, will need a ride at Durham at 5:30pm

LGPE 8th Grade -Tuesday, March 12th, students perform at 2:45pm at McEachern HS, will need a ride at Durham at 5:30pm

Thank you,

Jennifer Aikey

Atlanta Symphony field trip form

Dear Parents,

Here is an extra copy of the Atlanta Symphony field trip form.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jEdlQB_x3kALsVKW2uHYQ0z0j1Vu0pmO/view?usp=sharing

Weekly Updates Dec 10-15

We have quite the busy week ahead of us in Orchestra! 

All students' practice logs are due TODAY! Please make sure your child gets theirs turned in. We have extra copies in the Orchestra room if they need it. 7th and 8th Graders will also be completing a playing assessment/test in class today (in groups). 

Concert Details! 

6^th Grade Orchestra, Fiddlers, and Cello Choir

When: Wednesday, December 12^th, 2018

Time: Students Report by 6:30 PM, Concert is at 7:00 PM

Where: Durham Theater

Uniform for 6^th Grade: DMS Grey Polo shirt, Black Dress Pants/Floor Length Skirt, Black Dress Shoes

Fiddlers: Wear Green Fiddlers T-Shirt and Jeans

Cello Choir: Wear Blue Cello Choir Shirt and Jeans

7^th Grade Orchestra and 8^th Grade Orchestra

When: Thursday, December 13^th, 2018

Time: Students Report by 6:30 PM, Concert is at 7:00 PM

Where: Durham Theater

Uniform: Black Tuxedo Shirt, Tux Pants, and Black Tie (boys) and Black Top/Pants (girls), Black Dress Shoes

We could use some adult help at both concerts for monitoring students before the concert starts (Ms. Sanchez and I will be tuning and setting up!). If you can help us out, please sign up below! Thank you. 

6th Grade Concert Help Sign Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050D49AAAA2BA57-6thgrade3

7th/8th Grade Concert Help Sign Up: 

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050D49AAAA2BA57-7thand3

We are completely out of tissues and hand sanitizer. If we could get donations of those, that would be SO appreciated! (I plan to order some as well for the classroom...it's that time of year!)

Thank you all again for picking up and delivering the fundraiser items!! Each instrument section was able to have sectional coaches come in and work with them last week thanks to your participation!! 

Special thanks to all the Fiddlers for your awesome performance at the Art Station at Big Shanty!!

CONGRATULATIONS to Lucas Kim, Anissa Ibrahim, Zoe Mendez, and Dominique White for making it into District 12/Cobb Co. Honor Orchestra! They will represent Durham in March for the Honor Orchestra event. Dominique and Lucas will also be representing Durham at the second round of All State Orchestra auditions in January, and Dominique had the highest ranked audition for Honor Orchestra in the entire county! We are so proud of all four of these dedicated students for their hard work and achievements! Way to go!!

Please join Remind for your child's group! This will allow you to receive text messages for important updates and reminders. 

6th Grade: text @6grorch to 81010

7th Grade: text @7grorch to 81010

8th Grade: text @8grorch to 81010

Fiddlers: text @fiddle1819 to 81010

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know!

Mrs. Aikey