Concert reminders

Call times:

Level 1/2 Band - 6:30pm

Level 3 Band/Orchestra 10/20/30 - 6:45pm

Senior Choir/Level 4 Band - 7:30pm

Jazz Choir - 7:45pm

Warm-up rooms:

Level 1 Band - Mrs. Ikert's homeroom

Level 2 Band - Miss Tilford's homeroom

Level 3 Band - Ms. Khan's homeroom

Level 4 Band - Mrs. Orieux's homeroom

Orchestra 10/20/30 - Miss Campbell's homeroom

Senior Choir/Jazz Choir - Mr. Jalbert's classroom

Uniform:

Formal uniform on top (vest, tie, etc.) with black pants, black shoes, and dark socks. Feel free to "don your gay apparel" (aka Christmas accessories, Santa hats, elf shoes, reindeer antlers, etc.) to liven up the atmosphere. We will remove all hats for choir/jazz choir, but bands are fair game!

Program order:

Level 1 Band

Grade 7 trio

Level 2 Band

Level 3 Band

Orchestra 10/20/30

**** INTERMISSION ****

Senior Choir

Level 4 Band

Senior Choir/Jazz Choir

Jazz Choir finale

Christmas concert and other performances

Hi ladies and gents of the Rivier Music Department! 'Tis the season for a fantastic number of opportunities to get out there and perform for the public. Here's a run down of our performances and the info you'll need to make sure everything runs smoothly:

Friday, December 9th @12-12:20pm - Choirs - Christmas at City Hall (Arthur will accompany us - program includes "Christmas Lullaby" and "Joyful, Joyful," as well as some of our traditional Christmas carols. Wear black pants and uniform on top, and dress warm as we will be walking from the Rawlinson and then back to the school afterwards).

Monday, December 12th @ 8-8:30pm - Choirs - Rotary Club Christmas party (Arthur will be here as well so we will sing our regular concert program - even Carol of the Child if I can figure out a good way to get the handbells there. Full formal uniform please - kilt if possible, or black pants if it's too cold outside, but definitely vest, tie, and black shoes. )

Wednesday, December 14th @ 7:00pm - RIVIER ACADEMY CHRISTMAS CONCERT (I will post more info early in the week, but each band will be assigned to a homeroom as their "warm up/tuning" room - choir and jazz choir will share a room, as will all orchestra groups. The dress code is formal uniform with black pants, and any Santa hats, elf shoes, reindeer antlers, etc. that you wish to toss in for extra "festive flair.")

Friday, December 16th @ 11:00am - Choirs carolling for the Srs. of the Presentation (This is during Choral 10/20/30 class time so you will already be in uniform. If you are in jazz choir and you do not have to write a test or you have a class that you can miss and get caught up in, you are welcome and encouraged to join us

Monday, December 19th @ 10:30-11:30am - Choirs carolling at Mont St. Joseph (Again, this is during Choral class time. We will be in uniform and will just be singing carols out of our books. Jazz choir should come if possible as well.)

Wednesday, December 21st @ 10-10:30am - Choirs carolling at Pineview (Same deal as Mont St. Joe's. Jazz choir is welcome and encouraged to attend as well.)

What a crazy and wonderful season of music!

Music updates

Jr. Choir members needing to refresh memory work on "Early One Morning" and "Fare Thee Well, Love" please meet me in the music room at 12:15 today for a brief rehearsal.

Jazz Choir, if you need extra help with choreography before the concert (tomorrow at 7pm) I will be available after school for as long as we need. Remember that we also scheduled an extra rehearsal on Thursday at 11:40 to make sure the choreography is in place, especially for the 30s who missed 1-2 rehearsals due to retreat and other reasons. Also, please remember to track down your costumes for our first number, as we don't want any last-minute scrambles to get things in order.

Band students, practice charts are due by Friday. Online theory is due by June 17th at the very latest, and I have already spoken to some of you about how much is needing to be done. Many of you have completed the program with 100% or in the high 90s. Way to go!

The concert tomorrow is at 7pm, and the order is as follows:

Jazz Choir (be here by 6:30pm)
Level 1 Band (be here by 6:30pm)
Orchestra 10 (be here by 6:45pm)
Orchestra 20 (be here by 6:45pm)
Level 2 Band (be here by 7:00pm)
Jazz Choir (already here)
Orchestra 30 (be here by 7:15pm)
Junior Choir/Senior Choir (be here by 7:15pm)
Level 3 Band (be here by 7:30pm)
Level 4 Band (be here by 7:30pm)

The room assignments for each group are posted on all of the homeroom doors along with a copy of the program. Please be sure that your instruments and music are out of the storage rooms by 6:45pm on Thursday. If this means that you need to remove them on Wednesday or Thursday after school, please do so. You may store them in your classrooms temporarily and then return them after the concert.

The dress for the concert is full uniform (vest, tie, etc.) with BLACK PANTS. Kilts don't go over well when playing on a raised stage. Even if your group is standing, please wear black pants to stay consistent throughout each ensemble.

Thank you for all of your hard work this year! I'm excited for our concert, as we really have some nice rep prepared for our audience (I'm sure the twins will love it! Look for them in the front row!). Our performance year will round out with an afternoon entertaining at the Good Sam's International RV Club "Samboree" at the Exhibition Center on Friday. If you're a grade 10 student who is helping at track, you will be excused for the performance(s). If you're a junior student who is competing at track, you will remain at the track for the day to complete your events.

There are still a few of you who owe me singing/playing tests from earlier this semester. I will be tracking you down to make sure that they happen before final exams (or during that week if necessary). Choral 20 students, we may have to run singing tests over a lunch hour so that we can potentially use our final rehearsal times to sing at Pineview or Mont St. Joe's (although nothing of that sort has been arranged yet).

Watoto Children's Choir concert announcement - March 17th

I just came across this concert announcement on panow (you can find the whole article by clicking here). This is sure to be an incredible concert and shouldn't be missed! Check it out!

Christmas concert info - IMPORTANT!!!!

The concert program is as follows:


Orchestra 30 - pre-concert entertainment
Level 1 Band - Lightly Row, A Mozart Melody, Jingle Bells
Level 2 Band - Jolly Old St. Nicholas, Up On the Housetop
Orchestra 10 - Serenade
Orchestra 20 - O Tannenbaum
Jazz Choir - The Copyscat Rag, Santa Baby
Senior Choir - What Child Shall Come?, Do You Hear What I Hear?, Grown-Up Christmas List
Flute Duet - Aria
Level 3/4 Band - Silver Bells, Jingle Bell Rock


All groups will need to be here well in advance of their performance, to tune their instruments, warm up voices, fix uniforms, etc. The call times for each group is as follows (Orchestra students, ask Mr. Bernier what he wants you to do in this regard):

Level 1 and 2 Bands: Be here by 6:30pm
Jazz Choir/Senior Choir: Be here by 7pm
Level 3/4 Band: Be here by 7:20pm

Dress is full uniform on top (blouse, vest, tie) and black pants/shoes/socks on bottom, plus any festive Christmas accessories (Santa hats, reindeer antlers, etc.). HAVE FUN!

Concert program

(Cross-posted from Rivier Updates blog):

The concert will include all of our Bands, Ensembles, Choir and Strings. We would like to invite everyone to come on out enjoy an evening of musical talent. The concert will be held in our auditorium, Thursday, June 10 at 7:00pm. We have posted the program just incase you are only able to stay for a few numbers. The concert will be approximately two hours in length. Enjoy!

Level 1 Band: Glorioso (Robert W. Smith), Anasazi (John Edmondson)
Flute Duets: Frere Jacques/Aura Lee
Level 2 Band: Shepherd's Hey (Grainger arr. Rozell), Furioso (Robert W. Smith)
Orchestra 10: Pachelbel Canon (Pachelbel), Double String Blues (Dillon/Kjelland/O'Reilly)
Flute Duet: Tambourin
Orchestra 20: Tchaikovsky Festival (Tchaikovsky), Brandenburg Concerto (J.S. Bach)
Springtime (Dillion/Kjelland/O'Reilly)
Level 3 Band: On Silver Wings (Mike Hannickel), Kenya Contrasts (William Himes), Shepherd's Hey (Grainger arr. Rozell)
Saxaphone Duet: Moon River (Johnny Mercer)
Jazz Choir: Cheek to Cheek (Irving Berlin), Autumn Leaves (Johnny Mercer), Don't Get Around Much Anymore (Ellington/Russell), They Can't Take That Away From Me (Gershwin), Every Day I Have The Blues (Basie/Williams)
Senior Choir: Hands (Arr. Leonard/Chinn), Runaway Bride Medley (Arr. Emerson), Beside You (Marianas Trench), Don't Stop Believin' (Arr. Billingsley)
Orchestra 30: Concerto Albinoni, Stone's Rag
Level 4 Senior Band: Hogan's Heroes March (Jerry Fielding), English Folk Song Suite (Ralf Fielding), Ipharidisi (Arr. David Marlatt).

Updates all around!

Updates on homework:

Science 7 - no assigned homework. 7L has begun Mixtures and Solutions, 7C will start next class. We will be "borrowing" a computer class for Science sometime soon, as we replaced Science with Computers yesterday for both Gr. 7 classes.

Computers 7 - continue working on PowerPoint presentations. Will be due after Christmas (date TBA).

IP 10 - we spent last class playing with Comic Life and making Christmas cards. The new unit on Keyboard Shortcuts will be introduced after the break. Enjoy the down time while it lasts!

Great job to all of the students who performed at the Christmas concert on Tuesday! It went very well, and I was proud of all of you. The audience was very appreciative as well. Thank you for all of your hard work!

Pizza party update!!!!

Senior choir, don't pack a lunch for Monday - we will be having our pizza party in the music room directly following our rehearsal. This party is given by Mr. and Mrs. Moon as a thank-you for our performance at the REAL Interchange mass back in October.

7C - Our pizza party for winning the magazine sale competition will be on Monday as well. I'll be going back and forth between the classroom and the music room, eating lots of pizza at every stop!

Merry week-before-Christmas! Thank you also to all of the wonderful Secret Santas we've been seeing in our classroom this week! :o)

Music reminders

Senior Choir and Jazz Choir - meet at the 15th St. doors @ 10:45 this morning to board the bus to Mont St. Joe's. We will be back before lunch.

Level 4 band rehearsals with St. Mary:

Today, P.1
Monday, P.6
Tuesday, P.1

Our Christmas concert is on Tuesday, Dec. 15th @ 7pm. I will update you in class as to what time you need to be at the school, as well as which warmup rooms you will be assigned to. Please be responsible for warming yourselves up and tuning before you get on stage! All instruments must be retrieved from the storage room on Tuesday after school, as we cannot have people going in and out of the auditorium while the concert is happening, or even as the audience is filing in.

Choir warmup

Hi Senior Choir! Today's warm-up likely will be running through your head all day (it happened to me when I learned it, too!), so here it is, in case you've forgotten it and it's driving you crazy:

Left, right.... you're wrong, it's.... not right, it's left!
And you'll find it.... left.... right where you left it! ...... ..... That's right!

:o)

Also, please take a look at "Only Time" and start memorizing it. We will perform it for our Christmas concert, which is coming up in less than 5 weeks now! Please put in some practice time for "Jamaican Noel" and "Grown Up Christmas List" as well so that we're not panicking and scrambling to put it all together before the concert.

Sounded great today - please ask me for extra help on your parts if you need it. :o)

Comp 7 Concert Posters assignment

Hi girls. Here's all the info you need for your concert posters:

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
7:00pm
Rivier Academy Auditorium
1405 Bishop Pascal Place
Prince Albert, SK
Silver Collection
Performances by all band, choir, orchestra, and vocal jazz students
Joint performances by Rivier and St. Mary Senior Bands

Remember to choose pictures with high resolution so that your posters are not blurry!

Have fun and be creative - I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Update: 7L posters will be due Thurs. Nov. 19th. 7C posters will be due at the beginning of class on Tues. Nov. 17th (you will have 10 minutes to finish up any necessary last-minute edits). Remember, you are responsible for creating 2 posters each with different templates.

Jazz choir Rising Stars info

Hey girls!  Here is the info re: Rising Stars, as promised:

Dress rehearsal = Thursday, March 5th @ 5:30pm @ the Rawlinson

Performance = Friday, March 6th @ 7:00pm @ the Rawlinson (BE THERE AT 6:00PM)

As usual, I will have the pashminas and you will dress in all black.  Please wear dress pants if you have them rather than Lululemons, as they just look more professional onstage.  Please make sure that your shirts, socks, shoes, etc. are, in fact, all black (please no funky shoelaces, logos on your shirts, etc.).  If I can avoid wearing Spongebob socks for one day, so can you! :o)

Thanks girls - I'm looking forward to the show.

Also, for your entertainment, here is my dear friend Danny Fong singing in a fabulous multi-track recording of a Vocal Spectrum transcription called "As Long As I'm Singin'" (SEE, I'm not the only person who does stuff like this!!!!  Haha.)  Danny is a friend of mine from Greystone Singers and he's studying in Toronto now, and doing a ton of barbershop.  Enjoy! :o)

BRAVO!!!!

Wow!  The concert last night was wonderful!  Thank you so much to all music students for all of your hard work and your wonderful performances.  The concert was well-received by the audience, and I was very happy with how we played, sang, etc.

Now it's all over for the semester and we're only 7 days away from Christmas!  Enjoy the holiday - you've earned it! :o)

Band scripts

If you have submissions for band emcee (MC) scripts, you can post them here.

We still have openings for the following:

1.  Level 1 band - none (all songs are spoken for)

2.  Level 2 band - Cha Cha Del Sol and Mr. B (Jingle Bell Fantasy is taken)

3.  Level 3 band - The Muppet Show Theme; God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; I Believe

4.  Level 4 band - Flourish for Wind Band, Medley from How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Themes from the Nutcracker

5.  Senior Choir - What Child Shall Come?, Homeward Bound, The Storm is Passing Over

6.  Jazz Choir - One Fine Day, The Boy From New York City, I've Got the Music In Me

Choir performance at Carol Fest tomorrow - UPDATED

Hi Choral 10-20-30!  We will be performing tomorrow at the Watsonaire's Carol Fest at 7:30pm at St. Paul's (near the John M. Cuelenaere Library).  We will be singing "What Child Shall Come?" and "The Storm is Passing Over" (no "Homeward Bound" this time).

Please be there at 7:00pm.  We will meet in the basement; a hostess will show us where to hang our coats and then will lead us to our seats upstairs.

The dress will be full uniform.  Please remember your socks, black shoes, kilts, etc.!  :o)

I'm looking forward to another great performance - Saskatoon was a hit!  Thanks again for your hard work. :o)

Senior Band plays at "Christmas at City Hall"

Hi Senior Band!  I booked us in for a performance at "Christmas at City Hall."  We will perform from 12:40-1pm on Monday, December 15th.  Our repertoire will be (in order):

- Flourish for Wind Band

- Medley from How the Grinch Stole Christmas

- Themes from the Nutcracker Suite

We will be responsible for our own instruments and music (INCLUDING percussion equipment).  I will be bring a van to help transport big items such as timpani, etc.  Make sure to be organized with your instrument and folder on that day, as we will be on a tight schedule over the lunch hour and won't have extra time to wait before going on stage.

This will be a lot of fun. :o)  Can't wait!

Choir trip to Saskatoon - update

Hi choir girls!  Our performance in Saskatoon is coming up in only 5 days now.  We will be taking a bus to Saskatoon, which will leave from the school at 5pm.  A letter will be sent home for your parents shortly.

Also, we have our accompaniment recorded onto a CD so we will be able to practice with it next rehearsal.  See you then!

Important choir dates

November 30 - Trustees Convention gig in Saskatoon (O Canada, What Child Shall Come, The Storm is Passing Over)

December 4 - Possible gig with the Watsonaire's (same songs, possibly Jamaican Noel if it's ready in time - will have to try these pieces without the people who will be missing for drama or other commitments to see if they will work)

December 15 - Singing at Pineview @ 11am - will walk over from the school and sing for about 10 minutes

December 17 - Rivier concert