Berklee 2014 Wrapup

Congratulations to all the student performers in the Mashpee High School Jazz Band and Jazz Choir on fantastic performances at the 2014 Berklee High School Jazz Festival.  It was an exciting day for all involved, and provided an opportunity to perform for a wide variety of people and judges.  The judges had many positive comments as well as critique to help improve for the future.

For the jazz choir, I want to say how proud I am of all the hard work you all have put in.  This was a great learning experience, and we will look to continue to improve and build on our results this year.

A special congratulations go out to Maria Costa and Jeff Demanche on receiving Judges' Choice Awards!

Great job everyone -- and finally thank you to all the parents who came out to support the ensembles!

Links to both performances can be found by clicking this link!

Stay tuned for a brand new Mashpee Music Department Youtube Channel - coming soon

Quick Updates: Vocal Jazz/Berklee Jazz Festival

VOCAL JAZZ Rehearsal Schedule this week: (it is essential that everyone comes to the rehearsals!!)
Tuesday: 2:15-4:00pm
Thursday: 2:15-3:15pm

Next Saturday is the Berklee High School Jazz Festival!
This event is free for anyone (parents, family, friends) to come and watch!
The entire competition takes places in the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

This is a national competition featuring 6 divisions of Jazz Bands, 3 divisions of Combos, and 2 division of Jazz Choirs.  The Mashpee Vocal Jazz Ensemble will be competing alongside the Mashpee Jazz Band.

All the information including a list of performers can be found on this website:
http://festival.berkleejazz.org/

This will be an amazing experience for the students. 
Mashpee Jazz Band performs at 9:55 AM
Mashpee Vocal Jazz Ensemble performs at 5:00 PM
Both performances will be in the Hynes Convention Center

All-Cape Music Festival

Congratulations to all the Mashpee Students involved in All-Cape this weekend!  It was an exciting experience for all involved, and I am very proud of all the hard work you put in.  Here are a few pictures from the choirs this weekend:

                              ALL-CAPE TREBLE CHOIR

ALL-CAPE SATB CHOIR

Wonderful Concert Everyone!

Students:

Congratulations to all the student performers on the concert last night.  I am very proud of you all.  We received high praise and positive feedback from many people!

Principal Jane Day had this to say:   "...The students did a wonderful job with some very sophisticated music. The MMS Chorus, the MHS Concert Choir, and the MHS Chamber Choir all presented numbers in Latin (Mr. Berry would be very proud!), as well as more updated tunes. The newly formed MHS Vocal Jazz Ensemble debuted with an old standard, “On Green Dolphin Street” and by the end of their program had the audience singing along to “Gotta Get You into My Life.” It was announced last night that this particular group will be going to the New England Jazz Festival (Berklee) to compete. This is the largest high school jazz festival in the nation and highly competitive. The students and their teacher are understandably thrilled. We are so proud of the work they’ve done...."

So again, congratulations, and I hope you are all excited about the work we are doing together to maintain a high standard of quality music in our school district!

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Moving ahead... last night we received the exciting news that we are off the wait-list and will be competing at the Berklee High School Jazz Festival in two weeks!!

In order to put our best foot forward, it is crucial that vocal jazz members put time and effort into getting prepared for this festival.  We have three very important rehearsals coming up that everyone must attend.

These rehearsals are:
Tuesday Jan 28, 2:30-4:00pm
Tuesday Feb 4, 2:30-4:00pm
Thursday Feb 6, 2:30-3:15pm

Berklee will take place Saturday, Feb 8th in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center and is free and open to the public!  Any and all parents and friends are welcome to come.  The Mashpee Jazz Band will be on at 9:55am and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble will be on at 5:00pm (last group to perform!).  I hope everyone is as excited as I am...this will be a tremendous opportunity for our singers and instrumentalists.
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 All-Cape Honors Music:  Next Week All-Cape will be taking place Thursday Evening, all day Friday, and part of the day Saturday.  For more information including a detailed schedule see the following link:
All Cape Information

Thank you, please email me if you have any comments/questions/concerns: braymond@mashpee.k12.ma.us

-Mr. Raymond

Vocal Jazz Rehearsal This week

Students:

Unfortunately there is an incoming snow storm beginning Tuesday night.  Because of this, I am moving vocal jazz to Thursday night 2-3pm.  It will be a dress rehearsal, so we will literally run our set and that will be all.

If this is a problem for anyone, email me: braymond@mashpee.k12.ma.us

Thanks
-Mr. Raymond

January Updates

JANUARY UPDATES FOR STUDENTS AND PARENTS:

First off, congratulations to Brynne Santos, Stephen Ross, and James Boyd on a fantastic job at the Senior Southeast District Music Festival.  The choir was outstanding, and these students represented the Mashpee music department in the best way!

 Winter Concert: Thursday January 23rd

Meeting Time -- 6pm Chorus Room
Concert Starts -- 7pm
Concert Order: Middle School Chorus
                          High School Concert Choir
                          High School Chamber Choir
                          Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Concert Dress (very important):  failure to follow the dress code = not allowed on stage
                      
Middle School: 
Boys - All Black
Girls - Black Dress Shoes or Flats, Black or White Top with Black Dress Pants OR Black Dress.  If you wear a Black Dress and it is not down to your ankles, you MUST wear Black Tights or leggings underneath.  No Barelegs, No Yoga Pants, No Low Cut Tops

High School:
Boys - All Black -- Red Neck Tie
Girls - All Black (Dresses or Dress Pants) - No Barelegs, No Yoga Pants, No Low Cut Tops
 (Vocal Jazz -- Red Accessories for the girls)

All Cape: Thurs January 30 - Sat February 1
Jan 30: Leaving Right After School, taking the bus to Harwich High School for evening rehearsals 3-7pm
Jan 31: Leaving in the morning by bus, all day rehearsals 9-3pm
Feb 1: Morning Rehearsals, Afternoon Concert: TREBLE/SATB CHOIR 1pm

Make sure you number your measures, bring a bottle of water and a pencil!
More information including the permission slip will be handed out later this week

Holiday Break

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Mashpee Students - I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break!

I want to inform you of some updates and share some links with you regarding Spring and festival repertoire.
I'm in the process of updating all the reference video links on the right.  Please check these out over the break.  Listen through these songs to get familiar with them.  That list should give you a general idea of some of the music we will be looking at in the vocal ensembles this spring!

ALL-CAPE/SENIOR DISTRICT STUDENTS:

 Be looking over and practicing your music during the break.  It is very important that we go to these festivals prepared.  When we come back from the break -- we will start having after school practices to prepare the festival music.  Senior District and All-Cape Treble Choir students should be using Youtube to look up their music.  All-Cape SATB Singers -- use this link to access reference recordings
I also have .MP3 Files of almost every song for all three festival groups -- if you would like them, please email me: braymond146@gmail.com , and I will send them out to you!

KEY DATES FOR SPRING 2014:
 (Mark your calendars!)

 January 10-11 Southeast Senior District Festival
January 15 Mashpee Band Night
January 23 Mashpee Chorus Night
January 25 All-State Auditions
January 30-Feb 1 All-Cape Music Festival
Feb 8: Berklee Jazz Festival
Feb 12: All-Cape Jazz Auditions
February/March TBA: Vocal Jazz/Chamber Choir to Quashnet
March 7-8: Southeast Junior District Festival
March 11: All-Town MIOSM Concert
April/May TBA: Mashpee Vocal Jazz performs at Barnstable Jazz Night with Barnstable High School
April 9: All-Cape Middle School Vocal 
April 11-12: Cabaret Night
April 29-30: All-Cape Jazz (Mashpee Vocal Jazz Performs)
May 10: Great East Festival (Six Flags -- Chamber Choir and Vocal Jazz)
May 20: MHS Band and Chorus Concert
June 11: MMS Band and Chorus Concert