Dear Band Parents,

I hope you all had a blessed, restful Christmas/New Year break. This week has been gangbusters for us here! We “hit the ground running” Monday as I passed out music for both the Jazz Band and Concert Band that we will be performing at all our assessment festivals (Loyola, District IV, and Disney). My students have responded well and we are learning new material in great fashion! We had a guest visit us Wednesday. Charles Pillow, a college buddy of mine, directed a master class with our Jazz Ensemble. Charles is a nationally acclaimed jazz musician, composer, and educator. With five solo CDs as a solo leader and over 100 others, Charles has established himself as one of the premier muti-instrumentalists of today. As a sideman, he has performed on recordings with artists including Tony Bennett, Michael Brecker, Maria Schneider, Joe Henderson, and many more. Charles sat in with our big band and offered suggestions to our young musicians to improve their playing. In fact, he was so inspired by our students, he went home and wrote and original piece for us!! What a compliment to your children!! Charles will be emailing me the parts this weekend and we can get started working on it soon.

By now, everyone should have paid their second installment for the Disney trip, which means we should have deposited $300 for each participant by now. If you have not sent this in by next Friday, I will have to assume that plans have changed and you will not be attending. I do need to know if anyone isn’t coming, especially if I need to make adjustments to instrumentation for the contest/assessment festival.

Please make notes of these important dates for this spring semester:

Saturday, January 23, all parish jazz band auditions
Friday, January 29, All Parish High School Concert
February 1, Distinguished Graduates Dinner (Jazz Band students only)
Thursday, February 25, All Parish Jazz Band Concert (Manship Theater)
Tuesday, March 1, Fortier-Gerbrecht Invitational Concert (Manship Theater) (Jazz Band only)
Friday, March 4, Loyola Jazz Festival (Jazz band and combo(s) only)
March 8, District Band festival (all band students) held at Zachary High School
March 30-April 3, Disney Trip
April 10, Moonlight and Jazz
April 26, Spring Concert
Some time during Lent season (TBD Chamber Recital of Sacred music at St. Jean Vianney Catholic Church

Thanks. I’m looking forward to a terrific semester!

Doc