Friday, December 18, 2015
How Time Flies!!!
Seems like just a while ago that we were starting the new school year. It's nice to culminate a semester with a memorable trip to the state capitol. The kids were a little bewildered as to whom we were singing for, but they gave it their all and did a nice job!
A great big thanks to all the parents who supported our program. We have some special activities planned for the spring and we hope to see you there!
A great big thanks to all the parents who supported our program. We have some special activities planned for the spring and we hope to see you there!
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Dates to note...
Hello everyone, just received information that all should be interested to hear...
October 22, the advanced chorus will be performing at Sabino High school during the day for the annual TUSD fall motivational festival. There will be another in the spring to be held at Palo Verde High School. If parents would like to accompany us they will be welcomed!!
The trip to the State Capitol has been given a preliminary date of December 4. All that is needed now is to get some chaperons, administrative approval and students (parents) to make tax-credit donations of $25.00 each to pay for the bus. Another $25.00 will be requested sometime this spring to pay for the bus to the choral contest in Phoenix.
Please contact me (thomas.levario@tusd1.org or 520-241-9329) if there is a hardship paying the tax-credit donations or activity fees. There are other ways that can be pursued and your child will definitely be able to participate!
The activity fee ($10) deadline is on September 25. The fee can be paid online or can be sent with your child to school and the office manager can send a receipt (takes a couple of weeks). If you pay online, the receipt is immediate!
Please note that all fees and tax-credit donations will result in a tax break for your family come tax season. If you have any questions about this, contact me at the above address or text/ call me at the above phone number.
October 22, the advanced chorus will be performing at Sabino High school during the day for the annual TUSD fall motivational festival. There will be another in the spring to be held at Palo Verde High School. If parents would like to accompany us they will be welcomed!!
The trip to the State Capitol has been given a preliminary date of December 4. All that is needed now is to get some chaperons, administrative approval and students (parents) to make tax-credit donations of $25.00 each to pay for the bus. Another $25.00 will be requested sometime this spring to pay for the bus to the choral contest in Phoenix.
Please contact me (thomas.levario@tusd1.org or 520-241-9329) if there is a hardship paying the tax-credit donations or activity fees. There are other ways that can be pursued and your child will definitely be able to participate!
The activity fee ($10) deadline is on September 25. The fee can be paid online or can be sent with your child to school and the office manager can send a receipt (takes a couple of weeks). If you pay online, the receipt is immediate!
Please note that all fees and tax-credit donations will result in a tax break for your family come tax season. If you have any questions about this, contact me at the above address or text/ call me at the above phone number.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Communication!
All the topics listed in the last post were covered at the parent meeting. One of the main points covered was the need for better communication from all parents and from me. This blog site has that ability for better communication. I will be reminding parents that chorus activities will be posted on this blog site. If they follow the blog site by entering an email address, they will get notifications of all posts and replies to posts.
The deadline for students to submit their activity fees will be September 25, 2015.
ON September 3, the chorus will start its fundraising activities with water selling at the first U of A home game. We will be selling by the Mansfeld Marquee. A few parents will be needed to supervise the students while water is being sold. I will be monitoring the students helping with parking as well as students who are selling. Additionally, I will also be monitoring the students getting more cold water from the various refrigerators in the school.
If you would like to help out on placing posts, pictures or videos on this site, please contact me (Mr. Levario) at thomas.levario@tusd1.org, or call/ text me at 520-241-9329.
The deadline for students to submit their activity fees will be September 25, 2015.
ON September 3, the chorus will start its fundraising activities with water selling at the first U of A home game. We will be selling by the Mansfeld Marquee. A few parents will be needed to supervise the students while water is being sold. I will be monitoring the students helping with parking as well as students who are selling. Additionally, I will also be monitoring the students getting more cold water from the various refrigerators in the school.
If you would like to help out on placing posts, pictures or videos on this site, please contact me (Mr. Levario) at thomas.levario@tusd1.org, or call/ text me at 520-241-9329.
Monday, August 17, 2015
Parent Meeting!!
Dear Parents,
On this site, there is an option to follow the blog by email on the left side of the page. Please take advantage of this as you will get a notice by email anytime there is a new post or replies to posts. It will help keep us all informed!
I am sorry for the short notice, but these are the topics that will be discussed at a short parent meeting this Thursday, August 20 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
I am sorry for the short notice, but these are the topics that will be discussed at a short parent meeting this Thursday, August 20 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
They are: fundraising for registration fees, sound technicians,
piano accompanist, misc. funds for costumes, etc. for the musical in March
2016. Music educator membership (this is
necessary so the students can participate in festivals at the state level. There will be an additional $100.00
non-member fee attached to each
registration fee for each event.
The membership fee is a one time amount of $125.00 which waives all non-membership
fees).
Tax Credit funding: There are
two items that will assist the chorus in getting transportation for trips to
festivals and competitions.
- 1. Activity Fee-All chorus members should pay an activity fee of $10.00. This actually allows us to access other tax-credit chorus donations. If the fee is a financial hardship, PLEASE contact me and I will get the fee covered.
- 2. Tax-credit donations-In the same way one would pay the activity fees, one can also donate to tax-credit, monies designated only to the Chorus. I am asking that every student have a tax credit donation of $50.00. This will cover the bus fees for the trip to the state capitol and the trip to the competition that is also in the Phoenix area. To ease the amount needed, one could make a $25.00 donation by November 2015 and another $25.00 by March 2016
Both items (Activity fees and
donations) can be paid online from the chorus website. Look on the left side on the upper left hand
corner. (“Give Kids the Extra Credit”)
To designate a donation from an activity fee, one should write in the
comment box “Activity Fee.” If it is a
donation, one only needs to designate it to chorus. Nothing needs to be written in the comment
box. Please contact me if there is a
hardship with this as well.
Activities:
1. September 3-First UofA football game...The chorus
would like to sell water for this game, and at least 100 bottles to various
wildcat fans. For this we need some students to sell and some to
replenish the water when we get low...I will be supplying the first 100 bottles
of water, but if we could get donations, that would be a great start! We
also would like to assist in the PTSO parking for that evening as well.
We are currently working on learning all the lyrics to "Bear
Down" and "Fight Wildcats Fight."
- 2. TUSD choral motivational festival in late October/ early November. This is normally a free “gig” with the only cost for students being lunch and SunTran bus fares. With bus strike, this may be a problem. (Need for chaperones)
- 3. Fall Concert November 5-Small fundraising opportunity?
- 4. Trip to State Capitol to sing Holiday music in Lobby. (Need for chaperones)
- 5. December 8 instrumental/choral winter concert-(Fundraising opportunity?)
- 6. Sing at the Tucson International Airport (December 15-voluntary)
- 7. March-Musical “The Music Man” (Fundraising Opportunity?)
- 8. April 2, 2016 Elem/Jr. High Choral Festival. (Need for chaperones)
- 9. April 21, 2016 Mansfeld Spring Concert-(Fundraising opportunity?)
- 10. May 5, 2016 TUSD Motivational Festival at Palo Verde High School (SunTran-hopefully… Need for chaperones)
- 11. May 12, 2016 Mansfeld “POPS” concert. (Fundraising Opportunity?)
Anytime
there is a fundraising opportunity, we will need parents to help supervise or
to sell items. Many times it would be when
the students are performing, so it may be a good idea to establish “selling
times” and when to “shut down” so all parents can watch their child perform.
Anytime we
leave the campus of Mansfeld, we would need some parent chaperones to accompany
on the bus. The district ratio of adult
to students grades 6-8 should be 1 adult to every 20. I would like to have at least 2 additional
parents accompany on field trips, but I would also welcome more! Usually the coaches we charter for our trips
to Phoenix hold around 50 people and our chorus is about 36 students. The left over seats can be for more parents
to accompany us on our trip! Something
to think about…
I am sure
that there will be many ideas and questions.
Communication is key, not just with me but with other parents as
well. Please consider following this blogsite by supplying your email, or adding my phone number (520-241-9329) so
that you can text me.
Saturday, July 4, 2015
A new school year!
As we approach a new school year I find myself thinking of all the possibilities...I do this every summer and, in retrospect, it is interesting how the past school years finish.
Currently there are plans for a fall concert in November, performances at the state capitol, Tucson International Airport, and of course at Mansfeld in December. The second semester focuses on the advanced chorus performing the musical "The Music Man." Other performances in the spring will feature the beginning and intermediate groups.
This year, I am bringing back the choral handbook for student and parent use. In it, I hope to give information that is useful for involvement in vocal music activities at Mansfeld Middle School. As soon as it is finished, a copy will be sent home and one will be available on this blog to download.
Stay tuned! I will post more information soon!
Tom Levario
Currently there are plans for a fall concert in November, performances at the state capitol, Tucson International Airport, and of course at Mansfeld in December. The second semester focuses on the advanced chorus performing the musical "The Music Man." Other performances in the spring will feature the beginning and intermediate groups.
This year, I am bringing back the choral handbook for student and parent use. In it, I hope to give information that is useful for involvement in vocal music activities at Mansfeld Middle School. As soon as it is finished, a copy will be sent home and one will be available on this blog to download.
Stay tuned! I will post more information soon!
Tom Levario
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Oops, we did it again!
It is really too bad that I haven't been able to share all the progress this chorus has made throughout this school year. Here are some highlights of what we did for this year:
Open House: We had a small contingent of chorus students to sing the National Anthem for the visiting parents
September: The chorus began preparing for the show "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus." They also began a comparison of musicians, Elton John and Franz Schubert. The songs studied were "Your Song/ Crocodile Rock" and "Ave Maria."
October: Participated in TUSD Choral festival and showcased a student project, a song studied and prepared solely by students with minimal assistance from their musical instructor (Where go the Boats). This song will later be a part of a contest.
November: Our Fall concert featuring the beginning and advanced chorus. This also gave a preview of the show "Yes Virginia..."
The Premiere of "Yes Virginia..."
December: This was the first time in a few years that we did not travel to Phoenix to Carol at the State Capitol. We performed the final show of Yes Virginia instead.
January: Our focus was to concentrate more on music reading in a "socratic" way in that students used what they knew to create their own assessments. Essentially, they wrote and performed their own music. We also began preparing our songs for a contest that would occur on April 11. The 3 songs we prepared are: "Where Go The Boats, The Trout, and If I Could Catch A Rainbow.
February: The STEM focus centered around how the introduction of one item could affect the whole. We studied the "Tristan" chord, basically an unusual grouping of notes the helped composers to represent emotion better in music, thus making the telling of stories through music, much easier. The song "The Trout" fell right into that philosophy as it was a story of a magic fish. Music at the time of Schubert had very strong story telling qualities and the Tristan chord was a technique that occurred shortly after the Trout. Music had more emotional connections after that time.
March: So much of the music from the time period of the Trout through today was affected by the Tristan chord. Many different classic pieces that are familiar have emotion and stories behind them, for example, the Wedding March by Wagner and the Wedding Song by Mendelssohn. We experienced how music at that time reflected many tragic and emotional events in America, and even though the advanced musicianship was not quite developed in our young country, many emotional events that occurred here were represented by simple music that still told a story. This connected the Tristan chord to the Ragtime, Blues and Jazz. We began to work on numbers related to American music by Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin.
April: We went to contest and performed the 3 songs for a rating of "Excellent." See picture below:
We are planning to perform before each of the Theater productions of "Legally Blonde" in events called "The Olio." Students will perform contemporary numbers as well as the beginning and advanced choruses performing their Blues and Gershwin numbers. The post in May should detail how the Olio turns out.
Open House: We had a small contingent of chorus students to sing the National Anthem for the visiting parents
September: The chorus began preparing for the show "Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus." They also began a comparison of musicians, Elton John and Franz Schubert. The songs studied were "Your Song/ Crocodile Rock" and "Ave Maria."
October: Participated in TUSD Choral festival and showcased a student project, a song studied and prepared solely by students with minimal assistance from their musical instructor (Where go the Boats). This song will later be a part of a contest.
November: Our Fall concert featuring the beginning and advanced chorus. This also gave a preview of the show "Yes Virginia..."
The Premiere of "Yes Virginia..."
December: This was the first time in a few years that we did not travel to Phoenix to Carol at the State Capitol. We performed the final show of Yes Virginia instead.
January: Our focus was to concentrate more on music reading in a "socratic" way in that students used what they knew to create their own assessments. Essentially, they wrote and performed their own music. We also began preparing our songs for a contest that would occur on April 11. The 3 songs we prepared are: "Where Go The Boats, The Trout, and If I Could Catch A Rainbow.
February: The STEM focus centered around how the introduction of one item could affect the whole. We studied the "Tristan" chord, basically an unusual grouping of notes the helped composers to represent emotion better in music, thus making the telling of stories through music, much easier. The song "The Trout" fell right into that philosophy as it was a story of a magic fish. Music at the time of Schubert had very strong story telling qualities and the Tristan chord was a technique that occurred shortly after the Trout. Music had more emotional connections after that time.
March: So much of the music from the time period of the Trout through today was affected by the Tristan chord. Many different classic pieces that are familiar have emotion and stories behind them, for example, the Wedding March by Wagner and the Wedding Song by Mendelssohn. We experienced how music at that time reflected many tragic and emotional events in America, and even though the advanced musicianship was not quite developed in our young country, many emotional events that occurred here were represented by simple music that still told a story. This connected the Tristan chord to the Ragtime, Blues and Jazz. We began to work on numbers related to American music by Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin.
April: We went to contest and performed the 3 songs for a rating of "Excellent." See picture below:
We are planning to perform before each of the Theater productions of "Legally Blonde" in events called "The Olio." Students will perform contemporary numbers as well as the beginning and advanced choruses performing their Blues and Gershwin numbers. The post in May should detail how the Olio turns out.
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