2015 Solo and Ensemble Festival

Here is the information about the Solo and Ensemble Contest in Chico on Saturday, February 14th.

Solo Participants

• Ella Hebrard, Flute
• Emma Burke, Trombone
• Ezra Costa, Trumpet
• Katie Cook, Trombone
• Cameron Sewell Snyder, Alto Saxophone
• Cayce Douglas, Tenor Saxophone
• Laney Green, Trumpet
• Nikole Baker, Trumpet
• Sophie Pena, Alto Saxophone

Ensemble Participants

• Ella & Haley - violin, flute duet
• Taiana Huff, Alex Mitchell - flute duet
• Sequoia Percussion ensemble – Nicholas NeSmith, Jr. Soksoda, Drake Serr, Sergio Soltero, Aiden Gomes, Courtney Oiler
• Sequoia Mixed Trio #1 – Kylie Baker, Danielle Mayer, Kirsten Montegna
• Sequoia Mixed Trio #2 – Anthony Vallalunga, Anthony March, Brenden Fredrick
• Sophie & Chris – Saxophone duet

Solos cost $23 each. Ensembles are $30 divided by the number of participants in your group. Make checks out to Sequoia Band. We know that some have already paid. The Percussion ensemble will be paid by Bob, our percussion helper - Make sure you thank him.

You will receive the schedule as soon as we receive it. The contest will take place in the Performing Arts Building at Chico State. Scroll down to find a campus map and parking lot map. Click on each one to open a printable version. You will be performing for a judge in a regular classroom. The judge will listen to you and give you tips at the end, as well as a score. A "1" rating is Superior - Gold; a "2" rating is Excellent - Silver; a "3" is Very Good - Bronze.

There will be a performance in the classroom on Thursday, February 12th in order to prepare for the big day. We can meet at the school the morning of February 14th to drive together to Chico, or you may travel on your own. We will need a permission slip, signed by parents, before we go. Thank you for participating!

If you are using a piano accompanist, Lois Nichols has agreed to play for those who need an accompanist.  She will be here next Tuesday to practice with those who need to have her play.  Her fee is $50 for the two rehearsals here at school, our mini-concert on February 12th in the band room, and then at the contest in Chico. She is one of the best in the Northstate. If you have any more questions, please ask.

Junior High Honor Band

Congratulations to the following students who have made it into the Junior High Honor Band:

Hannah Berglund - 2nd trombone

Katie Cook - 5th trombone

Josh Nostrand - 2nd baritone horn

Cameron Sewell Snyder - 3rd alto saxophone (4 accepted, 15 auditioned!)

Marc Anderson - 2nd tenor saxophone

Cayce Douglas - 3rd tenor saxophone

Celine Brundridge - 7th clarinet
Chloie Newsome - Baritone saxophone

Thank you to everyone for putting in the effort to try out, it was much stiffer competition this year than in the past.

We should be receiving the music shortly. Our director this year will be Dan Neece, and he is very excited to work with you.

Honor Band will be held on January 16th and 17th at Chico State University. The Oxford Suites has a block of rooms set aside for honor band students and families, as you will need a room for Friday night, January 16th. The room includes a complimentary breakfast, and snacks Friday evening. The hotel has a nice pool so you can relax after a long day of playing. 

Please let us know if you are in need of directions to Chico State or Oxford Suites. Parents are responsible for transportation to and from Chico, and are always welcome to sit in on rehearsals. Regular school clothes are fine for rehearsals; dress clothes for the concert on Saturday: Dresses, nice pants/shirts, guys wear a tie. There is no charge for the concert, and it is a truly amazing experience. 

Congratulations to all!

For a complete rehearsal schedule, click here: 2015 Honor Band Schedule.

Spring Events

Our Disneyland trip was a huge success. Thank you to all the chaperones who helped keep kids organized and safe. We are working to get a photo album together to post on our website and Facebook page, and have already had a great response. If you haven't submitted yours, please send them to sequoiamiddleschoolband@gmail.com and we will get the pictures (and videos!) posted over Spring Break.

This Thursday, April 10th, we will have our annual Open House pizza dinner fundraiser. The Jazz Band will play, and we will be serving dinner from 5:00 to 6:30 pm. We are in need of donations, as well as volunteers to set up, clean up and help serve. Some volunteer spots are even open to students, so please check out the Sign Up Genius for this event and see what spots you could fill. 

After we come back from a relaxing Spring Break vacation, we will head into our always-busy month of May. Make sure to have your calendars marked for all these events, and refer back to our website calendar and/or Facebook page for updates.

• Our next Band Parent Booster Meeting will be held in the band room on Wednesday, May 7th. We will review the open house fundraiser, and work through details of our May events.
• On Tuesday, May 13th we will have a Beginning Band Concert in McLaughlin Auditorium. More information to come after the booster meeting.
• Thursday, May 15th is the Kiddie Parade in the mall. This annual event happens at 4pm in the Mt. Shasta Mall, and is a cute parade of children and their pets parading through the mall. The Asphalt Cowboys traditionally ask our band to lead the way.
• "Outlaws and Petticoats" is the theme for this years' Redding Rodeo Parade, which is on Saturday, May 17th. Our attire will be jeans, our cowboy t-shirts, and cowboy hats.
• The Spring Concert will be on Thursday, May 22nd in McLaughlin Auditorium. Our programs will once again have ad space available, and students who sell ads will have money credited in their band accounts. Forms for ad sales are available in the band room, and the deadline to turn these in is Friday, May 2nd.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Spring Break.

Solo & Ensemble Festival

We have a fantastic set of participants playing in the Solo & Ensemble Festival tomorrow at Chico State University.

Please go to our Documents page to access the schedule. Make sure you arrive at least one hour before your scheduled time. Find a practice room to warm up and tune up before your performance. Look nice, wear dressy clothes, they do not have to be black and white.

 The festival takes place in the Performing Arts Center at Chico State University. The building is on the corner of W. 2nd Street and Chestnut Street, and there is parking available across the street with no charge on Saturdays.

Directions from Hwy 99 South in Chico: Take the E. 1st Ave. exit; Turn right onto E. 1st Ave.; Turn left onto Esplanade; Turn left onto Broadway Street; Take the 1st right onto W. 2nd Street. Continue three blocks and you will see the Performing Arts Center on your right. If you get lost or if something else comes up, contact Mrs. Wiseman on her cell phone at 941-9320.

CSU Chico, Performing Arts Center

End of the Year

It is almost time for our Winter Break, and a great time to reflect on what we've accomplished this year, and look forward at all the next semester will bring!

In August we held our Summer Band Camp, then kicked off the year with the District Breakfast. September saw our first fundraiser at Back to School Night, which was a great success. During October we played along with the Shasta High School Band at one of their home football games. Then in November we marched in our first parade of the year, the Veteran's Parade in Shasta Lake City, and at the end of the month we held our second fundraiser, the Craft Faire, which was extremely successful in generating over $2000! This month of December we have already marched in our second parade, the Redding Christmas Lighted Parade, placing first in all three categories we entered - Junior High Band, Drum Major, and Color Guard; we performed our Winter Concert and raised funds through our raffles and program advertising.

The second semester of this school year will be quite exciting! Here's a review of what is in store for us:

January:

Concert for Darfur

Junior High Honor Band-

The fee for Honor Band is $27.00, make checks payable to Sequoia Band. Students who are participating need to practice their music over the Winter Break.

February:

Solo & Ensemble Festival-

Students interested in performing a solo in this festival, or performing as part of a group, please see Mrs. Wiseman.

March:

Regional Band Festival

Disneyland-

If you've already signed up and begun payments for the trip, and for any reason it has been decided that you are not going, notify Mrs. Wiseman right away. Grades are a factor for this trip, and any student with an "F" grade at the end of this semester will not be allowed to participate.

If you are a parent who wants to chaperone, make sure you have notified Mrs. Wiseman. You must have DMV driver clearance (approved in this school year) and DOJ fingerprint clearance (done only once). 

April:

Red Bluff Rodeo Parade

May:

State Solo and Ensemble Festival

Kiddie Parade

Redding Rodeo Parade & After Parade BBQ

Spring Concert

Be sure to mark your calendars for our next Band Booster Parent Meeting, which will be held on Wednesday, January 8, 2014 at 6pm in the Band Room at Sequoia.

We hope everyone has a great remainder of the semester, and a wonderful Winter Break with their families!

Important Updates

Band Parent Booster Meeting

We had a scheduled meeting tomorrow, October 2nd. This has been postponed until next week on Wednesday, October 9th at 6:30 pm in the band room.

Performance with Shasta High School Band

This Friday our Advanced band will join the Shasta High Pep Band and play during the Varsity football game! Each student is invited to join us for a tailgate BBQ before the game, meet us behind the band building at 5:30 pm. Students, you are to wear your black Sequoia t-shirt or sweatshirt if you have one, or just a plain black t-shirt or sweatshirt.

Parents, you will need to purchase your own tickets for the game and enter through the main gate of Thompson Field - you are not to march in with the band. The game starts at 7:30 pm, and you are invited to sit near the band which has a reserved area in the bleachers just below the announcers booth. The band takes a break during halftime and the third quarter, then returns to play for the fourth quarter. Your students are allowed to leave at halftime, or stay through the rest of the game.

Sweatshirt and T-Shirt Orders

Students were sent home today with order forms for Sequoia t-shirts and sweatshirts. We need a larger amount of items in the order before it can be placed. T-shirts are $15, sweatshirts are $30, and both can be customized. This is the one opportunity this year to purchase these items and orders are due this Friday, October 4th. Please see our Documents page if you need an order form.

Marching Shoes

We have just been notified that the Showstopper band shoes have been discontinued. The new cost per pair of shoes will be closer to $31. We will keep you posted on this issue.

Quick Reminders

Some reminders from Mrs. Wiseman:

• Ducky Derby
• Tickets and money due now. Turn money in by this Friday, September 20th at the latest. If you lost the tickets, you still have to pay for them.
• Jamba Juice
•  Cards and money are due by this Friday, September 20th.
• Sweatshirt and t-shirt orders
• Due this Friday. This is the one opportunity this year to purchase these items.
• Disneyland notes of intent
• Turn in by October 1st. We must have a head count of the students going to include with our application.
• Marching shoes
• If you order in bulk with the school, the total per pair of shoes is $26.45 including shipping. There are shoes available at the school for your student to try on and find the right size. Make checks payable to Sequoia Band. Deadline is October 31st.

Looking for order forms for the sweatshirt and t-shirt order? Check out our Documents page!

Back to School Night Follow Up

We had a fantastic turnout of parents for this years' Back to School Night! The dinner went well and the students sounded great. If you were here you got a packet of information with a calendar based upon your class, and forms for some required and optional items. All forms mentioned here can be found on the Documents page on our website.

Band Parent Boosters

We have a great group of involved parents who help us achieve our goals throughout the year. Our meetings are held on the first Wednesday night of each month at 6:30pm in the band room. Some items reviewed at our August meeting related to additional assistance needed within the booster club:

• The President & Vice-President positions for the boosters are open.
• Much help is needed with planning for Disneyland. It would be good for at least one 6th grade parent to be involved as the Disneyland trips are made every 2 years.
• Uniforms will be used throughout the year, including the Disneyland parade, and we are in need of parents to help organize fittings, alterations, hat distributing/return for parades. 
• We operate a snack bar for basketball and volleyball games. We are looking for a parent to keep the inventory stocked, issue the cash box, etc.
• If anyone is interested in any of these positions, please contact Mrs. Wiseman.

Calendar of Events

Each band (Intermediate A, Intermediate B and Advanced) has a unique list of events for the year. Our website calendar has been updated with all upcoming events, and the events are now on Facebook. Event details will include times, locations, attire and ensembles. Please make sure to check if your band ensemble is listed on the event, as some events are specific to only some of the ensembles. Also, please understand that some of these events are non-negotiable. This means that you are required to be present for these events, regardless of other activities. These events are graded, and when some players are missing it can affect the entire group. These dates are given to you at the beginning of the year so that you can plan accordingly, and make these band events a priority. Illness is understandable, and any events missed due to illness must be reported to Mrs. Wiseman immediately.

Disneyland Trip

We are planning the Disneyland Trip for the end of March. The dates are tentative as we are awaiting final approval from Disneyland. Mrs. Wiseman needs all students to turn in their slips of intent so she can get a student count on the application. The actual amount of students on the trip cannot vary much from the anticipated amount given to Disneyland. The previous trip cost $400 per person, however that was for a smaller group that only used one bus. We will work to boost up our general fund so that we can keep the cost close to this for the upcoming trip.

Jamba Juice

We have this fun fundraiser that will put money in your personal band account, to be used for the Disneyland trip. If you would like to sell Jamba Juice "Buy One Get One Free" cards, please complete the form. You are responsible for the cards you are given, and are financially responsible for lost or stolen cards.

Marching Shoes

We will be doing a group shoe order. The normal cost of the shoes is $28.95 per pair, in a group order the cost is $23.95 per pair. Please turn in checks for by November 1st, payable to Sequoia Band. If you choose to order shoes yourself, go to Band Shoppe; type in product #6000, which is the Directors Showcase Showstopper Marching Band Shoes. We wear the plain black shoes as shown here. Once you buy a pair, our lending closet is available for you to trade up as the shoe size changes, although we do not have many in larger sizes (12 and up).

Sequoia Band T-Shirts
We will be placing an order soon for our Band T-Shirts. Shown here is the front and back of a shirt, and you can choose to have your instrument name on the side of the shirt.

Sequoia Band Sweatshirts

We will be placing an order soon for our Band Sweatshirts. Shown here is the front and back of a sweatshirt, and you can personalize the back of your sweatshirt to include your last name or nickname.

eScrip
This is a great program designed to make it easy to donate to our band! Just register your club cards, grocery cards and more at eScrip and they do the rest. See our Donate page for more information!

Welcome Back!

Hopefully everyone had a relaxing summer vacation and enjoyed time with their families and friends. We've already gotten off to a great start to what will be a fantastic year for all of us. There will be parades, concerts and and an exciting trip this school year, and a huge group of band students to take along with us!

We kicked off the year with the District Breakfast, which is a fun way to introduce our band to the other schools in the district. Some of the students got to see former teachers, and the district administration gets to hear how amazing we sound, before we've even officially begun!

Some of you were participants in the Band Camp over the summer, and it's always great to see students who want to expand their musical experience. We had a great group of parent and student volunteers to help us out.

Our first Band Parent Booster Meeting will be this Wednesday, August 28th at 6:30pm in the band room. We will be discussing our upcoming Back to School Night Pizza Fundraiser, and are looking for many volunteers for this event!

Make sure to bookmark our website and Like us on Facebook so you can be up to date on all our events!

April Updates

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Spring Break and is back into the full swing of things! We have got a lot of events through the next two months, so make sure you're in the know.

• Thursday, April 18th - Spring Concert
• Concert is at 6:30pm. Band students need to be in the band room by 6:00pm. Attire is white shirt (no t-shirts), black pants/skirt, black shoes and black socks.
• We will be selling tickets for our raffle baskets, so make sure all the friends and family you invite know to bring money for tickets!
• We will be handing out uniforms to students. These will be worn for all upcoming parades. Be sure to sign the policy contract and get your uniform. 
• Saturday, April 20th - Red Bluff Round Up Parade - Drum Major - Diego
• Parade is at 10:00am. Wear your own blue jeans, black marching shoes and black socks and your school-provided uniform (t-shirt, hat and bandana). Girls need to have hair braided. 
• We will not be providing a bus. If you need help with your student getting transportation to this event, please see Mrs. Wiseman. Look for directions to the staging area to be emailed to you next week.
• Intermediate Band needs to attend 0 period on Wednesday, Thursday and especially Friday, so that everyone can march all together.
• Saturday, May 4th - Damboree Parade in Shasta Lake City - Drum Major - Michael O.
• Parade is at 10:00am. Wear your own blue jeans, black marching shoes and black socks and your school-provided uniform (t-shirt, hat and bandana). Girls need to have hair braided. 
• We need to be lined up by 9:00am. Gather in the parking lot of the Sentry Market at 4525 Shasta Dam Blvd and we will walk to our section from there. You will be responsible for providing transportation for your student to and from Shasta Lake City. 
• Thursday, May 9th - 8th grade students to see Phantom of the Opera
• We have a group of students and parents who will be attending the Shasta High performance of Phantom of the Opera.
• Saturday, May 11th - State Solo & Ensemble Festival
• The registrations have been sent in. If you want help on your music, Mrs. Wiseman is available before or after school most days. The schedule will be out on May 2nd at calmusiced.com.
• Thursday, May 16th - Kiddie Parade - Drum Major - Cole
• Parade is at 4:00pm. Wear your own blue jeans, black marching shoes and black socks and your school-provided uniform (t-shirt, hat and bandana). Girls need to have hair braided.
• You are responsible for transporting your student to and from the mall. Be in the mall, in front of JCPenney, by 3:45pm. 
• Saturday, May 18th - Redding Rodeo Parade - Drum Major - Katherin
• Parade is at 10:00am. Wear your own blue jeans, black marching shoes and black socks and your school-provided uniform (t-shirt, hat and bandana). Girls need to have hair braided. 
• We need to be on the corner of Shasta & Oregon Street on the Antique store side of the street by 9:30 at the very latest. This area will give us some shade while we wait. Parents, family, friends - Wear your Sequoia shirts to support the band! Cheer loudly! Please keep your distance on the route, try to be off the street. The judging station is at Placer and Pine. The parade ends at Bank of America on Yuba Street, you can meet your students there.
• There will be a potluck barbecue at the school, following the parade. We will need lots of help from families, and there will be a Sign Up Genius sent out that will be filled with the items needed.
• Monday, June 10th - Percussion Camp at Shasta College
• This is a daytime camp, from Monday through Thursday, for two weeks. There is a cost for this camp, and a deadline for sign-ups. If you are at least 14 years of age and interested in attending, please see Mrs. Wiseman.

CMEA Regional Band Festival - Results and Photos

Saturday, March 9th was the Regional Band Festival, in which 13 local instrumental groups performed. Each year there are two music educators who are adjudicators for the event, and they add valuable insight for growth of the groups. The adjudicator for our band was Dr. Cynthia Hutton, Director of Bands at Southern Oregon University.

This is the message from Mrs. Wiseman in regards to the festival: "I want to congratulate those who performed Saturday at the Music Festival here in Redding. You did a fantastic job on the 3 pieces we played. Thank you so much for working so hard and giving up a few hours on your Saturday afternoon. Go Spartans!!!!! We received an Excellent rating. The judge had a lot of very good things that she shared with us."

March Booster Meeting

Here are some topics we covered last night at the March Band Parent Booster Meeting.

A Marie Callender's pie fundraiser will begin on Monday, March 11th. A large portion of funds from each pie sold goes to the band, so this could be an amazing fundraiser for us! Click on this picture of Marie Callender's featured pie for March, Luscious Lemon Cake Pie, to be directed to their website to check out the entire pie menu. (Please note that some pies and cheesecakes will be excluded from this offer.)

March 27th is the Sequoia Open House. Once again we will be doing a pizza dinner fundraiser. Dinner will be served beginning at 5:00pm, it will include a pizza slice, salad, drink and cookie for $5.00. A Sign-Up Genius will go out soon for volunteers to help set-up, serve, take money and clean up, as well as for food donations such as salad dressing. Jazz Band will be playing during Open House in the 8th grade commons.

April 18th is our Spring Concert, which will be at 6:30pm. Students need to be in the band room by 6:00pm. The line up will be Jazz Band - Beginning Band - Intermission - Intermediate Band - Advanced Band. We will be working towards having a variety of raffle baskets, with each band section responsible for a particular theme, and items for the baskets will be due by April 12th.

May 9th has been chosen as the date for an 8th grade field trip. All 8th graders will have the opportunity to see the Shasta High School performance of Phantom of the Opera at the David Marr Theater. The cost per seat is approximately $15, and students with money in their account can use those funds towards the ticket cost. We will purchase tickets as a group so that we are all seated in the same area of the theater. We may need a few chaperones for this event, which will be on a first-come basis, meaning that the first parents to pay for a ticket will be able to chaperone this event. Please note that there are no matinee performances available for this musical, so this is on a Thursday evening, and your students will need to have their own transportation to and from the event.

Band Cowboy uniforms will be worn for ALL upcoming parades. The school will provide to each student a straw hat, yellow bandana and printed t-shirt. These will be checked out to each student at the Red Bluff Parade and will be the responsibility of each student until the end of the school year. Each student and parent will be given a letter to sign that outlines the policies regarding their responsibility for the uniform. The students are required to complete the uniform with their own jeans (no holes), black socks, and marching shoes.

The first of our spring parades is on Saturday, April 20th in Red Bluff. If the cost is appropriate, we will be taking a school bus from Sequoia to Red Bluff for this parade.

If you have any conflict with this or any other upcoming parade date you must notify Mrs. Wiseman right away!

Early March Happenings

Happy March to all, I hope you can get out and enjoy the beautiful weather before more rain sets in.

We have new weekly practice sheets that everyone should now be familiar with. These sheets are a way to keep students actively involved in their practice, giving more thought into how and why they practice, with tips on how to improve their practice time. Parents still need to sign the practice sheet, and they are now due on Mondays. No longer accepted are random pieces of paper with minutes written on them. This change took place for practice sheets due February 25th, all weeks prior to that will still use the old practice sheets. Each week our Documents page will be updated with the current practice sheet, with only the few current weeks available on that page. If at any time you are missing a week that is not available on our site, you will need to see Mrs. Wiseman.

Next Wednesday, March 6th is our Band Parent Booster Meeting. This will be at 6:30pm in the band room. We will be working on finalizing details for our Open House dinner which will be on March 27th, and discussing upcoming band events. As always we look for volunteers and input from parents, and we encourage parents of 5th, 6th and 7th graders to start becoming involved as we have many parents of 8th graders leaving the boosters in June with their graduating student.

A week from now on Saturday, March 9th is the CMEA Regional Band Festival. Band is sounding really great on these songs! The festival takes place at the David Marr Theater. We play at 1pm on the theater stage, and you need to be in one of the warm up rooms within the Shasta Learning Center building by 12:15. Attire for this is Concert: White shirt, black pants or skirt, black socks, black shoes. If you are coming from another activity, make sure you have your instruments and clothes with you. Mrs. Wiseman will collect music on Friday, so no one has to worry about bringing music for this. She will also have what extra percussion equipment is needed.

We are the first group after lunch, so after our performance you are welcome to stay and listen to any other groups that perform. The group to follow us is the Shasta High School Concert Band who performs at 1:35pm. This group is first year band students at Shasta, primarily Freshman, so you will see some familiar faces!

Those who let Mrs. Wiseman know ahead of time of their absence are asked to record their parts for the 3 songs we will play for their grade. If you have no means of recording on computer, you will have to set a time with Mrs. Wiseman to come in either before school or after school to play your parts, as there will be no time in class for her to listen to you. The 3 songs are “Dedicatory Overture”, “El Capitan” and “Eternal Hope”.

If you like to stay up to date on all our events, make sure you check out our Calendar page, as it has all upcoming events with information on where to be, when to be there, and what to wear! This information is always kept up to date, so be sure to check back closer to an event date to make sure you have the current details.

Look for another blog post next week after our booster meeting. We will have updated details on upcoming events such as Open House and an 8th grade evening trip to see a local musical!

Solo and Ensemble Festival Schedule

The schedule for the CMEA Solo and Ensemble Festival has been released. Here are the times for band participants from Sequoia. For a complete schedule, please refer to an email sent out today by Mrs. Wiseman.

A.J. Lee - Snare Drum - 3:00pm
Cameron Sewell-Snyder - Saxophone - 11:00am
Celeste Pena - Clarinet - 9:30am
Cole Green - Alto Saxophone - 3:15pm
Elle Hebrard - Flute - 3:30pm
Hannah Berglund - Trombone - 9:45am
Joseph McKenna - Alto Sax - 11:45am
Kevin Braemer - Clarinet - 2:45pm
Laney Green - Trumpet - 1:45pm
Sequoia Clarinet Trio - Diego Corona, Kevin Braemer, Nicholas Richardson - 2:30pm
Sequoia Clarinet/Flute - Chloie Newsome, Chloe Loya - 2:15pm
Sequoia Sax Duet - Emily Stolz, Jacob Mikesell - 2:00pm
Sequoia Tenor Sax Trio - Mary Conner, Justin Grace, Mason Newsome - 1:15pm
Trumpet/Trombone Duet I - Hannah Berglund, Kevin Kirk - 10:45am
Trumpet/Trombone Duet II - Andrew Moon, Kevin Kirk - 10:30am
Trumpet/Trombone III - Emma Burke, Nikole Baker - 1:30pm