Odem Bands Week of 5/29/2018
First I would like to take a moment to congratulate the 16 truly outstanding students who traveled to the UIL State Solo and Ensemble Contest yesterday and today. Four years ago, we had not attended Solo and Ensemble in about 10 years! Now having a third of the HS Wind Ensemble as State Participants is a truly amazing accomplishment for these students! We had five students earn State medals at the contest. Abaigeal Tovar earned a Silver Medal for her memorized Oboe Solo! The first instrumental soloist in over 14 years to do so! Our senior clarinet quartet made up of Lilibeth Barra, Kristine Aviles, Anyssa Gomez, and Sabrina Childress earned a Superior rating and a set of Ensemble Medals!
Our trumpet trio of Matthew Chavez, Landon Garza, and Jonathan Gomez was also awarded a rating of Excellent at the contest. Also having some outstanding performances at the contest were Lesley Barra, Brandon Morin, Alexis Garcia, Ethan Sanchez, Joey Aguirre, Natalie Stanley, Anointiyae Beasley, and Zenaida Lara. Congratulations to all of these students!
This week we have a rehearsal for Drumline and Front Ensemble, a rehearsal for the trip, as well as our departure for Florida Saturday/Sunday. Please read below if those items affect your student! This will most likely be our last weekly e-mail for a while. I hope you all enjoy your summer! Congrats to all of our new graduates!
Drumline/Front Ensemble:
On Wednesday from 9-10:30am we will meet with students who will be playing in the front ensemble for the Spirit of OHS next year. This is going to be an important rehearsal to help us determine what editing/rearranging of parts we will need to do over the summer! Additionally, from 1pm-2:30pm we will meet with the Drumline to rehearse and lock-in what students need to be practicing over the summer before drumline camp on the 18th-20th. Please make sure students attend! (Note: If a student is participating in Flex days they must stay in their classes – they are not excused to come to the band hall for this!)
Florida Trip Information (Note Rehearsal Thursday!):
First please note we will have a rehearsal from 4:30pm-6pm on Thursday for the students heading to Florida. It’s important that all students attend to make sure we’re ready for our clinic on Monday! We want the group to have a chance to hear itself read before we do it there.
Saturday we will have the check-in/lock-in for the trip. Students need to check-in through the front entrance between 7pm-8pm. We need 12-14 parents to help monitor this event and help with check-in. Please contact me if you are able! We would prefer if you can stay until we depart at about 1am, but if you can even come until about 11pm it would help! Students must stay once they arrive – and may not leave for any reason. We will have movies on in the band hall and Cafetorium. Games in the Jazz Room. Please note all of the information from the final trip packet. I have linked it here for reference. Be sure to triple check baggage and medicine information. I still have a few students who have not taken their ID pictures or turned in forms. I’ll be attempting to contact them tomorrow.
Hard to believe, but it’s already here!
Thank you again for all of your help and support of these students through this amazing year. I’m so very very proud of these students for all that they’ve accomplished this year – it can’t be done without you all though! Have a great summer!
Mr. Steven Rash
Director of Bands
Odem High School
www.odembands.org