1. Thanks to everyone who has taken care of turning forms in and making payments. We would like ALL student fair share fees, Booster memberships and orders turned in by Oct. 2. All payments can be done via our website: www.trojanchoir.com Choir Yard Signs, Embroidered Garment Bags, and Choir T-shirts for Parent/Guardians MUST be purchased by Sept 19! This is a hard deadline as we only order these items once per year. Student T-shirts are included in their Fair Share Fee. Also, thank you to all that attended our Second Annual Choir BIG Meeting! I hope it was informative and answered some questions about the year. Our Follies Theme is Songs of the 2010s! Here is the link to the slideshow that was presented at the Choir BIG meeting: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HgZcNwvnapf95VP9CU76xRQD-J3HA7BcOXsPPURtg0g/edit?usp=sharing Our choir retreat for students was a huge success! We had many of our students in attendance and they did a lot of activities together to begin building the bond that is so important to our choir! Finally, a huge thank you to the parents who have already volunteered to help during the school year. You will help make these events run smoothly! Your time and talents are so appreciated! Please remember: Most volunteer opportunities are only a few hours of time. We want to have more of our parents involved. Please consider volunteering some of your time to help us with any of the many activities we have planned for the school year and thank you in advance! 2. Choir Date Correction In my first email, I had a date listed in error. Our Spring Concert will be on Friday, May 17. I have updated all calendars, but wanted to make sure I pointed out the correction as well. 3. Longhorn Big Sing I had a deadline of this past Friday at noon to sign up to join us for this day of singing at U.T. Austin on September 19. We currently have 14 students signed up, so I ordered a bus to get us there. I had a couple students ask if they could join us after the deadline passed. I’ve received permission to extend accepting people to participate until this Tuesday morning at 9am. Reminders about this event: Our district is paying the registration fees. Only cost for students is bringing a sack lunch. No prep needed. Students will learn 2 songs during the day with other high school students and college students while working with professors from the school of music. They will also get to hear some of the choir of UT perform. Finally, they will do a short performance at the end of the event. This is open to all of our choir students and will be an excused absence. To sign up, fill out the information via this link: https://forms.gle/XNJd2zWupeL3BS6n8 4. First fund raiser starts Tuesday and Wednesday this week! Our first fund raiser opportunity is World’s Finest Chocolate. Students can check out a box and begin selling immediately. Each box has 60 candy bars. We make 40% profit, or $24, on each sold box. This profit can be allocated towards student fair share fees, entry fees, trip costs, or donated to our choir general fund. 5. Skate Night This annual event with the Murchison choirs will be Monday, September 18 from 6-8pm. Hope several of our students will be able to join us. It is $10 per person whether skating or not, therefore I’m not asking for any chaperones for this event. Let’s have some fun roller skating, falling down, laughing and enjoying time together! 6. Voice lessons Voice lessons are available for any of our students interested. Lessons typically occur during class. Lessons cost $30/lesson and occur once/week. Please let me know if you are interested. Partial scholarships are available. 7. All-State audition information! Interested? Please start coming to rehearsals as well as be practicing on your own. It is not too late to start. However, each day that passes means other students are getting more practice than you. There is a $30 one-time entry fee for the All-State audition process due by September 19. The first round of competition is Saturday, October 7 at Bowie H.S. Region Clinic – Friday, November 3 – 10am-1:00pm at AISD PAC Region Clinic & Concert – Saturday, November 4 – 8am – 5pm; Concert at 5pm Pre-Area – 2nd round of competition is Tuesday, November 14 at Anderson H.S. Area – 3rd and final round of competition is Saturday, January 6 at Reagan H.S. in S.A. All recordings are available on our choir website: www.trojanchoir.com Click on the All-State tab Password: fireant You may listen or download individual voice parts as well as the piano accompaniments. The accompaniment only tracks are what the students will audition with. If this does not work, I can burn CD’s for students who need them. 8. Southwest ACDA Any student interested in auditioning for the Southwest ACDA Honor Choir, please get information from Mr. B ASAP. I have to know if you are planning to audition so we can set up a time to record you. The deadline for submitting an audition mp3 is October 1. The audition happens in our choir room, so most of the pressure is off. All expenses related to this audition and to the convention if the student is selected are the family’s responsibility. However, they are offering scholarships this year. SWACDA is in Denver, CO February 27-March 2, 2024. Here is a link to learn more: https://www.swacda.org/honor-choirs 9. Three completion assignments – ideally due by Sept 22 Health Release Form (filled out as completely as possible) – see attached Handbook Contract (after reading through it online) – see attached Shape for choir room wall (decorated and/or colored) – receiving in class this coming week 10. Musical auditions on Wednesday, Sept 20 Interested in learning about this year’s musical, Spongebob Squarepants? Come to the Musical Information Meeting on Monday, Sept 11 to learn more including musical cuts, monologes, and other details of what goes into this show. These auditions are open to the entire school. 11. Chorale sings at the Homecoming Football Game Our 7th period choir sings at this game. We will wear our choir shirts for this performance. 12. Upcoming deadlines! Sept. 5 – 9am – Final deadline to sign up for Longhorn BIG Sing Sept. 19 – entry fee ($30) paid for the All-State audition process – HARD DEADLINE! Sept. 19 – deadline to purchase Choir Yardsigns, Embroidered Garment Bags and Duffle Bags as well as parent T-shirts through our website – HARD DEADLINE! Sept. 19 - ALL B day fund raiser money and unsold chocolate turned in Sept 20 – ALL A day fund raiser money and unsold chocolate turned in Oct. 1 – submissions for Southwest ACDA auditions MUST be completed. Oct. 2 – ideal deadline to pay fair share fees & booster fees online: www.trojanchoir.com . For other payments, please contact Mr. B if special arrangements need to be made. 13. Short and Sweet Concert – Oct 3 at 7pm in the Anderson PAC This is a brand new event for the Anderson Choir Program! I hope to see you all at our first concert of the year. You will get to hear each individual choir as well as several songs sung by our entire program.