Hello everyone! These Director Notes emails typically go out once a month to provide information to our choir families of things happening and opportunities in the choir department. Please read through the entire email.
1 Welcome new and returning students and families!
As our world continues to deal with how COVID-19 has and is affecting our lives, I want you to know that my number one priority is to keep your students and you safe. With that said, I am committed to making choir the best it can be and every student within those choirs the best that they can be! We will sing together! We will be doing concerts and events throughout the year! We will continue to work on individual vocal production and music reading skills! We will move forward and grow and as a result be better! We will do this together! We ALL are a choir family!
2 Choir BIG meeting – August 30 – 7-8pm – Anderson Theater
This is a new event this year, but very important! I wanted to give an opportunity for everyone, students and parents, to come learn about how things work in the choir program as well as have a chance to answer questions and meet the Choir Booster Officers, Choir Council, and me. I’ll cover everything from expectations, concerts, voice lessons, our spring trip Please put August 30, 7-8pm in the Anderson Theater on your calendar! See you there!
3 We NEED Choir Booster leadership moving forward!
We have had wonderful parent leadership in our Choir Boosters for years and we want to see that continue. Most jobs require small amounts of time. The more people we have volunteer, the less work for everyone! Our Choir Boosters make so many events happen for our students. I CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!
Two positions we want filled as soon as possible. Both are shadowing positions this year with the intent of taking over the position next year. You will learn so much this year and that will make next year more comfortable. Please consider and click on the link below:
Signup Genius link for Choir Booster Volunteers:
4 Voice lessons
We offer one-on-one voice lessons for students who are interested. We have an incredible voice teacher, Jenny Ohrstrom who will be working with our students once again this year. We encourage everyone to consider lessons. If we have enough interest, I will hire more teachers. Lessons can really help students accelerate their vocal development as well as give specific attention to an individual’s music learning needs and voice concerns. Most of our students who excel at the individual competitions take private lessons. We highly encourage your child to take lessons particularly if they are participating in the All-State audition process and for solo/ensemble contest. Fill out the attached form, scan it or take a picture of the second page and return them via email to Mr. B!.
5 All-State info and camps:
The All-State audition process is rigorous, but it’s also a great learning experience. I hope that several of our students will participate in these auditions next year. If you are considering competing in the All-State Audition process, I have some information to share with you. For first year students, the first round of auditions is similar to Region auditions in middle school. However, the music is more challenging (we do 3 or 4 songs each round. You will know the song selections, not cuts, in advance) and you compete against all grade levels on your voice part. First and second year students CAN do very well in this process. It's all about being prepared. To help you get started, please do the following:
1 The TMEA All-State music has been announced and can be found at:
You can also see voice range of each part to help you decide which to audition on. Voice teachers can also help you with this. The voice part you sing in choir is not necessarily the best part for you to audition on. Not sure, please ask.
We have all the recordings on our website so you can listen, download and practice. Our website is www.trojanchoir.com The password for that portion of the site is fireant.
I would suggest listening to choirs on Youtube singing these songs. Here is a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRxLPbce4PjGkr4U1GthweS83Rcgcye7K
2 Let me know your name and what voice part you are planning to audition on. It is NOT necessarily the voice part you usually sing in choir. Use the following link: https://forms.gle/fbvNjUeU1U6RtVjA8
3 Music packets can be ordered through www.jwpepper.com Type Texas All-State School Choir Packets in the search box. Then choose either Large school Treble or Large school Tenor Bass. These can be mailed directly to your house.
This year, AISD is providing a FREE All-State music camp on August 9 & 10 at the AISD PAC. I strongly encourage everyone interested in competing in All-State this year to go to this camp! You’ll start learning the music with others from our district. It will make the learning more fun. Sign up ASAP.
Link to form -
6 A much more detailed email covering more Anderson Choir topics will go out at the end of the first week of school.
Mr. B