November 2008 Newsletter

In this Issue:
Principal's Message
From the President
Mark Your Calendars
Congratulations to Our Students!
Treasurer's Report
Help Our Students Make Music - Join the Musical Note Club
Take a Bow, Note Club Donors!
How You Can Get Involved with Music at BMMS
From Energy Times, Wynton Marsalis on Proper Breathing
Centennial High School Band News
Bravo! to Our Sponsors

Principal's Message
Burleigh Manor Middle School is committed to providing an exemplary music program. It is quite an honor to work in a school that is so dedicated to the fine arts.This would not be possible without the outstanding support we receive from our parent groups.Thomas Lickona documents the importance of virtues among today's youth. Personal virtues include self-discipline, integrity, and self-motivation. The performing groups of Burleigh Manor Middle School have these virtues and it gives me great pleasure on a daily basis as I listen to them practice. We are fortunate to have high quality teachers and students who aim to be the very best.

Once again, thank you for your support and I look forward to seeing all of our parents at the upcoming concerts.

-- Claire Hafets

From the President...
Now that you and your music students are settled in for the year, with practice schedules and sectional rotations well under way, it’s time to gear up for the next flurry of activity — the winter concert season!

Winter concerts are a great opportunity to see how students have grown in the few short months since school started (and since you bought that last pair of black concert pants!). It’s also a chance to spend some time with the other families from the community. Parent involvement is a key ingredient in the formula that makes our students’ performances a success. The added warmth of siblings, parents, and grandparents cheering on the musicians makes these events a special treat.

BMMP participates in school concerts by providing parent volunteers to help set up the stage, run A/V equipment, chaperone non-performing students, collect donations at the concert door, and monitor doorways to minimize traffic and noise during the show. Parents of students from chorus, band, and orchestra have already volunteered to take part in December’s events, and we welcome anyone else who would like to participate. You can download the volunteer forms posted on our Web site's Volunteer Page, and send them into your child’s music teacher, email a coordinator directly via contact information listed on the site, or drop me a note and I’ll forward it appropriately.

If you don’t have time to help out next month, keep in mind the assessments (formerly referred to as adjudications), concerts, and celebration events coming up next spring, when everyone is busy and we always run short of help. Or consider joining the BMMP Board of Directors; we meet just a few times a year but always welcome new members to represent all ensembles and grade levels. In any case, thanks for supporting your music students and the music program at Burleigh Manor Middle School; the students and teachers couldn’t do what they do without you!

See you at the concerts,
Rawnie Obrigewitch, BMMP President

Congratulations to Our Students!
Congratulations to the following students who performed with the Howard County G/T All County All County Band Sunday November, 9, 2008. The students auditioned along with over 300 other students from all the Howard County Middle schools for the 70 member band and were selected to perform with this prestigious group under the direction of Dr. Dana Rothlisberger, Director of Bands at Towson University.

Kirsten Henningsen, Debora Choi, Melanie Zheng, Tony Zhang, Nathan Ko, Emily Bowman, Seung-Hun Lee, Cynthia Li, Helen Kramer, Sunny Zhou, Jimmy Wang, Andre Chen, Katie Gottuk, Jacob Balcom, Kyle Johnson, Jordan Drenning, Joe Choi, Justin Santos, Aneesh Agrawal.

Congratulations, also, to the students who were selected to perform with the 2008 Howard County Gifted & Talented Chorus.

Aisa Aliyeva, Ivanna Barrientos, Emily Bellor, Taryn Betz, Tiyana Bumbray, Erin Cha, Tiffany Chen, Teela Comeau, Emma Cooley, Annalise Deppmeier, Jenna Harrity, Rebecca Harton, Ona Ichoku, Kara Kutchins, Helen Kwon, Jessica Loiacono, Amanda Mazer, Amanda McIlvain, Pearl Pongsuppat, Sydney Rhinevault, Clarissa Santori, Sarah Seo, Roxanna Shadmehr, Julia Thoreson, Natalie Tussing, Annalisa Weymouth.

Mark Your Calendars
The winter concert season is nearly here, so please make a note of the dates below. You can find additional information on the Music Calendar Page.

Dec. 2 - Band Night Rehearsal for Concert Bands I and II, and Wind Ensemble
   Concert Band I - 3:00 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
   Concert Band II - 5:00 p.m. - 6:15 p.m.
   Wind Ensemble - 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Dec. 9 - Winter Concert I, Centennial High School, 7:00 p.m.
   Wind Ensemble, Concert Band I,
  Sixth Grade Chorus and Chamber Choir
Dec. 10 - After school rehearsal for Choir and Chamber Choir
Dec. 16 - Winter Concert II, Centennial High School, 7:00 p.m.
   Concert Band II, Choir, String Ensemble and Orchestra

Jan. 7 - Jazz Dress Rehearsal
Jan. 8 - Jazz Dress Rehearsal & Concert
Jan. 15 - Jazz Concert Snow Date
Jan. 31 - Vocal Solo/Ensemble Festival

Feb. 2 and 3 - Tersiguels' Musical Feasts
Feb. 11 – BSO trip for 6th Grade Chorus, Concert Band I, Concert Band II,
Wind Ensemble, String Ensemble, Orchestra
Feb. 24 – Howard County High School Madrigal Festival
Feb. 24 - Band Night Rehearsal for Concert Band II and Wind Ensemble
Feb 26 - 28 - All-State Band

Mar. 3 - Band Night Rehearsal for Concert Band II and Wind Ensemble
Mar. 5 - 7 - All State Chorus and Orchestra
Mar. 10 - Band Adjudication, Wind Ensemble, Evening 8:00 PM Hammond HS
Mar. 11 - Band Adjudication, Concert band II Evening 3:00 PM Hammond HS
Mar. 25 OR 26 - Concert Choir Adjudication, Evening T.B.A. Howard HS
Mar. 30 OR 30 - Orchestra Adjudication

Treasurer's Report
The 2008-2009 school year is off to a great start and promises to be another fantastic season for the Burleigh Manor musical groups. The Music Parents provides a wide range of support to all three music programs at BMMS, but a major area of support is to supplement the funds provided by the school system to the award-winning band, orchestra, and choir programs. Every year's needs are different but as an example the money collected through the Musical Note Club in prior years has gone towards the purchase of new instruments and accessories, instrument repair, new sheet music, cummerbunds and bow ties, chairs and music stands, and trophies for the end of year awards banquet. It is our goal to provide our student musicians and their outstanding directors with what they need to continue the great musical tradition of the BMMS musical programs. Many of you have already made a donation and your support is greatly appreciated; however, at this time Musical Note Club donations are at about 70% of our annual collections so we ask that you consider making a tax deductible donation at this time if you have not yet done so to this very worthy cause. Thank you.

-- Mark Richmond

Help Our Students Make Music - Join the Musical Note Club
Thank you to everyone who has already contributed to the Musical Note Club! Your generosity has enabled BMMP to help the music teachers meet the increasing costs of running their successful programs.

Donations of any amount are appreciated. Quarter Notes sponsors ($25) receive a complimentary ticket to be used for all BMMS concerts during the current school year. Half Note sponsors ($50) receive 2 complimentary tickets, and Whole Note sponsors ($100) received 4 complimentary tickets. In addition, sponsors’ names are published in each concert program. If you would like your name listed in the winter concert programs, please send in your Note Club membership forms (available on the Note Club Page) by December 1.

This year, we would like to invite community businesses to join the Musical Note Club and be listed in our concert programs. Many companies will match employee contributions; why not ask if your employer has such a program? Remember, we are certified as a non-profit and all donations to us are tax deductible. For more information, please e-mail Mark Richmond, BMMP Treasurer.

Take a Bow, Note Club Donors!
Thank you to our Musical Note Club members for their financial support of our performing music programs. Below is our list of donors as of November 12, 2008:

Special Donor Club
Steven Kittner and Mary Farmer
Family of Jimmy and Tommy Wang

Whole Note Club
George and Linda Abdow
Matt and Jan Antonicelli
Ryan Apt's Family
Bill and Lisa Arbaugh
Chris and Michelle Berry
Todd and Lynn Bowman
Andre and Daniel Chen’s family
Bill and Terri Chiu
Rob and Katie Cole
Margie Dolan-Drenning
Bruce and Michelle Heck
Bill and Maralee Henderson

Dotted Half Note Club
The Cooley Family
The Eichhorn Family

Half Note Club
Abernathy Family
The Bivens Family
Kathy and Rich Davis
Jay and Debbie Dettmer
Drutch family
Heather and Tom Faucher
William Fu
Ruth and Dan Gottuk
The Grable Family
Huang Family
Eric and Michelle Johnson
Joshua Kim’s family

Quarter Note Club
Tom and Pam Balkin
Susy and Nestor Benavides
The DeLatte Family
Mark and Doni Ernst
Fidel Family
The Henningsen Family
The Moloney Family
Seung Nam
Greg and Linda Neely
The Pavuk Family
 
 
 
 
 
Jim and Malinda Hughes
Bob and Christie Hunter
Nina Lee and family
The Lehr Family
Zhiping Li
Geoffrey and Shari Ling
Mark and Deb Richmond
Dean and Jacqueline Rottmann
Eric Vermote
The Villanyi Family
Lily Wei
Jenny Yan, Xinjing Wang, Vincent Wang  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Susan and Jeff Krew
The Mace Family
Sean and Tina McGowan
Kim and John Metz
Aruna Muppalla
The Obrigewitch Family
Mario and Cristina Pino
Rhinevault Family
Kim Sherman
The Stroud Family
Updike Family
Mr. and Mrs. John van Kan
 
 
The Rinaldi Family
The Simpson Family
Kathy and Matt Smith
The Strothers family
Franziska and Matthias Stuber
Him-Tai Tsang
Hong and Siwen Wang
Vivian Wang
The Yagi Family
Hugh Zhao
Rixin Zhou

How You Can Get Involved with Music at BMMS
Our music directors are always in need of parent volunteers, especially to help set up for concerts, hand-out programs at the concert doors, and to help operate A/V equipment (training is provided). Volunteering is a wonderful way to meet other parents, and to demonstrate your support of your musician. If you have not already handed in your volunteer form - or aren't sure whether or not you did! - please e-mail the volunteer coordinator for your child's music program: Tara Berry (Band), Paula Grant (Choir) or Mary Lowe Kutt (Orchestra). You really can make a difference!

Centennial High School Band News
Congratulations to our C.H.S. Marching Eagles (band) who performed at the Ravens Stadium (M & T Stadium) on Sunday, November 9th. Our band scored an 86.4, and placed fourth out of eight in Group III category. What a feeling performing in that arena.

Come check-out our winter concerts! December 10th is our CHS Choral and Orchestra concert, and on December 17th, both of the CHS bands perform. Also join us on Wednesday, January 28th for our Jazz Concert. All performances start at 7:00 p.m.

Stay tuned for info about the proposed trip to Boston for the entire CHS music department in April 2009.

C.H.S. applauds the outstanding Music Department of B.M.M.S.

Yours,
Dr. VanDerBeek, Director of Centennial High School Bands

From Energy Times, Wynton Marsalis on Proper Breathing
In his new book, "Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life", Wynton Marsalis celebrates his passion. This generation's global jazz emissary explains how a life lived under the spell of swing rhythm and imagination helps the body mind and spirit soar.

ET: Proper breathing is important no matter what instrument you play... what do you do to ensure strong respiratory health?
WM: You hold the note for a long time. You take a deep breath and you hold the note for one minute. You get the biggest sound with the softest volume. It's all opposites. It's a sound that's very open with softest volume, like an ohm.

ET: It's meditative
WM: That's what it is. It is a meditation because you concentrate on that core sound and opening up without the volume opening up. Putting in the core of that sound, the positive attributes and the most love- concentrating on that is healing.

Bravo to our business partners for their generosity!
Please support the people who support us.

Graphic Impressions, Inc.
8990 Route 108, Suite C
Columbia, MD 21045
410.730.4884 or 800.411.8448

Savin Sound
Located in Ellicott City, MD
Serving the Baltimore Metro area.
410.750.0272

Tersiguel's French Country Restaurant
8293 Main Street
Ellicott City, MD 21043
410.465.4004