Recitals!

Our summer recitals are already upon us! We will be holding student performances on Saturday, June 5th and Sunday, June 6th at 2 pm and 4 pm. Please contact your student’s teacher if you have not already recieved an invitation with your student’s recital time and information on it. Performances are semi-formal, intented to last approximately one hour, and light refreshments will be served afterwards (potluck refreshments are welcome but not expected). We are extremely proud of our students and their accomplishments and look forward to working with them throughout the summer.
If you will be taking extended vacation time over the summer please let us know ahead of time so we can plan accordingly with you. We also have some special summer programs for you or friends and family.
remember, not classes for Monday, March 31st for Memorial Day.

Western Festival 2010

Dear Parents
The Western Festival Parade is coming soon and we are very excited to showcase our students. Here are some things you can know and ways you can help.

1) If your student is not performing during the parade, we encourage you to walk in the parade with us! Students can be proud of their musical achievements! ALL students in parade (including performers) need a parent or responsible adult with them. Please make sure we have your student’s name and parent signature on our permission form for the parade officials.

Parade participants should plan on wear “Western” themed clothing. Parent volunteers will also help us pass out school information, etc to people watching the parade.

2) We need a full-sized truck to pull the trailer, a driver for the truck, and a “fancy” car or convertible for Broadway Bear and the Piano Princess (costumed characters) to ride in and wave, and a driver for the car. Please let us know ASAP if you can provide and/or drive either vehicle.

3) We will be decorating the float on Friday, April 30th (morning and afternoon, depending on what you are available for). Musical Theater students will also be rehearsing on April 30th from 4:30 to 6 pm. Band studnets will be rehearsing starting at 6 pm. Please sign up to help us by emailing michael@newsongsSOM.com and you will recieve more detailed information as we know who we have available.

4) We are waiting for our exact parade location still, but participants should plan on carpooling or parking near Waterman and Elk Grove Blvd. We will need volunteers to park their cars at Elk Grove High School (end of the parade route), that can bring people back to their vehicles. You may also carpool from the NewSongs parking lot and return their after the parade.
(Next week I will send a list of signed-up participants with email contact information and you can coordinate carpooling yourself. If you can “shuttle” people after the parade please contact we this week so I can include that information in the email.)

5) We also will need help undecorating and returning the trailer Saturday afternoon. We will do this at NewSongs, starting at approximately 2 pm to allow time for lunch, etc.

6) If you can help us keep our costs down with access to a portable sound system or generator, we would also appreciate the help.

Thanks!!
Mr Michael and NewSongs staff

Important March Dates

Saturday, March 13th 2 pm Voice Students Supplemental Group Class
Saturday, March 20th 1-2:30 pm PIANO Supplemental Group Class (open to all private lesson students, no charge, but please register)
Saturday, March 20th 3-4:00 pm LITTLE MOZARTS Supplemental Group Class (open to all students and parents together, no charge, but please register)
Week of March 22-26th Day of the Week Concerts Daily 7-8 pm: All students invited to perform
Saturday, March 27th 2 pm Beethoven concert
Monday, March 30th 4:30 pm LITTLE MOZARTS Supplemental Group Class (open to all students and parents together, no charge, but please register)
Monday, March 30th-OPEN for regular lessons
Tuesday-Saturday March 31-April 2 NO regular lessons
Tuesday, March 31st 3:30-4:45 and 5:15-6:30 PIANO Supplemental Group Class (open to ALL piano students, no charge, but please register)
Tuesday March 31st Guitar Supplemental Group Classes, TBD

2010 Western Festival

Appeal from NewSongs for performers and volunteers for the May 1st Western Festival Parade

Welcome to the 2010 Winter MUSIC Olympics

We are encouraging our students to practice and train to perform their musical best just as Olympic athletes prepare for their performance. However, we will not be challenging students in competition against one another, but against themselves to reach benchmark goals.
To reach a “gold medal” students are required to earn 45 stars or points over a 5 week period. We will be calculating star points at each weekly lesson. Some ways to earn star points are:
1 point for attending weekly lessons
3 points for meeting weekly practice goal
1 point for memorizing a scale
2 point for memorizing a song
1 point for memorizing a chord chart
2 points for attending a NEW group session (info to come)
1 point for passing a teacher’s sight-reading quiz
and more!
Teachers will also have individual star points to give for unique achievements or special challenges they set for individual students. At the end of our Olympics we will be having a Gold Medal party week with special treats and prizes for all participants. Other levels of participation include:
Silver Medal (35 points)
Bronze medal (20 points)
Honorable Mention (10 or more points)
Please encourage your students to participate—Olympics begin January 25th and end on February 27th.

Sincerely, Mr. Michael and the NewSongs teachers

Additional performance opportunity

Performance Opportunity

I am very excited to share that we have been asked to have some of our students perform on the children’s stage at the Elk Grove Dickens Fair on Saturday November 28th.  We found out with somewhat short notice so we are now working to gather groups of performers.  We will be booking students to play between 12:30 and 2 pm and playing Christmas songs.  Our cast of “Peter Pan” will also be performing musical selections.  If you are interested in performing and available at that time, please contact me directly at michael@newsongSOM.com so I can put together our performance schedule.  We will still be having all of our students perform at our recitals on December 12^th; or we have scheduled an additional recital with Mr Sam on December 19^th at 2 pm.  This is a “bonus” performance opportunity and we do not expect all students to perform, it is voluntary.  I hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely, Mr. Michael

Performance opportunity

Request for performers this weekend.

Welcome to Quarter 4 with NewSongs

Copy of quarterly parent letter sent home this week for music students.

Something I found interesting…

Interesting documentary info and that we are accepting computer donations for student use.

Back to School for Music

We have officially begun our “Back to School” week of parent open-house meetings and transitioning into fall. We have several exciting new programs you will be recieving information about shortly. In the meantime, I wanted to remind you to please attend one of our back to school evening events between 7 and 8:30 pm (Aug 10 to the 14th).

Also, thank you for your patience with emails from our new appointment system.  You will be recieving more info about it at back to school, and we now have a link on our website (www.newsongsSOM.coM) under “Students” for you to view, cancel, and reschedule appointments yourself at your convenience.  We are still working out the final bugs, but we look forward to showing you this cool new tool.  See you soon!