Dear Tappan 8th grade band families,
Tonight’s the night! We are so excited for this evening’s Bands in Review performance at Hill Auditorium at 8:00pm (call time for performers is 7:30pm at Hill).
If anyone takes photos this evening, please send them to me. We would love to use them in the yearbook and promotional materials for Tappan bands!
Student checklist:
- Instrument
- Music
- Uniform (white dress shirt, black dress bottoms, black dress shoes/socks)
- Black band mask (regular black mask for percussion) and bell covers
- Anything else you need to perform: valve oil, tuba stands, extra reeds, tuners, mallets, trumpet mutes, etc.
Reminders for this evening’s performance:
- All bands arrive at Hill Auditorium at 7:30pm in uniform. Bands are to proceed to their designated areas as discussed in class. We recommend that families drop students off outside of Hill a few minutes before 7:30 and then go find parking.
- Current AAPS and U of M COVID guidelines require masks for performers and audience members at all times and to sit one seat apart in the hall.
- Students will make their way downstairs to our meeting location (there will be signs to direct them) while families find seats in the balconies of Hill.
- Please enter through the West Entrance doors off Thayer St (close to the parking garage).
- Students are expected to remain for the entirety of the concert after we perform and will sit with the band (not families) when Tappan is done.
- At the conclusion of the Bands in Review concert, please meet your students in the following areas. There will be people able to guide you to these areas at Hill:
- Pioneer: Base of Burton Tower/Parking lot behind Hill
- Tappan: Pool east of Hill
- Slauson: League Doors east of Hill
- Please try to exit to the East Side of the building after meeting your student at the conclusion of the concert
The concert will be performed in three sections based by high school. Tappan, Slauson, and Pioneer’s portion of the concert is from 8:00-9:00pm. Students will be expected to arrive at 7:30pm. Students will be responsible for transporting their own instruments to Hill, with the exception of percussion.
Four audience members are allowed per performer with current AAPS COVID guidelines. This concert will be recorded (not live streamed) and will be available to view for a limited time after the performance. Audience members will sit in the 2nd and 3rd balconies of Hill while performers will sit in the main floor seating when not performing.
Dress for students is formal concert attire: white dress shirts, black dress pants/skirts, black dress shoes/socks. Percussion-please be sure to wear black masks to match the rest of the band. Dress to impress!
Pieces will not be announced on stage tonight and there will not be a program, so please read below my email signature if you are interested in our program notes.
We look forward to seeing you at Hill Auditorium tonight!
Lauren Stout (she/her/hers)
Director of Bands, Performing Arts Department Chair, Auditorium Manager, Music Technology
Tappan Middle School │stoutl@aaps.k12.mi.us │tappanbands.org
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PROGRAM NOTES
Into the Clouds! by Richard Saucedo
One of my dreams has always been to be a pilot. As a pilot, you join the ranks of those less bound by conventional limits on time, distance and personal freedom. You take off to wide-open skies in any direction on the compass. But more than that, it’s freedom as you’ve never known it, far from the commonplace. Finally, being a pilot symbolizes individualism and self-reliance. You are in control and you make the choices. There’s nothing like the experience of flight, except possibly the experience of music, and I hope the enthusiasm of both can be found in this piece.
– Program Note by composer
Orion by Jan van der Roost
There are all sorts of marches: fast and slow, solemn and energetic, military and civil, procession and funeral. Orion is a so-called ‘slow march’. However, the moderate tempo does not make a passive or heavy impression. On the contrary, this march contains natural optimism and spontaneity. The persistent ‘pulse’ gives this majestic march a noble character.
– Program Note from publisher
