New repertoire lists have been posted...

Want to know what you'll be playing in SB, WE, or JB? The rep lists have been updated, and you can access them here:

• Symphonic Band
• Wind Ensemble
• Jazz Band

Their are links to the recordings, but be sure to check out the Spotify playlist as well. The interface is easier to deal with, and you can follow the playlist as it changes throughout the year.

First rehearsals on August 22--that's two weeks!

Spring Band Concert and 25 Years

Now that the dust has settled and the final concert of the year is in the books, I can sit back and enjoy what was truly a great night for the entire DHS band program. First, I must say that I was deeply honored and humbled by the special alumni/student ensemble that gathered to celebrate my 25 years here at Deerfield. Thanks to my colleague Ron Velleuer and senior trumpeter Mitchell Steindler, we had a band of about 50 or 60 made up of students from all three current bands along with graduates going back to the class of 1999. There were a couple of band directors, a teacher, college students, and others who performed Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, conducted by Herr Velleuer. Then he spoke and said many nice things before turning the baton over to me. I got to conduct two of my favorite band works: a transcription of an old Russian chorale, "Salvation is Created," by Pavel Chesnokov, and a classic Sousa march, "King Cotton." What a joy it was to have all my "kids" back on stage, playing together.

The rest of the concert was successful as well. I was so proud of the Concert Band; they played very well, avoiding the frosh mistakes that tend to plague the typical CB. I received many compliments on their behalf, especially on the fine flute playing. Symphonic Band took on a program of epic proportions, tackling a pair of grade 4 works and making a lot of great music. Wind Ensemble also had their work cut out for them, with the 11-minute Sketches on a Tudor Psalm, a grade 5 piece that really challenged everybody's counting and expressive skills. It was the first time I had ever conducted it, and I enjoyed the experience immensely. I spent a lot of time practicing and studying it, and it was quite rewarding.

The final group of the evening was the Jazz Band. Highlighting the set was our own take on "A Night in Tunisia." Since we have a bassist who is precociously well-versed in playing Arabic music on the oud (an Arabic lute), I asked him to find a traditional Tunisian melody to teach us. He transcribed a malouf and played it along with flute, accompanied by drums, tenor, bass, and darbukka (an Arabic hand drum). We did an accelerando and segued directly into the well-known Dizzy Gillespie bass line. Then the horns came in for a mini-big band arrangement of the bebop classic. Of course, we had to end with a crowd-pleasing, sustained scream chord at the end to make sure the audience got their money's worth.

And then, at 9:27, three minutes shy of two hours, it was over. Another year of great music and memories is coming to an end. We still have a couple of less formal jazz performances to do, and the Warrior Marching Band will once again be part of the Memorial Day ceremonies here in town. The annual awards dinner is Monday night, so I still have a ton on my plate, but after such a memorable evening, things feel like they are lightening up and drawing to a close. It's hard to believe that it's been a quarter of a century since my first one-day band camp in the fall of 1988, back when the entire program numbered 45 students. I can't think of any other place I would rather be, and I am grateful to have had this opportunity. I look forward to several more years of teaching and conducting my beloved Warrior band students!

Our Year So Far

We are now starting the fourth week of the school year, and it's time to take stock of what we have so far...

This year, we have our largest marching band since the 1980s! 72 members strong, and we've already performed our first halftime show. We received great audience response, and watching the video afterwards, I can truly say I am very pleased with the results. This Friday night we'll be playing a Motown show that will feature the varsity and JV squads of the DHS Dance Team--almost 130 performers on the field at one time! It's been too many years since we've combined our efforts, so this show will be something special. We hope to see you there!

Symphonic Band is off to a great start. It's definitely one of the strongest SB's we've had since moving to three bands in 1998. We are playing some challenging music, and our performance at Potpourri on September 20 should be very exciting. We are playing a march by Henry Fillmore and a fanfare by my favorite composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams. I expect to be pushing this group all year to work on a higher level of difficulty than in the past.

The Concert Band is a bit small, but there are a number of very talented musicians. The challenge every year is to take students who come from several different middle school bands and mold them into a single, cohesive high school ensemble. That means we'll be working on a lot of fundamentals to get everyone on the same page. I will also be putting advanced players into small chamber ensembles so they can work on more technical music with our senior leaders during rehearsal time.

The Jazz Band will have their first performance this Thursday at Open House. We'll be in the bookstore lobby, playing classic tunes by legendary musicians like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. We're also learning all of our modes (dorian, mixolydian, lydian, and phrygian) so we can explore modal improvisation. Soon, we'll be narrowing down our repertoire to create a 3-tune set for the November concert.

The Music Theory class is very large this year--23 students. A big change is the conversion to a Mac-based music lab, which we share with the art students across the hall. We spent the period in there last Friday getting acquainted with Apple's GarageBand software. It was fun to see everybody so engaged in creating music by combing pre-made loops with their own ideas. This week we'll begin to hear their first round of free compositions--always an exciting time.

Wind Ensemble is going well as they also prepare a march and a fanfare for Potpourri. In addition, we've been working on some Renaissance music and a landmark piece by Vaughan Williams. Every year in SB and WE, we focus on two composers, one from the British tradition and one American. Last year we spent a lot of time on Percy Grainger and Aaron Copland; this year it's Vaughan Williams and Leonard Bernstein. You can look forward to hearing some of Mr. Bernstein's music this spring. In between, we'll study the music of African-American musicians and the Baroque music of J.S. Bach.

So, there's a quick update on what's been going on in the DHS Band and Music Theory program. I hope to see all of our students' parents and guardians this Thursday at Open House. Until then, best wishes for a happy and musical fall!

Long time, no blog...

Yes, I've been very behind in posting the goings-on of the DHS band program. Suffice to say, it's been quite busy around here. Highlights since my last post:

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A Night of Saxophone

On Thursday, March 22, the Deerfield High School Bands will present a “Night of Saxophone,” featuring guest artist Susan Fancher. She will perform the Concerto for Soprano Saxophone by Michael Torke with the DHS Wind Ensemble. Deerfield High School is a member of a consortium of seven high schools and universities from around the country that commissioned a special band arrangement of the concerto. This performance will mark the Chicago-area premiere of the arrangement.

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Just a typical day in band...

As part of a yearlong unit on 20th century music, we discussed minimalism today in Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble. Both groups are playing a post-minimalist piece at the moment; SB is doing Brian Balmages' Reverberations, and WE is preparing Michael Torke's Saxophone Concerto, which we will play with soloist Susan Fancher on March 22. So, to give some context, we listened to a lot of classic minimalism today. Here is the playlist for today and Monday's sessions:

• Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ, Steve Reich
• The Four Sections, Steve Reich
• Come Out, Steve Reich
• In C, Terry Riley
• A Short Ride in a Fast Machine, John Adams

Here's a Spotify playlist of the pieces.

In Wind Ensemble, we extended our learning by trying to perform In C, which is a series of 53 short melodic fragments that are repeated over and over and over. Each musician decides when to move on to the next. It was interesting how many students loved it and how many hated it--quite the polarizing experience!

I also received the juniors' ethnomusicology papers in which they present their research about the music of their heritage. I'll be reading about Russia, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Korea, Netherlands, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, France, and Jewish klezmer music. Always a fun time!

A Month of Lists - Repertoire

This month, I'm going to try to fill my blog with a interesting new list every day. Some will be about the DHS band program and its history, others will be much more random. So let's get started...

Pieces Most Often Played by the DHS Bands, 1988-2012

When I find a piece that works well for a specific level of band, I like to put it in a 3-year rotation so that students are exposed to a core of quality literature. I was surprised to see what made the list, and what didn't!

8 Times
Brighton Beach March, William Latham, Gr. 3
one of my "go to" marches for the freshmen

Variations on a Korean Folk Song, John Barnes Chance, Gr. 4
a great work for teaching variation technique and East Asian music

7 Times
Havendance, David Holsinger, Gr. 4
a favorite "stretch" piece for Symphonic Band with lots of good percussion

Overture for Winds, Charles Carter, Gr. 3
the quintessential "big piece" for the freshmen

Sleigh Ride, Leroy Anderson, Gr. 4
a holiday concert favorite, from when we did holiday concerts

Suite of Old American Dances, Robert Russell Bennett, Gr. 5
a nostalgic (and virtuosic) set of 19th and early 20th century dance tunes

6 Times
Cajun Folk Dances, Frank Ticheli, Gr. 4
Chant and Jubilo, W. Francis McBeth, Gr. 3
Divertimento for Band, Vincent Persichetti, Gr. 5
Eine Kleine Nachtmusic, W.A. Mozart/Jennings, Gr. 3
English Folk Song Suite, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gr. 4
Forest Pines Overture, John O'Reilly, Gr. 3
Incidental Suite, Claude T. Smith, Gr. 4
Polly Oliver, Thomas Root, Gr. 3
Second Suite for Military Band, Gustav Holst, Gr. 4

Later this month, I'll run down the composers most often played by the DHS Bands from 1988-2012. Can you guess who is number 1?

New Repertoire Lists Posted

Hey Concert Band, Symphonic Band, and Wind Ensemble members! I have chosen all of our music for the fall quarter, and it is now posted on the band website. You can view the titles, hear many of the pieces, and learn about many of the composers. Just go to your ensemble's page and click on the "repertoire list" link at the bottom left.

Concert Band
Symphonic Band
Wind Ensemble

I hope you've been practicing--the music will be challenging, and SB and WE perform one piece each on 9/20!

My Three Favorite Musical Discoveries of the Summer!

My first great discovery from the past several weeks has to be Spok Frevo. A former band parent sent me the YouTube link you see below. It's a Brazilian ensemble that mixes big band jazz with a frenetic local style called frevo. The Afropop Worldwide website describes frevo as "breakneck northeastern Brazilian rhythm and dance." I call it "muito quente"--Portuguese for "very hot"!

Notice how each horn player has his own wireless mic attached to the bell. This allows total freedom of movement and excellent sound reinforcement. They all have single headphones as well so they can hear the live sound in one ear and the mix in the other. The percussionists should be familiar if you remember what you learned in the Latin American music unit as a freshman. To the left of the drum set is someone playing the giant surdo bass drums--note the boom-BOOM boom-BOOM pattern. On the right is the pandeiro player with the shallow and heavy Brazilian version of the tambourine.



My second discovery came courtesy of a podcast called Sound Opinions. This is a weekly program billed as "the world's only rock and roll talk show." You can hear it locally on WBEZ 91.5 FM, but I download the shows and listen to them when I'm working out or running. Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis cover a wide range of topics, from historical to current performers. A few weeks ago, they had tUnE-yArDs in the studio. The band is led by songwriter/vocalist/percussionist/African music expert Merrill Garbus. Her music features a great deal of live looping, a process by which a musician can play a pattern and have it repeat over and over electronically while adding new parts on top of it in a live setting. When she combines her overdubbed vocals and percussion with a bassist and two saxophonists, it's a truly infectious new riff on 1970s Afropop.

tUnE-yArDs perform 'Doorstep' on Sound Opinions from WBEZ on Vimeo.

Want to see and hear more? Click here and scroll down to Show #294.

My final discovery is something that makes me very happy. There used to be an online music service called lala.com that allowed you to listen to thousands of tracks for free. The only catch was that you could only listen to each track once unless you paid a nominal 10 cents to add it to your playlist. Instead of downloading tracks, it was all cloud-based. Anyway, Apple bought them out and promptly shut them down a couple of years ago. Since then, the only worthwhile free service has been Pandora, which doesn't allow you to specify the track you want to hear. Instead, you specify an artist or a genre or a song you like, and Pandora serves up a non-stop feed of similar music. It's like having your own radio station, 24/7. So if you punch in "Life During Wartime" by the Talking Heads, you might hear Billy Idol's "White Wedding" and "Momma's Reward" by Edgar Broughton Band. But what if you want to hear a specific album or track?

Enter Spotify. Until this summer, it was only available in Europe, but it has now debuted in the US. Like many music services, it has subscription plans, but it also has a free version. Simply apply for an account, wait a few days for the email "invitation," download the app, and start listening. It's a very slick interface, and they have a pretty big collection of albums that you can listen to in their entirety. With the free plan, your album gets interrupted with ads for other musicians hawking their tracks. This can be jarring when you're listening to a quiet, subtle album like Esperanza Spalding's eponymous disc and some loud rock music bursts through the speakers in between tunes, but hey, it's free!

*******

So, those are my latest discoveries. In the meantime, I've been back at school choosing music for all the bands. I've got some great plans for each group! I've put up my bulletin boards, photocopied a bunch of forms and warm-up packets, and ordered all new marching band t-shirts for everyone! The countdown to the new year continues!

Summer Band Mailing!

The annual summer band mailing is going out today! An electronic copy has been e-mailed to sophomores, juniors, and seniors and their families. Freshmen will receive it via US mail on Thursday or Friday. That means that exciting new musical experiences are on the horizon for the 2011-2012 Concert Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Jazz Band, and Warrior Marching Band! But don't let that ruin your summer vacation; you have plenty of time left for rest and relaxation. Just add some practicing to the mix so nobody returns with summer chops!

Summer Break Continues

Last night I finally made it to Ravinia to see a classical concert, compliments of my wonderful Class of 2011. Actually, we went to "hear" a concert; we sat on the lawn and listened to the performance, which was in the Martin Theatre, over the sound system. It was a beautiful night, and being close to the lake, an escape from the extreme heat we've been having. At one point, there was a bizarre circular cloud pattern in the sky, and we even saw a satellite go overhead.

The music was all famous works for winds: Beethoven's Octet, Janacek's Mladi, Strauss's Serenade, Op. 7, and Dvorak's Serenade, Op. 44. These four pieces were quite varied, even though they shared similar instrumentation with various combinations of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn. The Dvorak is one of my all-time favorites, and it was one of four pieces that were named in a doctoral study as the finest works ever written for wind ensemble. I had never heard the Janacek, but it is a wonderful piece for woodwind quintet plus bass clarinet. It has an Eastern European flavor that links it to the Dvorak, but being composed 50 years or so later, it's more modern sounding. Check it out as played by the Zemlinsky Sextet in Amsterdam:



Speaking of Ravinia, might I recommend the July 31st concert, which features the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Tcaikovsky's 1812 Overture with live cannons! High school students can sit on the lawn for free with a student ID. The school with the most attendees receives a cash prize, so let's pack the place with Warriors! So far, we're not in the top five schools (New Trier, HP, Hersey, Libertyville, and Stevenson), but there's still time!

In DHS band news, I'm busy arranging kids TV show themes for our Homecoming Show. Plan on some Peanuts, Sesame Street, Spongebob, Rugrats, and Pokémon! I've also been working on revising some Concert Band worksheets. Next week I'll send out the summer band mailing, so look for an email about that. It's only 26 days to band camp and 36 days to our first rehearsal of SB and WE!

Next week I'll also be attending the wedding of two former band students. This is the fourth marriage that began in the DHS band since I've been here. So next time you're sitting in rehearsal, look around and you might see your future spouse!

Keep practicing--no summer chops!

Post-Concert

Well, the Spring Concert is in the books and it was a very successful evening. The Concert Band did a nice job, particularly with Forest Pines Overture, a rhythmically challenging work with mixed meters. The Symphonic Band had a varied program, including Morton Gould's jazzy "Pavanne" from Symphonette #2. Christian Hoogheem really nailed his solo trumpet feature. Pilgrim Traveler, a fantasia on 19th-century American shape note hymns, was another highlight with good balance, blend, and time and excellent solo work on tenor sax by Zach Weil.

The Wind Ensemble performed a very challenging work by Warren Benson, entitled The Solitary Dancer, which required playing in extreme ranges, tricky counting, and singing. The band probably played their best version yet at the concert. The medley from Porgy and Bess closed their portion of the concert with bluesy, extroverted solos by Logan Bloom, Nick Fox, and Joey Rosin, as well as a lyrical duet by Rahm Silverglade and Emma Martin.

The Jazz Band, as is tradition, closed the concert with some Mingus and some soul jazz. The final number, Jaco Pastorius' "Soul Intro/The Chicken," brought down the house with the high energy gospel and funk stylings. An unidentified sax player joined the band, filling in for an injured student, and by all accounts, he did all right.

Now the bands are moving into end-of-the-year activities. The freshmen will be finishing their Latin American music unit by heading off to Brazil (figuratively speaking) to study samba music. The Symphonic Band is creating mini quintet arrangements of the hymnsong "Traveler," and most of the Wind Ensemble is rehearsing graduation music with the orchestra. The new Jazz Band members are preparing for a front hall gig on the last day of school. Even though the concert is over, there's still lots to do in R-hall--the fun never ends!

Drum Circle with Matt Savage

The Concert Band had a special treat this morning with a visit from Yamaha percussion clinician Matt Savage. He is in town working with bands on the Northshore and to appear in Focus on the Arts at HPHS. He worked with our freshman today on elementary drum circle techniques and taught us a lot about rhythm and how to listen in an ensemble. We all had a great time, as you can see in the pictures below:

Solo and Ensemble Fest

The annual solo and ensemble festival was last Friday afternoon. This year, our friends from HPHS were unable to attend, so it was a smaller, more intimate affair. We had five adjudicators who joined us to offer their expertise. As each time slot was 15 minutes long, there was plenty of time for them to work with the soloists and small groups. Many of the sessions turned into mini private lessons, with the opportunity to play the entire piece a second time. The judges were very complimentary about our students' preparation and professionalism, and I was very proud of everybody who performed. All of the Wind Ensemble students were required to perform in a chamber ensemble, and we had a wide variety of groups: flute trio, woodwind trio, 2 woodwind quintets, clarinet quartet, sax sextet, 2 trumpet trios, 2 brass quintets, low brass quartet, and percussion ensemble. The music ran the gamut from a Cuban cha-cha to Mozart to a piece mysteriously titled "The Octopus."

I was also very excited to see a number of students perform solos as well as auditioning for the orchestra concerto competition. What really made me happy, though, was having two ensembles each from the Concert and Symphonic Bands. The freshman horn and percussion sections both performed, as did a trio of junior trombones and the entire SB euphonium section. I hope that next year more CB and SB groups will take a risk and put together a group to work on chamber music. Students who do so gain greater musical independence as they work together to learn a piece of music, making all of the artistic decisions themselves. It's an important part of a truly comprehensive music education.

Ethnic Diversity in the DHS Band Program

The juniors recently completed their ethnomusicology papers, in which they were to research the music of their ancestors. They could either choose two composers who shared their ethnicity or country of origin, or they could research the folk or art music of that culture. I read almost 40 papers and learned a great deal in the process about composers and traditions that don't always appear in the standard music history texts. Here is my accounting of the cultures represented:

Russian 7
Irish 5
Hungarian 4
Jewish 3
Polish 3
German 3
Italian 2
Norwegian 2
Danish 2
South African 1
Japanese 1
British 1
Ukrainian 1
Swedish 1
and one paper about the Pilgrims who came to America on the Mayflower!

As usual, there were a lot of papers about Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich, but I also learned about Takemitsu, Nielsen, and O'Carolan, as well as Norwegian hardingfale fiddles and Nguni singing. Students mentioned talking to grandparents, and some admitted not knowing much about their heritage before writing this paper. I hope they enjoyed their research as much as I enjoyed reading their work. (I know, I know, but teachers can always dream, right?) I know I would have had a very difficult time deciding which of my roots to write about, being mainly English, Portuguese, French, and Greek, with family legends of Choctaw and Cherokee ancestry as well. I could have written about Vaughan Williams and Holst, Portuguese fado music, Debussy and Lully, or Greek bouzoukis!

Many Things to Share

I'm catching up here on a number of posts I've meant to publish. There are blurbs on the Jazz100, the Evanston Jazz Fest, the music of John Adams, recent DHS Band happenings, and a Montréal trip update. Enjoy!

Want to see a list of the top 100 jazz songs ever? Jazz fans around the world (including yours truly)voted on the Jazz24 website, and the results can be found here. You can also hear streaming audio of the tunes. Some commenters have said that this list is too "mainstream" or "obvious," but I disagree. It's a great introduction to what most people consider the standard jazz canon. Once familiar with these tunes, a listener can branch off into many different niches like the avant garde, third stream, acid jazz, or other areas.

DHS Highlights: The Jazz Band had a very successful day at the Evanston Jazz Festival. The two adjudicators, Audrey Morrison and Tom Tallman, were very complimentary. They singled out Rahm Silverglade, Nathan Fertig, and Aaron Gundersheimer as outstanding soloists. We really enjoyed the evening performance of Italian bassist Maurizio Rolli, who knocked us out with his tribute to Jaco Pastorius. Next up for us is a senior citizen performance at the Patty Turner Senior Center in Deerfield. Our Valentine's Day Eve playlist will be "Stompin' at the Savoy," "My Funny Valentine," and "In the Mood."

I have been talking to the orchestra students today about John Adams (the composer, not the president). He is probably the most famous and most performed living American composer (outside of film composers like John Williams). He is best known for his operas, including Nixon in China, and his 9/11 remembrance On the Transmigration of Souls, which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize and three Grammy awards in 2005. When the orchestra students travel to New York next week, they will have the opportunity to see Adams conduct the Juilliard Orchestra in a performance of his City Noir. While doing some background research for my presentations, I found Adams' personal website, earbox.com, which is fascinating--check it out!

Just an update on our post-concert activities...

Concert Band is currently sightreading orchestral transcriptions (Ritual Fire Dance and Funeral March of a Marionette). All of the juniors are working on their ethnomusicology papers and the jazzers are learning transcribed solos. In Symphonic Band, each student is writing a melody based on the dorian scale, which they will be playing for each other next week. I'll post some of the best examples. Wind Ensemble members are working on their chamber ensembles for the 3/18 festival, and music theory students are writing 8-bar chorales for four voices in the style of J.S. Bach.

Trip update...

While in Montréal, we will have a clinic with Alain Cazes, director of the McGill University Wind Symphony. We'll also see him perform as the tubist in the Orchestre Métropolitain, in a concert featuring two newly commissioned works and Bruckner's 4th symphony. It sounds very exciting!

Band Concert Deemed a Success!

Well, after all the snow was cleared, we had our band concert as scheduled. It was a bit of a gamble, what with missing two days of rehearsals, but I had instructed the students on Tuesday to take their instruments and music home and keep practicing. I took all my scores home, and with arms sore from shoveling (my snow-blower died early in the process), I conducted through the concert while sitting at my desk and vocalizing a warbly imitation of the DHS band program. When I got the call from the administration giving us the green light, I decided that it was better to have the concert on the original night, even if we were a bit unprepared, because everyone had already committed to the date.

All three concert groups did well. There were some rough edges here and there, but many bright spots. The Concert Band sounded especially good on West Highlands Sojourn, and the Symphonic Band had some great moments on Holst's Second Suite. The Wind Ensemble pulled together for the complicated medley of Symphonic Dances from Fiddler on the Roof, and soloists in all three bands played quite well. The two afternoon jazz bands received praise when we discussed the concert in class.

What I think it really boiled down to was personal preparation. Students who had learned their parts and had been practicing all along probably found themselves only marginally affected by the two days off. Those who hadn't put in the time probably fared worse. We are only truly successful as a band when each individual recognizes the passages that need to be mastered and then puts in the time outside of class to do so. The entire ensemble counts on each musician to take responsibility for the music he or she is assigned. When everyone decides to live up to that potential, we can do amazing things! I saw this last night with the way several individuals played their solos. It was obvious that they had done the necessary "woodshedding" outside of rehearsal to make their parts shine. Imagine how we would sound if everyone took that attitude!

Next up, the Jazz Band heads to the Evanston Jazz Festival tomorrow. Our set list:

"Prime Directive" by Dave Holland
"Tin Tin Deo" by Fuller and Pozo
"Song with Orange" by Thelonious Monk

Wish us luck!

Snow Day and Band Concert

Dear Band Students:

As of 1:45PM on Wednesday, the band concert for Thursday, February 3 is on hold. School is out on Thursday because they still haven't been able to clear the fire lanes. There were 8' snow drifts piled against the front doors of the school, and just clearing the exits from the building has been very difficult.

So, here are our plans:

Plan A - If the district administration determines that after-school activities are canceled, we will have our concert on Monday, February 7 at 7:00PM. The call times will remain the same.

Plan B - If the district administration determines that after-school activities can take place, we will have our concert as scheduled on Thursday at 7:00PM with the same call times.

In either event, I will send out an email by 1:00 on Thursday. Please stay tuned, and keep practicing. I hope you are safe and warm and that you are enjoying your unexpected free time!

Sincerely,

Dr. Brame

Summer Mailing Now Available

The summer letter that you've come to know and love will not be mailed home this year. Instead, it is posted on the band website. Click here to find out everything that's going on this coming year! Included is a calendar of all band performances, information on SB/WE/JB curriculum, and everything you need to know about the Warrior Marching Band. Check it out today!

Welcome to Our Future Band Students!

If you are one of our future DHS Band students, welcome to our blog! It was great to meet many of you at Student Activities Night tonight. In addition, I'm very much looking forward to working with the Shepard and Caruso bands over the next week. Four years of wonderful music and friendships await you at Deerfield High School, and I hope you will make the most of them. You can play in the freshman Concert Band which meets as a daily class, not a before school activity. You can join the Warrior Marching Band, our school's most spirited group, and enjoy playing lots of exciting rock music. There's the Jazz Lab Band for all of you jazzers, and you don't even have to play a traditional jazz instrument. We've had flutes, clarinets, euphoniums, violas, and even an Arabic oud!

In the meantime, I wish you best of luck in your middle school bands. Have a great spring concert! If you want to learn more about the DHS band program, click on the black box in the upper left corner.