Free Children's Concert in Seattle

Saturday, April 2 at 2 p.m., the Seattle Men's Chorus and Seattle Women's Chorus will present their twelfth annual FREE Children's Concert at McCaw Hall. This year the concert will also feature kids from Village Theater's KIDSTAGE program! The program promises to be lots of fun, and kids who enjoy or have enjoyed singing in choir will have an extra dimension to their appreciation for the music.

Updates!

Today kindergartners played on the Orff instruments using mallets.  We used the rhyme "Ninety-nine O'Clock".  They continue to practice songs from Japan, India and the U.S. to perform after their Parade of Cultures.

March 21st was Bach's birthday!  First-graders celebrated by listening to some of his most famous music and figuring out that, if he were alive today, he would be 326 years old.

Second-graders have been learning songs for their Earth Day show.  One of the songs uses a few phrases in Swahili.

Third-graders are preparing to read syncopation and to listen to the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor.

Fifth-graders have been learning vocal and instrumental parts for the song "We Are One" and hope to make recordings of it next week.

Recorder players are still earning belts and are preparing to play their first concert: Friday, April 15th, they will play onstage in the gym for an audience of Second-graders.  This always creates a lot of excitement among the recorder players, as well as among the audience, who will have a chance to begin playing recorder next fall.

Class Updates

Kindergartners are getting pretty good at the play-party "Alabama Gal" and now are learning to "wring the dishrag" and play "I Let Her Go-Go" and "Jump, Josie".

First-graders continue to practice singing, hearing, reading, and writing the pitches "G" and "E", and are preparing to learn "A".  They enjoy using their rhythmic reading skills and hearing about J. S. Bach.

Second-graders are identifying the sound of "mi-re-do" and writing it in different places on the treble staff (B-A-G, A-G-F and E-D-C).  Recently they learned proper hand drum technique.

Third-graders have been performing speech canons, movement canons and of course singing canons.  They are adding sixteenth notes to their classroom rhythm repertoire.

Fifth-graders have studied the harmonic progression of 12-bar blues and played it on the Orff instruments.  They've discussed the history of blues and gone on to jazz and George Gershwin, hearing "Summertime" from his opera Porgy and Bess and singing his "I Got Rhythm".  After Midwinter Break they'll begin a drumming/composition unit.

The winners of the trophy for Best Audience were Mr. Goodman's Fourth Grade and Mrs. Spadoni's Second Grade.  Earlier I listed Ms. Rawson's First Grade; I regret the error.

Lessons Days, cont'd.

Third Grade's Lessons Day (see below) will be Wednesday, February 29th.  So far, Mr. Goodman's Fourth Grade and Ms. Rawson's First Grade are tied for first place and the Best Audience trophy!

In other news, Fourth Grade music classes are finished for this school year, and on Tuesday, February 1st, Fifth Grade will begin having music once a week.

LESSONS DAY January 26th & 27th

On January 26th and 27th, Kindergarten, First, Second, and Fourth grades will have Lessons Day during their regularly scheduled music class.  That's when those children who take lessons on an instrument (or dance) have an opportunity to show their classmates the result of their hard work. During Lessons Day, each student's most important job--no matter whether s/he performs or not--is to be an excellent audience member. This performance is just for classmates, not parents.

If your child would like to perform, she or he needs to rehearse announcing the piece, playing it, and bowing afterwards. You could help by being an audience during rehearsal(s) at home.  The student should also bring the music for the piece to be performed, as well as the instrument to be played (except, of course, for piano).  If you'd like to store the instrument in the music studio that morning, that will be just fine.

First Grade and Mr. Saltz's and Ms. Scott's will have their opportunities during regular music class on Wednesday, January 26th. 

Second Grade, Kindergarten and Mr. Goodman's class will have theirs on Thursday the 27th.  Third Grade will have Lessons Day after their Folk Tales performance is over.

Recorders and Singers at MCE January 22

By now just about all the students at Open Window--including Vista--have heard a catchy gospel song from South Africa called "Ipharadisi" ("ee-parr-ah-dee-see").  We've been learning it because this Saturday's Multi-Cultural Event, at the Baha'i Center near Crossroads in Bellevue, will celebrate Africa.  Recorder players and choir members attending the event will want to be sure to be present at 6:30, when we'll kick off the entertainment portion of the evening by performing Ipharadisi.  Students will be joined by YAAMBA marimba, one of the Zimbabwean-style bands which have grown up in the Pacific Northwest from seeds planted by Dumisani Maraire.  Should be great fun!

Another Amahl

Amahl and the Night Visitors will also be performed at Plymouth Church in Seattle:
--7:30 pm Friday, January 7th, and
--11:00 am Sunday, January 9th

http://pcucc.squarespace.com/events-calendar/2010/12/3/amahl-and-the-night-visitors-jan-7-9.html