Midwest Pre-Conference Performances
Buried in the back of the binder we received from the Midwest Office at the June meeting is a green sheet titled “Program Planning Suggestions” from the Board of Director’s Performance Coordinating Committee. There’s some great advice on this page dealing with program selection and pacing. Even a suggestion to make sure the students drink plenty of water before the performance to avoid dehydration since the ballroom stages become quite warm.
Number 8 reads: “If you have an opportunity to perform your Midwest program two or three times before you arrive in Chicago, your students will know how to pace themselves and have much more confidence in their performance.”
This is something I’d really like to do. One of the things I’m struggling with, as I’m sure the other directors are is well, is striking a balance in the scheduling, especially in December. Our classes run through December 22, which means our students will essentially miss three days of school attending and performing at the conference. It’s important that I’m sensitive to this fact…both in the amount of school they miss prior to the performance and in terms of evening commitments leading up to our performance.
We are trying, as best we can, to make our “official” Midwest Preview Concert as much of a Skokie event as we can. It will be part benefit concert, part celebration, and hopefully a good time for everyone who attends. We’ve rented the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts on December 18, the Monday before Midwest, for this performance. We’ve never done anything like this before, so it’s very exciting. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while and hope that it’ll be something we’ll be able to hang onto for future years.
Having this concert four days before our Midwest performance is nice for a couple reasons. It’s close enough to our concert for it to feel like part of the Midwest experience for the kids, but far enough away that we still have several rehearsals following it to put the finishing touches on anything that the performance exposes. I’m also excited that most, if not all, of our guest conductors will be able to join us for this concert as well. We’re optimistic that we’ll be able to draw a nice sized audience for this concert. We are also actively searching for a sponsor to underwrite the costs associated with the performance.
The rest of our concerts have been scheduled as well:
August 18 Band Camp Concert
September 27 Exchange concert with Lincoln Middle School (Park Ridge)
October 24 Symphonic Band Concert
November 13 Symphonic Band Concert
November 20 Concert at Meyer Primary School
December 7 Winter Concert with McCracken Choirs
December 18 Midwest Preview Concert
December 22 Midwest Clinic Performance
This isn’t much different from our normal schedule. We don’t usually have the mid-November concert, and with school starting significantly earlier this year we were able to slip in the late September concert. Once our program is approved by the Midwest Board I’ll break down how our preparation of the pieces will fit into this framework.
The only thing left to figure out is when to perform our complete Midwest program for the school. Ideally we’d be able to find a time to play the full program for the middle school and another time to play for our elementary school. This would give us the three performances of the program prior to our Midwest performance. We’ll see what the administration and I are able to work out.
(For topic suggestions or questions relating to our Midwest performance I can be contacted via email: cdestefano@skokie735.k12.il.us or through the contact page on our website.)
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