State Concert Festival Assessment

The Titan Band is eagerly looking forward to our performance at the VBODA State Concert Festival on Saturday March 10 in the Margaret F. Gregory Theater at Lloyd C. Bird High School.   Our members are preparing very hard for this important event—one where we will earn our state ratings for the year and hopefully, our third Virginia Honor Band title!!

Our day looks like this:

3:30---band members seated dressed in Cosby concert wear for rehearsal

3:40---Rehearsal in Cosby Band Room

Load busses and depart for LCB after rehearsal

4:15--Load

4:30--Go

5:00--- arrive at LCB (eat at their wonderful concessions as time allows)

6:15--warmups

7:00---Titan Showtime---in the theater--free and open to the public

7:25—sight reading in the LCB band hall after the stage performance (not open to the public)

At or around 8:00, our scores will be posted in the LCB commons and our students will then be free to leave for home with their families.  No band members should be without transportation at this point in time.  As a parent, make sure that you attend your child’s performance at 7:00 to support your child in this very important event.  The doors to the Gregory Theater close at the beginning of our show and no one will be permitted to enter once the band has begun playing.

Slight changes to the festival schedule may still occur.  Your child, as always, will be kept up to date on any schedule changes.  We will also have a link on the Titan Band website that will take you directly to the VBODA District 3 site once the festival schedules are posted.

All-District Band Rehearsals and Concert

The schedule for All-District Band is as follows:

Friday, Feb 3rd

Arrive 8:00-8:30am ( at Thomas Dale)

Rehearse 8:30-12:30

Lunch (in shifts)  12:30-1:30

Rehearse 1:30-5:00pm

Saturday, Feb 4th

Arrive:  8am

Rehearse:  8:30-11:30

Lunch:  (in shifts)  11:30-12:30

Rehearse:  12:30-2pm

Dress:  2-3pm

Warm-up:  3pm

Perform:  3:30pm—middle school band

                  Approx. 4:00 HS Concert Band

                 Approx. 4:30  HS Symphonic Band

The event is at Thomas Dale High School.

Congratulations to our representatives to All-District.  This will be a great weekend for you!!!

ES

Come see the Cosby Jazz Ensemble

The Cosby Jazz Ensemble is gearing up for some really nice engagements in February.   It is my hope that you can come out (eat at two of them!!) and enjoy some great music!!

Wednesday Feb 1—International Night—;at Cosby HS

Saturday February 11  “Jumbalaya and Jazz”   at Lutheran Church of Our Saviour  9601 Hull Street Road (near Rockwood Park)

The band will play a short set at 6:00, then we will all eat (the JE will be fed as well!!), then the band will play a longer set afterwards.  Tickets are $10.00 for adults and $6.00 for ages 6-12.   This is a benefit for the LCOS Youth Group.  Tickets are available by calling 276-4271

Saturday February 18  Boy Scout Troop 806 Spaghetti Dinner at “The Saucy Noodle—Richmond’s finest One Night A Year Italian Restaurant”; held this year in the Cosby HS Commons (previous years it has been held at the Millwood School)..  The band will play three 30 minute sets at 5:00, 6:00 and 7:00.  (JE Members will be fed at 7:30 after their last set).  Tickets are available by in advance and at the door. 

These are 2 evenings when all of you can go out, have a great dinner and a show, and leave the cooking to someone else!!!!

ES

All-County Band Representatives

Congratulations to the members listed below for representing Cosby at the 2012 All-County Band.

Elizabeth Bowen

Robert Lester

Megan Moore

Maggie Mullholand

Brett Peat

Lauryn Poe

Ashani Pompey

Lenny Ports

Nicole Silva

Julie Van Scoik

Matt Taylor

Earl E. Shaffer, Jr.
Cosby Titan Band

All-District Band Congrats!

Titan,

Congratulations to ALL Cosby Titans who were up bright and early, the night after our wonderful concert, to audition for the all-district band.  A lot of wonderful preparation went into their work and I am VERY proud of each of our Titans who were there on Saturday morning.  Not everyone who auditions earns a chair as the sections are extremely competitive, but each person who attended made themselves, and the band, better by their efforts. 

The following Titans earned chairs at All-district:

PICCOLO

Nicole Silva  First Chair Symphonic and ALLVA ELIGIBLE

Maggie Mullholand  First Chair Concert

FLUTES

Nicole Silva 10^th Symphonic

Kara Schniede  4^th Concert

Maggie Mullholand  11^th Concert

OBOE

Ian Krauss 2^nd Concert

CLARINETS

Julie Van Scoik 14^th Symphonic

Emma Johnson 17^th Symphonic

Abby Ports  12^th Concert

Colleen Averill 15^th Concert

Sammy McCassland  19^th Concert

ALTO SAX

Kari Brookmire—2^nd alternate

TENOR SAX

Robert Lester--- First Chair Symphonic and ALLVA ELIGIBLE

BARITONE SAX

Matt Taylor  1^st Concert

TRUMPETS

Elizabeth Bowen---First Concert

Helena Damico—6^th Concert

Jaclyn Bricker  4^th alternate

FRENCH HORN

Steven Samsel—1^st Alternate

TROMBONES

Andrew Sharp  2^nd alternate

EUPHONIUMS

Matthew Matherly---- 2^nd Concert

Brett Peat ---3^rd Concert

TUBA

Jami Hagood---6^th Symphonic

Steven Aull---3^rd alternate

PERCUSSION

Lenny Ports----2^nd Symphonic and ALL VA ELIGIBLE

Richard Davis----6^th Concert

Scott Montgomery---3^rd alternate

Emily Church ---4^th Alternate

Join me in congratulating ALL Titans who prepared auditions this past Saturday, and offer congratulations as well to those Titans listed above who earned chairs and will represent Cosby at the 2012 All District Band the first weekend in February.

ES

Holiday Concert Recap

Hey Gang!!!

POST CONCERT WRAP UP

My congratulations to each of you for an outstanding evening last Friday night at our Holiday concert. We had HUGE crowd in the house to hear you play so well!!! Your performance was very deserved of the great response you received from the audience. It was an exciting night for all, and you know, that is the way it should be!! A band concert is a big deal---or it should be a big deal, and our shows are indeed a big deal!!! This is why we do our concerts on Friday nights, because big events happen on Fridays!!!

AUDIENCE

Like I said before, WOW!!!! We were way over 800 in the house, probably close to 850. My thanks to each of you who helped to promote your concert in the true "Titan way"!!!! Our audience was great in the way they conducted themselves too. Our crowds here are usually great that way!!! It isn't that way at all schools though, believe me!!! Bravo to our wonderful Cosby band audience!!!

A good number of Cosby teachers, and teachers from our CCPS feeder pattern schools were in attendance as well. I was also pleased with the student turnout as well. CHS students should attend the band concerts, and those that did spoke in glowing terms to me afterwards about their experience.

A special thanks to the TMB color guard who were present on Friday night, assisting with ushers and other such things!! It was great to see you all!!!!!

PERFORMANCE

I am looking forward to reviewing the DVD and the CD that we made from Friday. What I remember from the performance is that I thought you played really clean and musically.
I thought too that the music had a lot of spirit and energy behind it. It is a great starting point for us as we grow musically for our upcoming concert series performances!!!! We will need to be better for the State Concert Festival in March in order for us to earn the superior rating that we are used to, but we are well on our way. Great job y'all!!!

RECEPTION

One word. Yummmmmmm!!!! Thanks to all for the wonderful food and for all the fellowship after the show. A great time was had by all. Special thanks to the hospitality band moms for their superior job in setting up and making sure the reception was great!!!

WHATS NEXT

State Concert Festival on Saturday March 10 and our pyramid concert on Thursday March 1 are the next performances by the Titan Band. We will read new music for this event on Monday (tomorrow) in wind ensemble, and Tuesday in concert band and jazz ensemble. CB will be the only time we will meet this week, so we will do some DVD watching and some music reading as well. The rest of the classes will have our DVD session on exam day. We also want to remember our Florida parade ( WOOOO HOOOO) (like we could forget that!!) and you will get that music in January when you return.

New music recording are available on Edline now, with more coming soon. Already "The Ascension" is on Edline for you to enjoy. The others are coming soon.

Check your rehearsal schedule on Edline for state concert and Florida rehearsals as listed there.

Again, congratulations to all for a wonderful Friday night!!! The Cosby community is very proud of this band, and that was clearly apparent when you looked out into the audience!!!

Bravo Titans!!!

ES

Toys for Tots

All

We will be performing again for the Toys for Tots campaign on Saturday December 3 at Space mart Self Storage on Commonwealth Center Parkway.

Our timeline will look like this:

1:00 report to Space Mart. We will play Christmas Carols from books provided to you. No rehearsal will be needed--just "read and go". The music is sight-readable by all!! We will play for a while, eat for a while, and play a little bit more. We will be done at or before 3:00.

Food, hot chocolate, and Santa Claus will be there!!! Every band member that brings a toy to donate will receive a chance to win a $100.00 Apple store gift card!! The more toys you donate, the more chances you have to win.

The time you give here (2 hours) will be usable for honor societies and service clubs community service hours. In addition, all performers will be given bountiful extra credit for their second quarter band grade.

The manager of Space mart--John Poss--is a major benefactor of our band program. The truck that he allows us to use, free of charge, has saved us thousands of dollars over the years. Like last year when we went on the cruise, he will be allowing us to take their truck to Florida, for free, which has saved you money in trip costs!!!! This is a great way to say thank you to him, and to support the United States Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive.

Plus, those there will have a great time as we did last year!!!!


ES

Earl E. Shaffer, Jr.

State 101 for Parents

STATE 101---for new parents and a good reminder for old parents!!!

Dear Parents

This note is to give you some information on the upcoming state festival, its importance to your child, and to our program.

As you remember, I wrote you prior to the Midlothian Showcase. I talked about how musical competition versus a festival format. The festival experience---where each group going up against a standard grading scale, rather than competing head-to-head, is a better idea to me. I really like the state festival set-up in that it is truly each band against a standard performance expectation. State Festival is a 7 site, 2 weekend mega-event that includes over 160 bands in total from across the commonwealth. It is indeed a big deal!!! No system is perfect though, we are still dealing with the human element as far as judges go, but this is a pretty fair event for the most part.

Bands at State (now formally called the State Marching Assessment) perform for a panel of 7 state-selected adjudicators (I myself am one as well) and attempt to earn one of five ratings awarded. The rating levels and their representative grades are Superior A, Excellent B, Good C, Fair D, and Poor F. Superior is often called a I, Excellent is often called a II, Good a III and so on.

Like most bands that perform at the highest level, we are in between the Superior and excellent range now and are still working, tweaking and polishing as best we can!!! At State, any band, or for that matter, all the bands, can earn any rating. Just like in math class, there is no limit on the number of As on a test, and the same applies here. Anyone who is good enough can get the Superior rating.

Bands at state are still divided by classification (size) in order to maintain fair comparisons but there are no first place in class AAAA type of awards here. In fact, there are no captions awards of any kind, such as guard or drum line or marching or any of that. All there is is your rating. Thats plenty!!!

A band that earns a Superior at the state marching festival in the fall and a Superior at the state concert festival in the spring (March) of the same school year is awarded a Commonwealth of Virginia Honor Band" title. This is a very distinguished title and puts those multi-talented bands (tops in concert AND marching) in select company so to speak. We at Cosby have earned Commonwealth of Virginia Honor Band titles for the past 2 years, hence our designation as a Two-Time Commonwealth of Virginia Honor Band. In our 5 previous years of existence, we have earned Superior ratings at the past five consecutive concert festivals.

The performance at state is structured like any other contest. Titan parents need to arrive at Hermitage HS early, enjoy some other bands performances, and cheer the Titans on as best you can. Be enthusiastic in your support for your children!!!

We need you as parents, to really applaud for a long time after the opener, because our transition into the second tune is taking a bit longer than we like, and if there is a great crowd response, it wont seem so long to the judges!!!

The Titans performance is the last show of the day. It wont take long to find out our ratings as they announce them in ratings breaks about every 8 bands or so.

IF we earn a Superior, and we are certainly shooting for that, that is a cause for great celebration. There will be some excited Titans, and there should be!!! They need to know how proud you are of them. Be bountiful in your praise for the efforts of your child!!

If we dont earn a Superior, there will be some very disappointed and sad Titans as well. A streak will have ended, and there will likely be some tears and such. Seniors will likely be upset that this happened on their watch, and many will feel like they failed. This is certainly not the case---but.....well.....you know...... That type of reaction, sadness and such, is normal, and to be honest, expected as this event is important to our program. As a parent, your job here will be a bit tougher. You will need to lift up your child should they need it, let them know you are very proud of them unconditionally, and let them know they are still a great band as all of this is certainly the truth.

We all look forward to a great day on Saturday!! We look forward to seeing you there as we go forth and perform on the state level. Thank you in advance for supporting your child at this event and for all you do to support the Titan Band!!!

ES

More Great News for the Titans

Dear Titan Band Families

As you may have heard by now, the news keeps getting better!! First, we get accepted to perform in the day parade at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World! This is already great news. But today, the news got even better!!

Instead of performing in the day parade, we have accepted an invitation offered today (10-13-11) to perform at the beginning of the "Main Street Electric Light Parade", the famous night time parade at the Magic Kingdom!! This is a huge honor for the band as those parade slots are reserved for only the best applicants. Needless to say, I accepted the honor on the spot on behalf of the Titan Marching Band!!!! We look forward to representing our school, community, state, and nation in this prestigious event!!!

This will prove to be an experience that our Titans will never forget!!! We look forward to taking a huge group of Titans with us in March to show the world what we have to offer!!!

Don't forget that your trip information in the form of a powerpoint and a letter/packet has been emailed to you, posted on Edline, and in the secured area of the band website. Deposits are being taken as we speak!!

GO TITAN BAND!!!

ES

Timelines for Manchester, Clover Hill Game and STATE!!!!

Titan Band Families -

Below are the timelines for the next 3 events for the TMB.

Practices----Tuesday 10-11 and Thursday 10-13

Tuesday 10-18 Wednesday 10-19 and Thursday 10-20

CD RECORDING SESSION!!!!!  10-27 during rehearsal time

@Manchester October 14

4:30---room open—uniforms ready

5:30—be dressed by/load busses/depart for Manchester

Arrive---warmups/stretching/show prep

7:15 Witches Show—before the game

7:30—kickoff.  Go Titans!!!!

Return home at games end

10:40—parent pickup time

Clover Hill Home Game October 21

Regular home game timeline

STATE @Hermitage HS Henrico County October 22

11:30 room open

TITANS ARRIVE FED!!!!

12:15---leave room ---head to stadium

12:30-2:00---rehearsal in stadium

2:45 depart for Hermitage

3:30--arrive

4:15—in warmup

5:00 SHOWTIME   Go Titans!!!

5:20---ratings announcements for class AAA and AAAA

6:30---depart for home

7:15 arrive/unload/unpack

7:30---parent pickup time

Big times coming up for the TMB!!!!

Go Titans!!!

ES