HAPPY SPRING!  As usual, we have a busy one ahead of us

The largest concert of note for the Middle School and East is our Spring Concert, featuring the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade bands as well as our Middle School Jazz Band.  This will again be in the High School Gymnasium set up as a “concert in the round” with both sides of the bleachers open to hold the large audience we always have for this concert.  The end of the concert will feature almost 300 students playing at once a tune that is dear to Waverly’s collective heart, so it will be a concert that should not be missed.  It will all happen on May 7th at 7:30 PM.  Please have your student arrive at 7:15, no earlier, no later (MS Jazz Band at 7, please).  The Middle School students should wear their band polos with their black pants and shoes, and 5th and 6th grade students should be dressed nicely (no jeans or athletic shoes). 

The Middle School Jazz Band has just recently finished performing for Jazz Night, and if you were there, you saw one amazing concert.  Every year I am amazed at the quality of guest artists we bring in to perform with our middle and high school groups, and this year was no different.  Mr. Tad Weed was amazing on the piano, and our special additions of our own Mr. Rosin on bass and MSU professor Randy Gelispie on drums made this a performance that shouldn’t have been missed.  I’m sure that next year will be great as well, so check the band calendars for Jazz Night early next spring.

The Middle School Jazz Band does have a few more performances of note.  On April 29th we will be performing before the NJHS Induction Ceremony starting at about 6:30 and ending as the inductees enter the Little Theater at the Middle School.  We will also be playing just before the 8th grade recognition ceremony on June 4th at 6:30 as well.  Also, as stated earlier, we will also be performing at the Spring Concert on May 7th at 7:30, probably up in the balcony of the Gymnasium again, since that seemed to work well last year.

Also coming up is our annual reward trip to Cedar Point.  This year we have about 70 students and parents from the 7th and 8th grade bands (and another 80 students from the middle school choirs and orchestras) attending our trip on Friday, May 30th to the funpark in Sandusky, Ohio.  We will be leaving at 5:45 AM and return about midnight that day.  This is a chance for some fun in the sun in one of the best parks in the nation.

I also would like to congratulate those students that applied to and we accepted in the MSBOA district 8 Junior High Honors band:  8th graders Seth Carlisle - Bass Clarinet, Jacob Miller - Trombone, and Logan Raterink - Oboe, and 7th graders Adam Epstein - saxophone and Wesley Canady and Danielle Brodberg - both trumpet.  They will be going to Okemos HS on May 17th and 18th to learn and perform an entire concert in two days with many of the other outstanding students in the area.  Good job middle school students!

 ENJOY THE REST OF YOUR YEAR, AND THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT!

 David Gorbe,

Waverly East and Middle School Band Director