Salem Band Show Schedule

Dear Parents, Band Members and Colorguard,

The following is a schedule of events for the day with regards to the Salem Band Show

OCTOBER 10, 2009 - SCHEDULE FOR SALEM BAND SHOW

• 11:45 a.m. BAND/COLORGUARD MEET IN THE MUSIC ROOM ROOM
• 2:40 p.m. FIELD REHEARSAL (FINE TUNING)
• 2:40 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. CLEAN UP AND PACK EQUIPMENT
• 3:15 p.m. - 3:50 p.m. PIZZA PARTY & RELAXATION (Sponsored by FOM)
• 3:50 p.m. - 4:20 p.m. Band gets dressed in uniforms, iuiform inspection, and load percussion and large instruments in trucks
• 4:30 p.m. BOARD THE BUSES for Salem

DESTINATION - Salem High School - Grant Field

A Salem High School student will be assigned to our band/colorguard to ensure that we can find our seats, the warm-up area, etc. Following our performance, we will pass in review. The price of admission will be $7.00 for adults, and $5.00 for students. Chaperons and staff are free! The Salem Band Parent Association will have a concession stand - bring money :-) To close out the evening, participation awards will be presented to the Drum Majors.

All students will be coming back to AHS on the buses. E T A 11:00 p.m.

Final Reminder: This is a scheduled non-district event. THIS will be included as a performance grade - besides this is a GREAT time for everyone and a chance for us to “strut our stuff” along with many other high school marching units. Please tell all your family and friends to come and support our endeavors! If you have any questions or concerns please call me at 886-1265 or email gbastien@alvirnehs.org

Musically Yours,

Mr. Gerry Bastien

Spaulding Band and Colorguard Performance Schedule

Dear Parents, Band and Colorguard members,

The band and colorguard will be performing this coming Friday, October 2, 2009 at Spaulding High School in Rochester NH.

Band and Colorguard students are required to be at Alvirne by 4:00 p.m. and are encouraged to “brown bag it” for dinner. Alvirne High School Friends of Music will supply water and dessert before we board the busses.

The band and colorguard busses will be leaving Alvirne promptly at 5:00 p.m.

Hopefully, we will be returning to Alvirne by 10:45 p.m. the latest (depending on the length of the game). The band and colorguard will have the 3rd quarter off (because they will perform so well) please make certain your child has money if they wish to purchase food/drink at the Spaulding High School concession stand.

The next Friends of Music meeting is October 1, 2010 hope to see you there!

Mr. Bastien

School Daze Week of 9/14/09

Good Evening,

I thought I would sit and write a little about the "going ons'' of last week in the instrumental world of the Alvirne High School Music Department - besides I need a break from reading and grading ensemble critiques from the Period I Band. Tomorrow I'll begin reading the Period J band critiques. Remember, if your critique wasn't in my possession (handing it in during school or by Friday September 19 ,2009 at 11:59 p.m. - you will have a 5 point deduction!) Yeah, I know I said 10 early on during the week but I'll give you all a break because it's the first one.

Anyway, last week was pretty busy,

Tuesday Night - Checking it out!

WOW! Patriots won last night - I'm a little worried about their defense - hey wait a minute this is the AHS MUSIC website not New England Patriot radio - though, for a price maybe we'll let them link to us :-)

So many new things on our site - I'm going to need to spend a weekend just getting used to navigating it. I hope many of you have taken the opportunity to explore! Today we added documents to the choral section. A little more tweaking.. but that's a separate email.

Did you catch the 1st critique assignment? I just finished the Jazz Theory Quiz # 1, unfortunately it's very late (at least for me) so I'll just present the material to the Jazz Band in the morning.

In due time, this will be the place to go for all music department related items- oh what fun!

Special thanks today to our Drum Major - Anthony, for handling the student run sectional and cleaning the music room for the guidance department meeting on college applications and scholarships.

Speaking of college- SENIORS- if you would like me to write you a letter of recommendation please get your resume to me ASAP!

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) you know it as HUMP DAY!

The plan for rehearsal - re do sets 16-23 (Love Shack) and getting it ready to perform Thursday Evening. Yes, we have a football game Thursday night instead of Friday night!

I will also go over a couple of the opening sets as well as refining getting on and off the field.

Saturday is the Lichfield Parade. We will meet at Alvirne for 8:15 a.m. and depart by 9:15 a.m

Step off time is 10:00 a.m. We should be back to AHS no later than 11:30 a.m. So please inform your parents as many students need to meet the bus in Concord for the Speedway Clean Up!

OK, this is a short blog tonight as we have a couple of full days ahead of us and Mr. B needs his beauty sleep.

Till tomorrow,

Mr. B

AHS Band and Colorguard - one class act

The title says it all - the band and colorguard not only performed at the first home game but welcomed the Central Band of Manchester into the Alvirne Band Family. The kids from the Central Band were overwhelmed with the friendliness of our band and colorguard students. Right from the beginning when our drum majors, Anthony and Lauren met them on the busses till the very end when the band saluted them as they boarded the busses back to Manchester with a little gift from us to them - home made cookies. Special thanks to Mrs. Harper for baking 900 - yes you are reading right- 900 chocolate chip cookies. Each student and colorguard as well as this director and staff received a bag with 3 chocolate chip cookies -YUM!
The night started off with a lot of doubt -weather wise-but we weathered the rain and the night proceeded with lots of music, fun and even dancing during Love Shack. A moment of silence for the fallen of 9/11 into our National Anthem made for a classy beginning leading to an exciting evening of " Friday Night" Football.
3 tunes with 19 of the 25 sets was pretty impressive for the first time out.
Tomorrow, Monday - band students will view the video of their first game and write up their critiques. Certain weaknesses of the marching show will be evident but it's all about learning and preparing for our major performance at the Salem Band Show, October 10.
This week's goal is to finish up Love Shack and work on - you guessed it gating.
I would also like to remind everyone that our next football game is Thursday Evening at 7:00 p.m., which means that Friday we will do another analysis :-)

Saturday the 19th is the Litchfield Parade - we will be stepping off at 10:00 a.m. and should be back on our way to Hudson by 11:00 a.m. This will give plenty of time for those of you who are going to the speedway "clean up" fund raiser.
I would also like to thank Mrs. Jutras for the pictures of the Friday night band and colorguard performance. Don't forget to visit the website often and check out the videos of our performances as well as the stills.

Finally, "Thank You" to the Pit Crew, Uniform Committee, Cookie Bakers and the Hudson PD who helped to "Part the Seas" as our band and colorguard returned to the music room after the game.

It was also great to see Alum from 1997 to the present! You should all be proud as you began this legacy. Remember, it's your band and colorguard!

Have a great week!
Mr. B

Alvirne Band and Colorguard Halftime Performance Photos and Video

Pictures from Friday night's game are on Picasa! Alvirne welcomed the Manchester Central Marching Band and Colorguard and shared their halftime performance. It was two shows for the price of one. The night was chilly and wet, but the music was hot.

From First Football Game 9-11-09

Hump Day and Today 9/10/09

Good Evening,
Welcome to the new web page. Please let our webmasters know what is working and what needs to be "fixed". Be gentle, these gentlemen have been working like crazy to get this new site up and running and they are dealing with Mr. Right Brain and his crazy ideas - that's me, if you are not part of our music department family.

So let's talk or in this case write about yesterday.

OK, yesterday was "Hump Day". Every Wednesday night from now until October 7th we have our scheduled marching band show rehearsal from 6:00 p.m..-8:30 p.m. I must admit, all band and colorguard students were focused on the night's work. Sets 1-15, getting on and off the field and sets 16-19 or the beginning of Love Shack went well. Well, almost well. Not perfect, but the band and colorguard will not embarass themselves tomorrow evening. I like how we are getting on the field - it reminds me of a little "blue and gray" action. We still need to work on gating - set 2-3 would be great if we could just gate. Hopefully, next week that willl be a major focus and the box will become a cube. Don't forget your fundamentals tomorrow night -roll stepping, back marching, shifting, dressing etc...
Today, was the beginning of our Holiday Pie Fundraiser. Ask your friends to buy a pie or maybe order some Aunt Annie's Pretzels - don't forget the 5 cheese garlic French bread pizza - my favorite. In fact, I wish I had some right now as I'm watching the Tennesee Titans and Pittsburg Steelers football game. Oh, did I tell you that this is one of my favorite times of the year. Go Pats!
I received a few emails this evening wondering what is going to happen if it rains tomorrow night. If it's just a light mist we will play - if the skies should open up and it's a torrential down pour, we won't play- how sad will that be, all the work we've put into the season. Our debut, and possibly nothing.
It's getting late, and I need to retire for the night. Tomorrow morning will come early but breakfast will be worth it :-)
Jazz Band- remember to set up in a circle and let's work on some improvisation in the key of F Major. NHMEA Jazz All State students don't forget your application and check made payable to ahsmusic dept.
Time to call it a night.
Ciao,
Mr. B

Welcome to the new Alvirne Music Web Page!

We hope that you like the new web page - please let us know what you think!

School Daze - New Blog Space

Ok, here is the beginning of the blog on our new and improved website.

I don't have too much time to write but I just want to make certain that things are up and running and I'm having an easier time navigating everything.

So much technology, so much potential - now to make time.

Enjoy the Labor Day Weekend.

Mr. B

Guided Tour of Our New Blog

Welcome to the new Home of the Alvirne Music Program. This is a Blog-based site that functions differently than other websites that you may be typically used to. Why is it different?

A blog (a contraction of the term "weblog") is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

Our blog provides information, commentary, and news on the Alvirne Music Program. This blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to Alvirne Music. We will have the ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format and will be an important part of our blog.

Along with the blog we also have a Photo site and YouTube site.

Now on to our grand tour of our "blog's" capabilities. Please take into consideration that this is new and you may discover "bugs" that we continue to monitor and correct.

Posts - Our entries or "posts" are displayed is reverse-chronological order which means the newest posts are on the top and become older as they are listed down the page. This is the most important concept for you to understand as you visit our site. The posts will contain subject matter from all areas of the Music Program. There will be several authors to this blog as it matures.

On the front page each post in summarized and to read it in its entirety, click the read more.

As this blog grows and posts increase, all posts will not be displayed on the front page, but they are not gone, they have been archived. You can still read them by finding them through Categories, Search, or Article Archive.

Top Navigation Bar - These links will display all the posts for that category, i.e, by clicking on Instrumental, all posts that have been labeled Instrumental will be listed for your reading pleasure.

Search - Looking for something specific on our blog, type your search in the box and hit return. All posts with your search will be displayed.

RSS Feed - Feeds are a way for our blog to distribute our content well beyond just visitors using browsers. Feeds permit subscription to regular updates, delivered automatically via a web portal, news reader, or in some cases good old email. Feeds also make it possible for site content to be packaged into "widgets," "gadgets," mobile devices, and other bite-sized technologies that make it possible to display blogs, podcasts, and major news/sports/weather/whatever headlines just about anywhere.

Spotlight - This will notify you of important item of interest.

Categories - This is a list of all the subject matter we have on this blog. These Categories are the easiest way to navigate the blog. All blog posts belong to a minimum of one and many belong to several categories. If you would like to return to reading all of the posts, click on All Posts in the menu.

Music Program Calender - This is a condensed listing of up-and-coming activities. There is also a Schedule category that displays the Calender in all its glory.

Our Featured Video - This displays a selected video for your viewing pleasure and also links to our YouTube site.

Our Latest Photos - This displays the latest photos that have been upload to our Picasa photo site and contains a link for viewing many others.

Mr. Bastien's Blog - Do you want to get know what's really, really, really going on and get a glimpse into that "interesting" mind of his? Get it from the "man" himself. His own personal blog.
Photo and Video Sites - This has the links to our YouTube Video and Picasa Photo sites and will also have links to websites that may be of interest to all.

Documents and Forms - This is a list of Music Program Documents for you to read, download, and print.

Alvirne Music Discussion Group - This is a place for everyone to start discussions to help themselves and others.

Our Recent Performances - This displays the latest videos that have been uploaded to YouTube and contains a link for viewing many others.

Followers - Show your support and be a follower. Let us know you are there!

Recent Posts - A listing of the latest posts.

Recent Comments - A listing of the latest comments.

Read of all of this and still have a problem, send me an email.

A New Year of Alvirne Music!

Welcome to another exciting year of Alvirne High School Music! Whether you are the parent of a freshman music student or a "Veteran" parent of a senior musician, or anywhere in between, this time of year is an exciting beginning - a time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Just as our daughters and sons are starting anew, so are we as parents. In that spirit, I wish to welcome everyone to the 2009-2010 year, and for you new parents, to the Alvirne High School Friends of Music (FOM) family.

The FOM is a parents' organization, established to support the Alvirne High School Music Department. FOM meets on the first Thursday of each month during the school year (with a few exceptions). All the meetings are held in the Alvirne music room and start at 7:00pm. Our first meeting will be on Thursday, September 3th. FOM is a non-profit organization and has bylaws, a constitution and Conflict of Interest Documentation. These documents are posted online for your convenience. Please feel free to read them, download them and provide feedback on them.

Having said all of the above, I'd like to get back on the topic of family. For both our kids and us parents, this group is indeed a family. Due to common interests, these students bond well together and as a group, they become close as the school year wears on. Many of them come to the music room in the morning before class – hang out for a few moments and gear up for the day. They see each other in the halls between classes and greet each other, knowing that they will certainly see each other again later in the day and get to spend some time together doing something that they love.

Because of this, we as parents get to know each other through their relationships, through their activities – football games, fundraisers, concerts, etc. and we begin to develop friendships. Some of the best friends that my wife Mimi and I have, we’ve met through FOM. That’s just the way it is.

Hopefully you got the chance to meet some of the other FOM parents at the post Band Camp Bar B Q, but now with band camp over and the marching season looming, we would like to invite all new parents to stop in early (6:15 – 7:00) before the first FOM meeting next Thursday, September 3rd. Take a few moments to come in for a drink, a snack and meet many of the other parents who are part of FOM. Of course, we’re always looking for help in keeping this organization running, but the purpose of this is simply to meet and get to know each other a little bit. And as the marching season moves ahead, take the opportunity to come up to the stands before picking up your son or daughter during Wednesday practices to see some of their hard work.

I look forward to seeing you all on September 3rd!

President Friends of Music: Bob Guessferd
Vice-President of Operations: Chris McNally
Vice-President Fundraising: Carol Brauza
Co-Secretaries: Deb Cocozziello and Lisa Nute
Treasurer: Vince Egan