What an amazing winter concert season Dade County Chorus had this year! 

Starting the first week of November till final week of December, Dade County Chorus has been performing all across the region. 

District Honor Chorus: November 2 & 3
DC Chorus had 27 Middle School students and 22 High School students to perform in the Georgia Music Educators Association's District 7 Honor Choruses at Woodland High School in Cartersville, Ga.  Students worked with renowned clinicians from across the Southeast for a day of rehearsals and then presented two FANTASTIC concerts to a packed auditorium each night. 

Shorter Chorale Performance: November 9
DCHS Chorus was honored to host Shorter University's Chorale, Women's and Men's Choruses on Monday, November 9th, as they began their southeast recruitment tour.  Two of our DC Chorus Alumni, Jacob Case and Ashley Phillips, are members of the Shorter Chorale and according to Dr. Cash, they have both represented Dade County extremely well. We are SO proud of our alumni and absolutely LOVE when they come back to perform! 

Veteran's Day Performances: November 10 & 11
Dade County Chorus participated in both the Dade Middle and Dade County High School Veteran's Day Assemblies this Fall.  These ceremonies truly honored our local veterans and the speakers gave inspiring talks about honor, integrity, and responsibility to our students. 

On November 10, the DCHS Women's Chorus performed the National Anthem to open the assembly.  Our Men's Ensemble performed the moving piece, Tell My Father, following the reading of the Gettysburg address by Coach McMahan.  The DCHS Band and Mixed Chorus combined in a stirring performance of the Civil War hymn, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, to close out the assembly to a standing ovation from the student body and special guests. Click here to view the entire DCHS Veteran's Day Assembly. 

On November 11, a duet by Rachel Thorne and Taria Johnson opened our assembly with the National Anthem.  8th Grade student, Daniel Murphy read a piece entitled, "United We Stand" before the 8th Grade Chorus performed the song, We Will Stand With You.  The 6th Grade Chorus had their first public performance later in the assembly when they sang My America.  Parents, students, and teachers walked away from the Veteran's Day Assembly saying it was one of the most veteran honoring and best assemblies we have had. 

Rock City Enchanted Garden of Lights: December 1
​The DMS 8th Grade Chorus and DCHS Mixed Chorus performed to a packed out North Pole Lodge at the Rock City Enchanted Garden of Lights.  Selections from our upcoming Christmas concerts were performed to rousing applause from everyone there.  The DCHS Mixed Chorus piece White Winter Hymnal featured five of our eighth grade chorus students performing the intricate clapping pattern of this piece.  The students received free admission for themselves and one adult, as well as a free hot chocolate/drink coupon for their performance. 

Trenton United Methodist Community Christmas Luncheon: December 4
The DMS 7th Grade Chorus was invited to be the featured performer for the TUMC Annual Christmas Luncheon.  This luncheon was particularly special because Bishop Looney was the guest speaker. Bishop Looney's wife, Carolyn, was actually the music teacher and Dade High School back in the 60s and he told many humourous and touching anecdotes from their time here in Dade County.  The attendees were very complimentary of our performance and kind to our students as they fed them a delicious lunch of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, salad, and dessert in appreciation of their performance.

DMS Winter Concert: December 7
Our DMS Chorus students performed a wonderful concert on Monday, December 7.  The 6th Grade Chorus performed pieces in Hebrew and Spanish as well as bringing down the house with Christmas...in about 3 Minutes. The 7th Grade Chorus  featured a number of soloists on the classic holiday favorite, The Chipmunk Song. Our 8th Grade Chorus began their selections with an a cappella piece, Riu, Riu, Chiu. The finale of the concert, Christmas Chopsticks, featured a four hand piano accompaniment by our wonderful accompanists, Ms. Karen Swafford and Ms. Carey Dupree. 
​

DCHS Mixed Chorus performs for State Superintendent: Dec 8

Georgia State Superintendent, Richard Woods, traveled to Dade County High School to recognize us for our great strides in improving the graduation rate of our students.  To welcome him into the building, Principal Josh Ingle requested that the Mixed Chorus perform some of our holiday repertoire.  We were honored to be asked and even more excited when we saw this tweet! :) 

DCHS Winter Concert: December 10
The Dade County High School Mixed Chorus and Women's Chorus presented their Winter Concert on Thursday, December 10th.  The Mixed Chorus started off the concert with a bang as they sang, Eatnemen Viulie, also known as the opening song of the Disney movie Frozen.  The Women's Chorus performed several foreign language pieces to highlight Christmas around the world, as well as the new Ken Berg piece Bells of Christmastide featuring soloist, Sarah Jones. We closed the concert, as has become tradition, with The Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah and invited our DC Chorus alumni to join us on the stage. With nearly 100 voices joined in song, this piece was the highlight of the evening. 

DCHS Vocal Ensemble Caroling on behalf of the Dade County Chamber: December 12
A vocal ensemble from DCHS Chorus went caroling on behalf of the Dade County Chamber, Saturday December 12th to many businesses around town.  We visited many locally owned restaurants where we asked to perform for patrons and employees alike.  Every single business or restaurant we visited invited us to come back any time! Several patrons remarked, "This is SO nice! Nobody really does this anymore!" We were happy to spread the Christmas spirit with this and all our other Winter Concert season performances! We hope to see you at our Spring Concert Season events in 2016!  ​

DCHS Chorus Christmas Coffeehouse: December 14
Our final event of the season was the Christmas Coffeehouse.  This is an annual fundraiser where for $5 you get all the desserts you can eat and coffee you can drink while the students perform solos, in duets and other small groups widely known and celebrated Christmas songs.  We had the debut performance of our Men's Quartet and we also featured our Mixed Chorus performing White Winter Hymnal by Pentatonix. We had over 13 acts to perform and the students are already preparing for the Spring Coffeehouse on Monday, April 25! 

Many thanks to our friends, families, and community partners who made the 2015 Winter Concert Season a rousing success! 

From the National Association for Music Education
 
It's a new day for music education. For the first time ever, music has been recognized as a stand-alone subject in the definition of a Well-Rounded Education in a new federal education law. 

Today, the United States Senate passed the "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA) [S. 1177] by a final vote count of 85 to 12, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was reauthorized.  With the President's signature, hopefully in the days to come, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) will be no more. 
 
We want to thank our members and all music education advocates for sending more than 20,000 letters to Congress. Your voice contributed to this monumental advancement for music education.

Here are the most important top line takeaways from the new bill:

• A New and Clear Intent to Support Our Nation's Schools Through a Well-Rounded Education: This is a sea change from NCLB, which focused heavily on the academic success of students narrowly defined as reading and math.

• Enumeration of Music as a Well-Rounded Subject: Replacing the Core Academic Subject language from NCLB, this language clearly articulates that music should be a part of every child's education, no matter their personal circumstance.

• Requirements for Well-Rounded Education: Schools will now be able to assess their ability to provide a well-rounded education, including music, and address any deficiencies using federal funds.

• Flexibility of Title I funds to support a well-rounded education. All Title I programs, both school-wide and targeted, are now available to provide supplemental funds for a well-rounded education, including music.

• More Professional Development for Music Educators: Funds from Titles I, II and IV of ESSA, may support professional development for music educators as part of supporting a well-rounded education.

• Flexible Accountability Systems: States must now include multiple progress measures in assessing school performance, which can include such music education-friendly measures as student engagement, parental engagement and school culture/climate.

• Protection from "Pull Outs": The new ESSA discourages removing students from the classroom, including music and arts, for remedial instruction.

To learn more about the bill, click here.

Passing this law with music listed as a stand-alone subject simply kicks open the door of opportunity to ensuring music's place in every school -- and leading in the decision-making for what that looks like.

Now you can take the lead in the next steps.


 

We are almost halfway through the first nine weeks already as we begin the month of September this week.  All choirs are in full swing with learning new sheet music and music reading skills. Our first performances will be around Veteran's Day, so keep your ears open for more details concerning that in the coming months! 


TODAY BEGINS OUR T-SHIRT SPONSORSHIP FUNDRAISER!!
Your student should be coming home with a t-shirt sponsorship form.  Sponsorship collection begins TODAY, Sept 2 and ends Tuesday, Sept 15.  This is one of our BIGGEST fundraisers of the year and we need your help to get it off to a great start.  Both Dade Middle and DCHS Choruses will be raising money with sponsors, but money raised by DMS students will stay at DMS and vice versa. The sponsorship form, as well as the letter home, is attached. 

UPCOMING ASSESSMENTS AND FOCUS TOPICS: 

6th Grade Chorus
Major Scale Performance Assessment: Wednesday, Sept 2 
1st 9 Weeks Focus Topics : Intro to The Staff, Alignment and Breath Management, Singing with Pure Vowels and Relaxed Open Tone


7th Grade Chorus
Leap Interval Identification Assessment: Tuesday, Sept 8
1st 9 Weeks Focus Topics: Review of 6th Grade Concepts, Interval Identification, Singing with attention to Blend, Balance, and Intonation 

8th Grade Chorus 
Basic Music Notation Assessment: Friday, Sept 4
1st 9 Weeks Focus Topics: Review of 6th & 7th Grade Concepts, Syncopated Rhythms, 3 Part Singing, & Tonal Memory

How Can YOU Help Develop Your Student's Musicianship: 
1) Encourage them to practice singing and vocalizing every day!
2) Ask them about what they are learning in class so that they think about music learning 
3) Listen to a variety of styles of music and ask your student to describe them using more than just "I like it!" or "I don't like it!" or "It's good" or "It's bad."  Encourage them to justify their opinion with the musical terms we are learning in class. 

Dade County Chorus students are off to a great start for the 2015-2016 school year. :-) I was so excited to meet so many middle school parents on Open House night and I look forward to working with you and your students throughout the year.  

In each class we have spent the first week reviewing the syllabus, going over classroom procedures, and getting to some singing! Our next hurdle to address will be the Student Learning Objective(SLO) Pre-Test.  This test is designed to assess your student's current knowledge and skills of the concepts taught in each particular Chorus class.  The pre-test will not count toward the student's grade in Chorus, but a post test at the end of the year does act as a "Final" for the course. 

The SLO testing schedule will be as follows: 
-August 13 & 14(Thurs & Fri): DMS 6th Grade Chorus & DMS 7th Grade Chorus
-August 14 & 17(Fri & Mon): DMS 8th Grade Chorus
-August 17-20: DCHS Mixed Chorus & DCHS Women's Chorus

I hope that the SLO testing will not take a full two days, but in order to allow enough time for the performance AND written portion, I have allotted two days per class. 

I am excited to get our First Days of School paperwork and duties out of the way in order to get into some music learning! If you have any questions about anything we have done or are doing in Chorus, please feel free to contact me via email at gabriellehaston@dadecs.org.  Thank you! 

At the end of each year we have a graduation day...at DMS it is technically 8th Grade Promotion, but we all know it's graduation. :-)  Graduation is a time to reflect on the years that have passed and look forward to the future.  This year we send off a fantastic group of seniors who we will miss dearly.  Each and every one of them are unique and talented and we wish them the very best in the future!  You will always be a part of Dade County Chorus!