We have worked so hard for the OSU festival scheduled for Tuesday, but the weather has decided that we might need to stay home instead.

If there is no school, of course we will not attend the festival. (We will cross our fingers that it will be rescheduled, but this is unlikely.) But if there is a 2-hour delay and the roads to Corvallis are good, come in your black dress clothes ready to go! We will depart when school opens at 10:25.

In the meantime, stay warm and practice!!

It’s not every day that a four-time-Grammy-winning chamber ensemble visits our classroom! Through the Eugene Symphony’s educational outreach program, we were lucky enough to have Eighth Blackbird come out to EHS before their performance with the Eugene Symphony that evening.

Our students were engaged and mesmerized, and when given the opportunity to ask questions, they asked fascinating and thoughtful ones. Later that evening, the EHS band attended a pre-concert lecture at the Hult Center in which two members of Eighth Blackbird were asked to reflect about their favorite parts of their four-day residency in Eugene. Both of them talked about their visit to Elmira, and the great questions that our kids asked! Well done, EHS music students.

This year’s Chamber Choir section leaders participated in Picfest this summer, an international choral festival that performs as part of the Bach Festival. A huge congratulations go to Kelby Alloway, Tessa Bamer, Jackson Dube, and Lauren Moore for their participation and incredible performances in this event.

Above: The Picfest Choir performed in the Bach Festival’s “On the House” series, under the direction of the esteemed conductor and composer Bob Chilcott.

New choir robes are on order, and the music department has been able to retain some savings going into the next year!

As previously shared, we received a generous $2,000 from the Kiwanis Club of Fern Ridge and $1,000 from Mid Lane Cares, which allowed us to move forward with new robes.

We set a lofty goal of fundraising an additional $2,000 this Spring so we could embroider an “E” on the stoles, and also be able to make the purchase without completely depleting the music accounts going into the next school year. Between our Spring concert, our Snapraise campaign, Coffeehouse Night, and other donations, we raised $2,015.31!

Combined with the donations from Kiwanis and Mid Lane Cares, that’s a total of $5,015.31 raised this Spring. And that’s all without a single car wash! We are so appreciative of the community’s support and we can’t wait to show off our new choir robes in the Fall.

Thank you to Mid-Lane Cares for donating the remaining $1,000 toward new EHS Choir robes! The choirs are excited to be able to move forward with new robes and we greatly appreciate the community support that is making this happen.

The EHS Choirs have been saving up for new choir robes for many years. Our current set, which is at least 50 years old, is ridden with holes, stains, and broken zippers.

This week, the Fern Ridge Kiwanis Club donated a very generous $2,000 to get us closer to making those new robes a reality. We are now only $1,000 away from our goal. (Stay tuned for information about fundraisers to raise that final amount.)

Please help us thank the Fern Ridge Kiwanis Club for their support! They also recently purchased us a set of garment bags, and they run the concessions tables at our Coffeehouse Nights. Our music program is stronger thanks to their help.

Local singer-songwriter Stephan Nance visited EHS last week! Stephan performed for us, interspersing information about the music and songwriting process throughout the presentation. The students asked lots of questions at the end and even got free copies of CDs and other items from Stephan’s recent tour. Stephan has some new fans in the Elmira/Veneta area!

You can visit Stephan’s website here.

Guest conductor Laura Jackson ponders the question “Is any of tonight’s music funky?”

Group shot with the guest conductor.

The EHS band had a great field trip to the Eugene Symphony last night. We attended a pre-concert lecture with guest conductor Laura Jackson and 20-year-old violin soloist Simone Porter, before watching the concert. The kids (and teacher) were inspired by the experience and we look forward to making it a yearly tradition!

Fern Ridge Middle School has a new full-time music teacher, Mr. Cameron Siegal. He will be teaching band, choir, and general music this year.

The EHS music ensembles are looking forward to collaborating with the middle school groups in their joint concerts this Spring!

For those who like to plan ahead, please check out the Calendar page and save the dates for next year’s music performances and other events.