Curtis Junior High School Instrumental Music Matthew Grenzner Craig Rine

Orchestra Director Band Director January 27th, 2017 Dear Parents and Students: On March 10th and 11th, the Creative Arts Division of Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon will be hosting the 44th annual Northwest Orchestra Festival. This festival involves schools from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California Montana and Utah performing on both days in different categories. These groups include small ensembles (2-3 musicians), chamber orchestras, large orchestras as well as full orchestras. This will be the 37th year that either the Curtis Junior High or Senior High School orchestra program has been represented at this event. This festival provides an opportunity for our students to participate in a program that is presently offered to symphonic bands, choirs and jazz bands. During the festival, students will perform for adjudicators, receive written and verbal comments about the performance and receive scores based on different performance criteria. This provides the opportunity for an exchange of orchestra concepts which will greatly benefit both students and directors alike. In the end, groups will be ranked in each category and receive awards based on the adjudicator’s evaluations. In the pages to follow, please find information about the trip including student cost, draft itinerary, in school rehearsal schedule, night rehearsal information, concert date, as well as other important trip information. Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or concerns. I will be more than happy to answer them for you. I look forward to another great trip with our students this year! Sincerely, Matthew Grenzner Orchestra Director mgrenzner@upsd.wednet.edu

Student Cost and Information: This year we will be traveling with approximately 115 band and orchestra students to the festival. The cost per student will be $120.00. Included in this cost are the following: Event Registration Fee One night hotel lodging Charter bus service for the trip Boxed lunch All student payments should be paid to Mrs. Cavelti in the Student Accounts window next to the main office. Checks should be made out to Curtis JH School, or you can pay online by visiting the CJH website, and clicking the Students Fees and Fines – Payable Here tab. Students must pay for their trip before rooming assignments can be chosen. The deadline for making your payment and being eligible for the trip is Friday February 17th. Please note that the cost of this trip is calculated by the total number of students that have auditioned to participate in and be part of the Curtis Junior High Full Orchestra. SAMPLE Trip Itinerary** Below is what a typical trip looks like. These times are only approximates, but are an average of what has actually happened over the past couple of years. Saturday March 11th, 2017

x 8:30am – Students will arrive at Curtis Junior High to gather instruments, music, and help load boxed lunches onto the buses.

x 9:00am – Charter buses will depart CJH and travel to Gresham, OR. There will be one rest stop break on the way.

x 12:00pm – Arrive at Mt. Hood Community College. Students will leave all instruments and music on the bus, but take their lunch and anything else they may need with them. We will eat lunch in the courtyard if the weather is nice, and then go to listen to other High School orchestras perform in the concert hall.

x 3:00pm – Warm Up Time x 4:00pm – Performance Time x 5:00pm – Command Performances. New to the Festival last year are the Command

Performances. Throughout the day, adjudicators from the different performance areas listen to find unique performing groups that they would like showcased for the entire Festival audience before the Awards Ceremony. This performance has nothing to do with raking in their category; it is just a group that has something that everyone should witness.

x 7:00pm – Load buses after Awards Ceremony and leave for Lloyd Center Mall for dinner, provided by student.

x 9:00pm – Depart Lloyd Center Mall for hotel.

Sunday March 12th, 2017 x 8:00am – Breakfast at hotel. The hotel offers a vast arrangement of breakfast items

for their guests. x 9:00am – Load buses and depart for Curtis JH. One rest stop break will be available

on the way back. x 12:00pm or sooner – Arrive at School. All students are responsible for clearing all

items off of their buses, including instruments, music, trash, personal items including back packs, uniforms and shoes.

** Please remember that these are only rough estimates based on previous years. You will receive a fully detailed timeline when we get closer to the actual trip. In School Rehearsal Schedule The following rehearsal schedule has been approved for us in order to make sure we are ready for the trip. Please note that all students involved are solely responsible for all work from classes that are missed due to these rehearsals. On rehearsal days, students are allowed to miss their band or orchestra class to participate in a missed class, if that teacher has already approved this switch. Please talk with teachers well ahead of time to schedule any make up work.

Tuesday 2/14 2nd Period Thursday 2/16 1st Period Tuesday 2/28 2nd Period Thursday 3/2 1st Period Monday 3/6 Evening Rehearsal (6:15-7:30pm) Wednesday 3/8 Orchestra Concert Thursday 3/9 2nd Period Saturday 3/11 Mt. Hood Festival

Remind Communications There is a Remind group set up for this trip. If you would like to receive notifications and reminders about rehearsals or what is going on during the trip, please send a text message to 81010 with the message @cjhgresham. A final detailed schedule will be sent out closer to the time of the event. Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have any questions or concerns.