Author: Shane Monkman

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of October. Here’s what’s going on in the music department:

Fall Concert:
Our fall concert is on Tuesday, October 29th at 7:00 pm in the theatre and will feature Choir, Band 9, Jr. and Sr. Jazz Bands as well as Sr. Wind Ensemble. It’s going to be an incredible showcase of what our students have been working on so far!
Students are expected to be in the music room no later than 6:30 pm (choir students will need to be on stage at 6:00 pm for a run through with our accompanist). We have discussed performance uniform in class, more info can be found on the Uniform section of our website or in the course outline.

Coffee Fundraiser:
Our fall coffee fundraiser was a huge success and coffee is being delivered to the school as your read this. Keep an eye out for our Purdy’s fundraiser in late November and a second coffee fundraiser in January.

Band Trip:
We are currently working on a package to attend the Con Brio Music Festival in Whistler as our band trip this year. This trip will be open to all students and we are hoping to have a concert band and a jazz band perform at the festival. You can expect to see trip info coming home in early November.

GWG Music Swag:
We will we doing our annual GWG Music department swag order in November. Students will have the chance to purchase hoodies, t-shirts, water bottles and more!

We look forward to seeing you at our concert on October 29th! Thank you for your continuous support of GWG Music.

– Mr. Monkman

Hello everyone,
Welcome back to all our returning students and families and a special welcome to all the students and families who are joining the GWG Music Department. We have an exciting year ahead and I wanted to take some time to share some of what is going on in our ensembles. We are just completing our first full week of rehearsals, all groups are up and running and students have plenty of music to be working on!

Website:
It’s important all students and families familiarize themselves with our website. You can find all the events we have planned for this year on our calendar, demo recordings of songs we are performing, practice tracks for our vocalists, information about concerts/uniforms/equipment and more! You can also expect to see posts like this throughout the year to share what’s going on in rehearsals and important events coming up.

Trips/Fundraising:
Permission forms have already gone out for our grade 10-12 trip to New Orleans in April. Building on the success of last years joint trip we are once again working with the CSS and SSS Music departments to take students on a 6 day trip to New Orleans where they will be able to take in numerous live performances, walking tours, swamp boat rides and a steamboat cruise down the river. Band 9 families can expect to see information about our band trip coming out in October.

Will we also be starting our first fundraiser of ther year in the next couple of weeks. We work with Global Coffee and students can sell bags of ground or whole bean coffee and earn $5 per bag. The coffee is roasted in Maple Ridge and we have this fundraiser to be incredibly successful (who doesn’t love coffee?!). Fundraisers are always optional, more information about fundraising can be found in our Music Department Guidelines (https://gwgmusic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GWG-Music-Dept-Handout-24-25.pdf)

With that being said, I’m always looking for parents/families who may be willing to step up and help organize a fundraiser or share new ideas. Please contact me if you’d like to help!

Concerts:
We have 4 performances a year and they are mandatory for all students. The dates can be found in our guidelines handout, please add them to your calendar as soon as possible. Our first concert is October 29th at 7:00 pm in the theatre.

Musical Theatre:
We are very excited to be working with our drama department to bring Musical Theatre back to GW Graham. In the early years of the school the music department put on full musicals every year but unfortunately we had to stop in 2012. This year we are putting on Shrek Jr: The Musical. Music students will be involved on stage, in the orchestra and back stage to help create this incredible show! We hope to see you there.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about what is going on or would like to arrange a time to talk about how your child is doing in class.

– Mr. Monkman