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