NHS Winter Concerts December 8, 15

The Norwell High School Music Department invites you to its two Winter Concerts, on Thursday, 12/8 and 12/15, at 7pm in the NHS Auditorium!  As always, admission is free of charge and open to the public.

Thursday, December 8 (7pm): Winter Bands Concert, with the NHS Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band.

Thursday, December 15 (7pm): Fall Choral and Jazz Concert, with the NHS Chorus, Jazz Workshop and Jazz Ensemble.

On December 8, the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band will be performing a range of works, from orchestral arrangements of music by Antonin Dvorak and Sir Edward Elgar, to wind band originals by Robert Sheldon and Jared Spears, the famous Ukrainian Bell Carol of Mykola Leontovych and a wonderful take on the music of Gilbert and Sullivan.

On December 15, the Chorus and Jazz Ensembles will be taking the stage.  The Chorus will be performing a broad range of repertoire, from holiday favorites to Quebecois folk songs and Broadway show tunes.  The Jazz Ensembles will be performing everything from samba and swing to funk and shuffle, including pieces from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s “Essentially Ellington” library, and a vocal feature with NHS Jazz newcomer Katy Mahar.

We hope to see you there!

NHS Fall Concerts October 20, 27

Chris O'Hara, guest artist

For the first time, the Norwell High School Music Department would like to invite you to *both* of its annual Fall Concerts!  The founding of the NHS Wind Ensemble means that NHS now has five large performing groups, and as a result, the school has split its traditional Fall Concert into two separate, shorter performances!

• Thursday, October 20 (7pm): Fall Bands Concert, with the NHS Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band (featuring Chris O’Hara, trumpet)
• Thursday, October 27 (7pm): Fall Choral and Jazz Concert, with the NHS Chorus, Jazz Workshop and Jazz Ensemble

Both performances feature a host of talented, hardworking and passionate high school students.  Both performances take place in the NHS Auditorium, and both performances are free of charge and open to the public.

However, they feature very different performing groups and repertoire.

The Bands Concert will feature NHS’ new and advanced Wind Ensemble, performing works by Holst, Boysen and Goedicke.  It also features the revamped NHS Symphonic Band, performing works by Tchaikovsky, Zdechlik and Teichler.  NHS is also excited to welcome for this performance internationally renowned guest trumpet artist Christopher O’Hara, whose playing has been described by the Chicago Music Examiner as “virtuosic and impressive in every way,” who will be performing works for trumpet and band with both ensembles.

The Choral and Jazz Concert is a week later, and will feature the NHS Chorus, our mixed vocal ensemble, under the direction of Amy Cortright, as well as the NHS Jazz Ensemble, the NHS Jazz Combo, and the NHS Jazz Workshop, our developmental group, for an evening of exciting vocal and instrumental music.

NHS Music Alum Performs at Newport Jazz Festival

Already well-traveled NHS Music and Berklee alum David Neves performed last week at the 57th annual Newport Jazz Festival, with the Mario Castro Quintet.  Newport has hosted nearly all of the most famous names in jazz over the last half century, while launching the careers of countless others.  Enjoy the performance, courtesy of NPR Music!

Image Erik Jacobs for NPR Music

Get Involved with NHS Music

Just as the NHS Music program has made a commitment to enriching the artistic life of our community, the Norwell Public Schools have made a commitment to supporting its arts programs in return.  But in these times of high energy costs, a sagging economy and ever-tightening budgets, finding the resources to provide artistic opportunities and services to our young people can still be a big challenge.  If you would like to help support the growing arts community at NHS, there are many things you can do:

Volunteer! The Norwell Scholastic Arts Society is an organization of parents, students and friends of the arts, who advocate, work to raise funds and create new opportunities for students in grades K-12 in all of the visual and performing arts in the Norwell Public Schools.  If you would like to become involved even on a small level with this exciting organization, please send us an email!

Attend performances! There are few things that affect students more positively than a large, enthusiastic, music-loving crowd.  Please see our Calendar tab at the top of the page for month-by-month listings of our performances and events.

Advertise with us! If you’d like information on placing an advertisement for your business in NSAS playbills that are distributed at all NHS concerts, art exhibitions and theatrical performances, please contact the Norwell Scholastic Arts Society.

Donate! If you have unused instruments, amplifiers, sheet music or other musical equipment, feel free to bring them by.  If it’s something we already have at the high school, it will immediately be donated to the other Norwell schools.  If you’d like to make a monetary donation to the NHS Music Student Activities Fund, please make your check out to NHS Music and send it to Norwell High School, 18 South St., Norwell, MA 02061.  Donations to the NHS Music Department can be tax-deductible–if you wish to do so, please indicate as much with your donation and we will provide you with a receipt.

Thanks!

Part of a larger-scale update to the “Get Involved!” Section of the NHS Music website.  Check out the other pages for more info!

Stevens Grip Mallet Control Tips

Charlie, over at Marimbalogy.com, has put up his first video in a while, this one specializing in how to develop marimba mallet control when using the 4-mallet Stevens Grip.  Lots of great tips and exercises for the developing mallet percussionist!

TED Talks: Your brain on improv

There has been a whole host of research done over the decades that has found that the creative processes inherent in arts education are beneficial to the human brain and help people grow in wonderful and sometimes unexpected ways.  With the growth of MRI technology, scientists (notably Oliver Sacks’ studies on listening to music and brain activity) have been able to get a close look at specifically what areas of the brain are affected by engagement with music.

Charles Limb, at Johns Hopkins (and the NIH), recently presented a talk at TED regarding what happens in your brain when you improvise.  He and his team have been looking specifically at jazz musicians and rappers, to measure the differences in brain activity between when you prepare a creative activity (memorize a piece of music or verse and then perform it) versus when you spontaneously generate your creative material (improvisation in jazz, freestyle in rap).  The results obviously bring up a lot of further questions, but they’re fascinating all the same.  I’ve long believed in the benefits of musical improvisation on students, which is a major reason why we spend so much time doing it in our jazz classes–and while the students enjoy it a great deal, I’m sure they’d be surprised at how much it impacts their brains!

Enjoy:

Army Field Band Instructional Resources Added

The US Army Field Band is one of the finest wind bands in the world, and they have, over the years, created a series of instructional videos for band and chorus directors and vocal, wind, brass and percussion students on all aspects of performance in symphonic, choral and jazz ensembles.

All of their videos are available in one place, at this link, which we will be adding permanently to this site’s Tools and Resources section.  Enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day!

Thanks to everyone who made today’s parade a big success, from Mr. Richard Caldwell, who always puts in such time and energy organizing it, to Mr. Frank White, for helping with transport of equipment and supplied us with cold water on the green, to the parents who helped make sure the students had everything they needed for the parade itself, to Frank White and Emma Ray, our drum majors, Lisa Patrolia and Ben Gordon, our buglers, and all of the students who made our one marching performance for the year a good one.

Congratulations to all, and enjoy the rest of your day off!

Memorial Day Parade Weather Thread

Currently, odds are better than not that we’ll have at least some rain between 9 and 10 this morning.  Still, we’re going to attempt proceed as planned.  It still looks like whatever showers come through will be relatively short.

Still, I’m making the strong recommendation that you bring some kind of a coat and/or hat to protect you from the rain.  We will do everything possible to prevent damage to the instruments, so it’s your responsibility to make sure you bring whatever you need to stay dry.

Stay tuned for further updates!

Photos from NHS Jazz Trip to New York City

Last week, fourteen members of the NHS Jazz Ensemble (and four tireless chaperones) traveled to New York City to watch the finals of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition, which the group entered–for comments only–for the first time this year.

The fine folks at Lincoln Center make available five or six sets of scores and parts to Duke Ellington (or, this year, Count Basie) songs to over a thousand schools each year, many of whom submit recordings that are evaluated by members of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.  Many school submit recordings simply to get input from the wonderful LCJO musicians, but others submit recordings to compete with other schools for the opportunity to come to New York and perform onstage with Wynton Marsalis and other members of the ensemble.

The top three groups perform in Avery Fisher Hall (home of the New York Philharmonic), and the performance is open to the public.  We traveled there to hear what the best bands in the country were accomplishing with this music–and the students were totally blown away!  While there, we took the opportunity to visit some of the bigger New York landmarks–Times Square, Central Park and the World Trade Center–and to geek out on music as well.  We visited the NYU Music Technology Open House on Saturday, as well as some excellent vintage vinyl and rare instrument shops.  We also took time to visit the Sam Ash block of music shops near Rockefeller Center.  Coupled with a dinner in Chinatown and a healthy heaping of simply walking around the city, it was a very full weekend.  Here are some of the photos!  (Click to enlarge)

The rare instrument shop in the Village

Students test drive the Moog synthesizers at Sam AshThe rare instrument shop we visited in the Village

Students in the audience at Avery Fisher Hall

Dillard Center for the Arts (Ft. Lauderdale) performs with Wynton Marsalis and Kenny Rampton

Students browse the exhibits at the NYU Music Technology Open House