Author: Mark Follett

Dear Senior Wind Ensemble Families,

Considering the condition of side-streets in my own part of the community and I’m sure around the rest of the catchment, I will be cancelling Senior Wind Ensemble tomorrow morning to give all the kids some extra time to find their way to school safely tomorrow.  Though it looks like we have school tomorrow, please visit the school district website at http://www.sd35.bc.ca tomorrow morning for the most current information regarding the rest of the day. Enjoy the sleep-in and drive safe tomorrow morning.

If you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to email me.

Mark

PS – I hope to run Senior Jazz Band on Thursday and Junior Jazz Band on Friday but I will let everyone know one way or the other tomorrow dependant upon the weather, the driving conditions and any direction from the district.

There will be no off timetable music lessons tomorrow as the district has cancelled school for students and teachers due to snow. Please check the SD35 website for details and further updates.

Reminder that SrJazz & JrJazz are on for Mon/Tues. If you have a final that day email Mr. Follett and sleep in. Remember SrJazzFest is Feb1!

Thanks so much to our donors for ESPRESSIVO. Thanks to their support and the generosity of those who attended our show, we raised over $7000 in support of the musicians of DW Poppy. Thanks you all so much!

• 4 Cats Studios
• Arts Nursery
• Balance Arts Studio
• Bosley’s
• Boston Pizza
• Clearview Gardne Shop
• Country Feeds
• David’s Tea
• Fraser Valley Cidery Company
• Hilltop Café
• JD Farms
• Langley Communty Music School
• Langley Golf Centre
• Matermind Toys
• Midas
• Nikko Sushi
• Pagoda Ridge
• Ralph’s
• Safeway
• Sarah McLachlan
• Save On Foods
• The Keg
• Tim Hortons
• *Barry Dashner
• *Jenny Kennedy
• *Sam Collie
• *Numerous Anonymous Poppy Music Families

Espressivo is 8 hours away so we wanted to send one last reminder out with a few details:

Ticket sales for the last-minute seating will begin at 5:00pm (Please do not arrive early as setup will be crazy and we have no way of accommodating a line or assisting with tickets prior to 5:00pm)

• Dinner will be available for purchase from Big Red’s Poutine, This Little Piggy and Reel Mac & Cheese between 5:00 and 7:00pm tonight
• The performances will start at 6:30pm
• Silent Auction will close during the break before our final set (see the program tonight)
• The show is likely about 2.5 to 3 hours. Clean up happens right afterward and many hands make light work so please stick around to help out

If you have not been to ESPRESSIVO before, you will want to bring cash for the following:

• Balloon Pop ($5.00 for a balloon win at least a $5.00 gift card for coffee, music, movies etc.)
• Popcorn ($1 per bag)
• 50/50 Draw (2 tickets for $3 – You have to be here to win!)
• iPad Mini 4 Raffle ($2 per ticket – You have to be here to win!)

Please remember that this evening is a fundraiser in support of the students’ musical experiences here at Poppy. We greatly appreciate your support and generosity and look forward to seeing everyone tonight!

We are excited to announce that ESPRESSIVO 2016 is a sold-out show! All 500 table seats available online have been sold, but we still want everyone who would like to come and see their kids perform to be able to attend. 

Based on our setup tomorrow afternoon, we may have a few additional table seats available for purchase for $12.00 at the door. If/when those sell out, we will have seating around the edge of the theatre-space available by donation. With apologies, we will likely not have deserts available beyond our table seating.

There will be another update regarding remaining other details later this evening, but for those of you who were unable to purchase tickets online, you can still see your kids perform and be part of this great night! See you all in 25 hours

ESPRESSIVO is sold out, but we do want to ensure people can see their kids perform. Please check back here later this afternoon for details.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that tickets are selling quickly for Espressivo on December 6, 2016. You can find more details about the event here and purchase tickets online at espressivo2016.brownpapertickets.com. We’re still accepting donation for the silent auction and balloon pop so if you can contribute, it does wonders in building on the experiences that our students can have in the music program here at DW Poppy. It’s going to be a great night and we’ll look forward to seeing you there.

It was a pleasure to host the Grant Stewart Trio today at DW Poppy. We we joined by students from Mountain, Fine Arts, Fundamental and Garabaldi in Maple Ridge. Grant (on Tenor Sax), Paul Sikivie on Bass and Philip Steward on Drums performed 8 tunes for the students. They were some more obscure standards from Bud Powell and other jazz legends. They also did a 30 minute question and answer session with the kids, a highlight being a demonstration of how to begin improvising by “decorating” the melody, using Body & Soul as an example.

It was a great show and I have a few CD’s left. If you’d like one, bring in $10 cash. Ifs run out, I’ll order a few from Cory next week.

Thanks for having the kids there after school and supporting their music education!

We’ve now completed our first full week of music at DW Poppy. Musical theatre got rolling along with the choral and jazz programs and the Senior Wind Ensemble. Beginners have selected instruments and we hosted the elementary band rental night and first lesson on Thursday. 

We continue the tradition of bringing great artists into DW Poppy to work with our students this year. At the beginning workshop, out elementary students not only worked with Mr. Ablitt and Mr. Follett, but local profesional flautist Michelle Carlisle and clarinetist Colin Farquar, and thanks to Conn-Selmer, Vancouver saxophonist Brian Engstron and internationally renowned  trumpet player Rich Wetzel.

Our next guest will be New York Tenor Saxophonist Grant Stewart. In partnership with Cory Weeds and the Coastal Jazz and Blues Society, Grant’s trio will be putting on a show here at DW Poppy next Monday at 3:30. We expect all jazz students to attend, and encourage all our music students to join us, along with music students from RE Mountain, Langley Fine Arts, Langley Fundamental, and Garabaldi Secondary (Maple Ridge) for this phenomenal opportunity.

In the meantime, please remember that Student Commitment Contracts and Practice Routines we due yesterday. We’ve received many of them, but there are still a few to come in. Also, Junior Uniform, Method Book and Band Folder Orders are due this coming Friday, September 23. 

We hope to see lots of new and familiar faces out at the first music teacher parent meeting on Tuesday, September 20 after the grade 8 parent night at 8:00pm. It will be an intro to the program for some families and an opportunity to connect with parents interested in supporting their kids’ musical endeavours which we’ll aim to keep it brief at that hour.

Please remember to add your child’s concerts from the Music Handbook to your family calendar if you haven’t yet, and as usual, if you have any question, don’t hesitate to ask.

Mark & Wayne