Author: Mark Follett

ESPRESSIVO 2017 is finally here! The event the kids, Wayne, I and many of the parents have been working towards happens this evening. Here are few details to make the most of your evening:

Tickets: If you purchased tickets, you can check in outside the band room when you arrive starting at 5pm. Seats are first come, first serve so if you have a large group or are particular about where you are, don’t arrive too late.

If you didn’t get a ticket: Our 450 table seats are sold out (which we’re very happy to announce), but you can still attend by donation and sit in the bleachers as mentioned in the last post. We hope to see you there!

Dinner: There will be dessert and coffee through the evening but if you’re having dinner with one of our food trucks (Big Red’s Poutine, Wings, Helm’s Mobile Kitchen and Shake & Cheese), please arrive allow time for your meal to be made. Trucks will be serving from 5-7pm. If you haven’t been before, you’ll wait for a bit after you’ve placed your order as most everything is made fresh. Please give enough time to eat. Trucks all accept cash and some will take credit/debit as well.

Call/Performances: The first band (Senior Jazz) plays at 6:30pm. Call for all musicians is 6:15 (in uniform, ready to go) and we have three sets that will each run approximately 40-50 minutes with two 15 minute intermissions. Please be understanding that times are approximate. It’s a busy evening and we do our best to keep it moving. Students who are not performing in a given set are asked to find a seat in the bleachers to listen to the show and support their peers.

Guest Ensembles (Mass Choir and Honour Band): Mass Choir is closing the first set and Honour Band is opening the second set this year. We ask these musicians to be here for the 6:15 call as well so they can hear the groups before them.

Activities through the evening: We have a silent auction, BBQ draw, 50/50 draw, balloon pop, popcorn sales and more. Please remember these activities all support the activities of the students performing this evening so please give generously. We will be able to accept cash and cheques (payable to DW Poppy Secondary School) throughout the evening.

Clean-Up: As is tradition, many hands make light work and we ask that all DW Poppy Music Students stay at the end of the evening to assist with cleanup. The gym, band and choir rooms all need to be ready for classes on Thursday morning and the tables and chairs need to be ready for pickup. If you can help, we greatly appreciate it if you stack matching chairs and tables as directed by our volunteers.

One Final Note: Thank you to everyone who is helping out tonight and to Cathy and Laurel who have spearheaded this evening. Your work makes a huge impact on the opportunities we can offer the students so thank you all so very much!

We’re pleased to announce that ESPRESSIVO 2017 is officially sold out, but you can see the show. While we have no table seats left (which include the desserts etc.) if you didn’t happen to get a ticket, you can see the show. We are opening the bleachers tomorrow evening for admission by donation as we want to ensure everyone sees the kids play if they want to.

I’ll post a final update this evening so check back tomorrow morning. See you tomorrow evening!

Just a reminder that ESPRESSIVO: Holiday Celebration is just around the corner on Wednesday, December 6, 2017 and tickets are almost sold out. As of this morning, there were only 74 left so if you haven’t got yours yet, go online at https://espressivo2017.brownpapertickets.com quickly before they are gone. A few reminders:

• Dinner: Remember, our food trucks will be serving from 5-7pm and most everything is made to order so please allow enough time to enjoy your meal. All trucks accept cash – debit and credit may be available.
• Student Call: The show will start at 6:30pm so we ask that all students be here, in uniform ready to go no later than 6:15pm. (Please note, that will not be enough time for them to get food before the show).
• Activities to support the kids: We have popcorn sales, our raffle, 50/50 draw and silent auction through the evening that all help to raise money to support your children’s musical activities here at Poppy. We will be able to accept cash and cheques that evening and, in advance, thank you so much for your generosity!

We have a great night of ahead and we look forward to seeing everyone there, so don’t miss out. Visit https://espressivo2017.brownpapertickets.com and get your tickets today!

Tickets for ESPRESSIVO: HOLIDAY CELEBRATION are now live at https://espressivo2017.bpt.me. Tickets $12.00 per person for general admission seating and the show sells out, so please order your tickets quickly! (Musicians do not require tickets unless they are going to sit at tables with you when they are not performing). DW Poppy Music Department’s annual fundraising concert will be taking place on Wednesday, December 6, 2017. This year’s holiday spectacular involves more than 200 student performers in 5 concert bands, 2 concert choirs, 2 jazz bands, and jazz choir.

In addition to a night of great musical performances beginning at 6:30pm, food trucks including Big Red’s Poutine, Wings, Helm’s Mobile Kitchen and Shake & Cheese will have dinner available for purchase from 5-7pm. The evening also includes coffee and desserts, a “balloon pop” fundraiser, raffle a silent auction. Proceeds from the event help us subsidize costs to participate in festivals and competitions, put on concerts in the community to connect our students outside the school, bring in guest artists to work with our young musicians, and most importantly, to provide instruments and partial tour funding to our students in need who would otherwise be unable to participate, so thank you so much for your generous support!

If you have any questions about helping at the event, or you would like to make a donation towards the raffle or silent auction, please contact Cathy Gropp at bercatnik@gmail.com or Laurel Horn at Laurel Horn laurelhorn@shaw.ca

Thanks so much for your ongoing support of the musicians of DW Poppy. We look forward to seeing you here!

Mark & Wayne

Hello Poppy Music Parents!

Espressivo is almost here so we wanted to let everyone know about some of the ways you can get involved with this great event.  Espressivo will be held on Wednesday, December 6^th.  For those of you who are new to our music program, this is our biggest fundraising event of the year.  It is a fantastic evening of seasonal music and dining presented by our incredible music department and dedicated parent volunteers.

In addition to performances by our DW Poppy bands and choirs, the event also includes food trucks for dining at the concert, a silent auction, a 50/50 draw, complimentary desserts, and a balloon pop fundraiser.

Espressivo is a big undertaking and we need your help!  Here are some of the ways that you can get involved and help us make this important event a success:

1. Go to our volunteer sign-up page and see what volunteers are needed on the day/night of the event https://www.volunteersignup.org/Y7TXT

2. Consider making a donation for our silent auction &/or approaching businesses you may have a connection with (see ideas below). Our first concerts are November 7^th and 8^th, this would be a fantastic time to start bringing in donations!

3. We also need someone to be in charge of the silent auction, to basically be a contact person for interested businesses and oversee soliciting new donations. This is an extremely important role, if you might be able to help with this, please email laurelhorn@shaw.ca.

3. Donate a gift card or 2 for our very popular balloon pop (if you plan to give a $20 card, please note that 4 cards with $5 amounts are preferable to a single card because it will give us more balloons to pop, a few higher priced gift cards are great too if you have other amounts lying around the house J)

Silent Auction Donation Ideas:

• event tickets (Canucks, concerts, etc)
• winter sports/activities basket
• holiday/Christmas theme basket
• rain/snow survival kit
• getaways
• movie tickets and dinner gift card
• LEGO basket
• gardening basket
• scratch ticket basket
• bigger gift cards for dining, stores or services
• sports memorabilia
• gourmet tea/coffee or chocolate basket

Tax receipts are available for the value of the items donated.  Please include your name and contact information with your item.  Donations can be mailed in, dropped off at the office or picked up as needed.

Proceeds from Espressivo go to support:

• subsidize costs to participate in festivals and competitions,
• put on performances away from Poppy to connect our students outside the school,
• growth of the department’s library of print music for band and choir
• maintenance of our school instruments and purchase of additional instruments
• bring in guest artists to work with our young musicians
• provide instruments and partial tour funding to our students in need

If you have any questions or ideas for this year’s Espressivo, please contact Cathy CGropp@sd35.bc.ca or 604-807-8380 or Laurel laurelhorn@shaw.ca. Any and all help and donations are greatly appreciated and absolutely vital to the success of our event!

Sincerely,

Cathy Gropp & Laurel Horn – Volunteers & Proud Poppy Music Parents

We are very excited to announce that the Junior Tour to the Con Brio Whistler Music Festival is going ahead for Band 8, Band 9 and Junior Jazz Ensemble. We have well-exceeded the minimum numbers in those three ensembles to qualify for the festival and are very excited to be travelling with the kids in the spring. We will shortly be getting updated pricing based upon our final numbers so if your child has not returned their paperwork and are still interested in participating, please return registration (found on the Junior Tour page) by Tuesday, October 24.

Thank you to all the parents who have expressed interest in chaperoning. We would love to bring everyone but are limited by our budgets so we will be looking at our final numbers and budget and be in touch in the coming weeks to sort out who will be with us as chaperones. If you are interested in joining us and have not yet let us know, please send me an email at mfollett@sd35.bc.ca ASAP.

Please visit the Junior Tour page to get the updated information on Junior Tour. Deposits are due October 3.

Just a quick reminder that we have our first music parents meeting tonight at 8:30 PM in the band room after the grade parent night. We hope you can make it but if you can’t please feel free to let us know if there’s places you like to help or you have any questions.

Dear Poppy Music Families,

Welcome to another great year of music at DW Poppy! Mr. Ablitt and I have a great year planned for the kids (as we hope you’ve already seen on the calendar in theDW POPPY MUSIC Handbook). There are a few things that were distributed to students in classes during the first week of school that are posted athttp://dwpoppymusic.com/assignments-handouts/ that you can also find here:

ALL STUDENTS: DW POPPY MUSIC Handbook

• ALL STUDENTS: Student Information and Understanding of Expectations form was due by Friday, September 15
• ALL STUDENTS: Startup Fees Letter – Order form for Folders, Method Books & Senior Uniforms was due by Friday, September 15

If you have not submitted the Student Information and Understanding of Expectations or Startup Fees Letter yet, please do so this week.

We look forward to seeing everyone who is interested at the first Music Parents Meeting (click for details) on Tuesday, September 19 – 8:30 to 9:00pm and will be talking about Junior Tour to Whistler, Senior Tour to Toronto, ESPRESSIVO and fundraising plans. Please note the changed start time of 8:30pm to accommodate the later end of the Grade 8 Parent night this year.

Thank you so much for your ongoing support of your child’s love of music and we look forward to seeing you at Tuesday’s meeting.

PS – We are still updating our email list for 2017/18. If you know of someone who didn’t receive this via email as well and should have, please pass it on and get them to contact us.

With just a few days until school starts, this is just a heads up that we have updated the website. Most of the details outlined in the DW POPPY MUSIC 2017/18 Handbook are now live, including our performance calendar for the year. Demo recordings of this years material will be posted in the coming days, but please take a moment to look around and we’ll see you in a few days!