A Note from Mr. Stone Re New York

Dear New York Trip Students & Families :

I hope everyone is in good health and good spirits during this crazy time. I would have much preferred to be writing you a final checklist like email rather than this email of “What’s next? What’s happening with the New York trip?”.

So here is the line from Encore as it sits today.

“As it currently stands, $1500 is non-refundable however we continue to work with Carnegie Hall to lower that for any participants that need to cancel. Those that cancel will receive all funds back in cash less $1500 which will be sent as a travel voucher that can be transferred to a new participant entering the ensembles in the Fall.

For those that can roll to 2021, we will transfer all of the monies in their account of which $1500 will show as a non-refundable credit.”

We are planning on rolling the trip to next year, with the most likely date, at this time, being February 12-16, 2021. Our spring break 2021 begins with Easter Sunday, so that and the trip planned by the Choral Department, makes the February date the best time to go with the least amount of missed school. I am checking on all the needs to clear everything with the district, but I am optimistic that it will eventually go smoothly.

Seniors (and senior parent Chaperones), we are still working out the details for your use of the $1500 voucher at this time. Please be patient. The initial idea is to try and transfer that to new participants entering in the fall who wish to go on the trip. By what mechanism, that is yet to be determined.

In order to help Encore, please fill out this form letting me know what your desired intentions are for the trip.

Thank you all for your patience in this matter. It will all get resolved soon, hopefully like all the other insanity going on around us.

Take care,

Mr. Stone

Ms. Munday’s News & Notes…

I hope all is well with all of you and your loved ones. This is a trying time, and I believe it is especially trying for parents. Suddenly, children are at home and every age has its unique set of challenges. You are all on my mind and in my thoughts. If you have any questions, contact me.

This coming week, the orchestra students have been asked to upload a video to Classroom of themselves playing. They are playing what they worked on last week.

Encourage your child to use playing their instrument each day as part of their daily schedule. Maybe they would like to do a FaceTime duet or trio with their friends. Maybe they would like to write some music. There is so much music online. One student told me that they downloaded some video game music to play. Brilliant!

Yo Yo Ma has started #songsofcomfort. There are some really nice videos on YouTube that regular people have made. I have enjoyed listening to them.

My goal for the students is to have them keep playing and to enjoy what they’re doing. I’m going to attach a banjo video from Steve Martin, it’s wonderful to hear.

Take care!

9-12 Band Info – Distance Learning

In this crazy time, I hope we can all find a way to see hidden treasures. For me and my family, just hanging out together without a schedule has been wonderful. A simple 1000 piece puzzle continues to give us hours of time together, talking and having much needed time together. I hope you all find time to renew old hobbies and connect with those in your house, or outside via FaceTime.

For our online learning, we will be working on improving our individual playing. Through a series of projects and video submissions, we will continue to work on improving our individual sound, so that when we come back together, our full ensemble sound will be improved. I would say if you spent 30-45 mins a day following the practice guidelines I will send out through Google Classroom, you will see some great improvements. I will be giving you feedback on your videos as well as holding office hours each day to chat about projects and challenges you are having. Think of this as a great time to individually grow.

All information, office hour access, projects, lessons, practice guidelines, etc. will come through Google Classroom. Please, if you haven’t already, sign up using these codes:

  • Winds – bf4bpdc
  • Percussion – wi6jmkd
  • Guard – nzpgdd7

Grades will be given on each submission just to keep you motivated, so please submit. These should be fun and challenging and you will see growth if you stay consistent in how much time you give.

Thank you all for being flexible and resilient during these unprecedented times. You’ll all remember when back to this time and talk about how you did school online. Your kids will love hearing the story over and over again!

Good practicing and see you on the other side of all this!

Take care,
Mr. Stone

9-12 Orchestra Info – Distance Learning

I hope this message finds all of you well and coping with our new challenges. We are moving through uncharted waters, and I want to keep the lines of communication open between us.

Please feel free to contact Ms. Munday with any questions or concerns that arise.

As school is still in session, although not at a physical place, this brings up a very specific challenge for a performance class, such as Orchestra. After much thought, Ms. Munday feels the best way to address this is for each student to practice, on their own, for at least 30 minutes per day. Many already do this, and they will continue! Many, however, are not able to manage daily practice because of their classes and activities, and this time at home opens up practicing possibilities to those students.

Parents are important to this assignment. Please encourage (nag) your child to accomplish this. Ms. Munday has asked the students to practice the scales and solo they will play for their jury/final in May. They need to fill out a Google form on Classroom by Tuesday telling Ms. Munday the name and composer of the solo they have chosen. After next week, they will be directed to upload a video of what they have worked on to Classroom so I can see their progress.

Make sure they have their instrument at home to practice. There is also lots of music at school for all instruments, solos and etudes, if your student needs that. Ms. Munday will be at school Monday morning if anyone needs to get their instrument or needs help with finding music.

A Note from Mr. Stone

Thank you all who were at our festival concerts last night. It was a great night of music and I am so happy that we got to share what we’ve been working on for the last 3 months.

In light of recent events, I have to be the bearer of bad news. In accordance with public health recommendations about the coronavirus, La Canada Unified School District has requested that we look into the upcoming events for the next month. On top of that, the organizations that sponsor our outside events have also taken these same recommendations and have made some announcements as well. SCSBOA (our festival sponsor), WGI (Guard and Drum Line), SCPA (Drum Line) and WGASC (Color Guard) have all cancelled any remaining events for the rest of this season. This means that all drum line and color guard shows, as well as our festival next Friday, have been cancelled.

This is a sad and surreal situation which saddens me by the loss of such great events we had planned for our students. However I know that all of these organizations and our district treat our student safety as priority number one and that is where all these decisions are rooted. While we all are grieving the loss of the events, which is completely normal, we also have to act for the greater good in this moment.

What does that mean for the rest of our year? As this is a dynamic situation, I can’t predict the future beyond Spring Break at this time, but I do know we will continue to teach, learn, grow and challenge each other to be better musicians, performers and friends.

We will try to keep you up to date on all instrumental rehearsals and events as we find out new information. Please be patient with us and the speed in which we send out our statements and information since we are trying to make sure we are separating the truths from the rumors.

Thank you all for your support in this wild and uncertain time.

Jason Stone
Director of Instrumental Music

Communications

As we have witnessed, the effects of the Covid-19 virus on our community has things changing by the minute. By increments, this has had an impact on our program in major ways and you need information. This note is a reminder that we have several options for you.

  1. Subscribe to our newsletter which is sent via Constant Contact emails. Sandy Miller sends these out weekly on Sunday evenings, and on an as needed basis.
  2. This website has a Latest News blog. I handle posts there.
  3. The Facebook Group. Sandy Miller and I are moderators there, and you can find reminders as well as notes from parents and students. Note: to join that group, you must answer screening questions to be accepted, as our students (who are minors) are welcomed there.

Our faculty, staff, and MPA Board volunteers are doing our best to give you accurate information as we obtain and verify, as it pertains to our program.

Michele Wilcox
MPA VP of Communications
lchs.mpa.communications@gmail.com

Winter Drumline/Dayton Fees

Dear Winter Drumline Families:

So sad to see the Winter Drumline season end so suddenly, especially after our students have been working so hard in anticipation of competing at Dayton, Ohio. Additionally, we spent many hours planning all the logistics for this trip and are now spending many hours undoing all that hard work and we are working on getting refunds from WGI and Southwest Airlines as the MPA has already paid for the flights and the event registration and tickets for our students.

Regarding Dayton Trip refunds to parents, we have families that have paid in full or partially for the Dayton, Trip. We would like to offer the following options in terms of reimbursement.

  • The amount you paid will be moved to your student’s account for future contributions and trips for the program.
  • We can reimburse you directly with a check for amount you paid to date for Dayton, Ohio trip.
  • Apply part of the reimbursement to cover your student’s contributions of $500 for the Winter Drumline program and reimburse to you the remainder.

We have many students who have not paid the $500 contribution for this season. We can apply part of your reimbursement to offset those dues. Please keep in mind that although our season is ending early, we have incurred most of the costs of the program. This includes the instructor costs, new uniforms, registration fees, new stage floor, new props, transportation, and equipment. While we are asking each family to pay $500 per student for the season, this does not cover the full cost of the Winter DL program to the MPA. Therefore, we appreciate your support and contributions to support not just Winter Drumline but the Instrumental Music Program overall.

Additionally, for those families who have not paid for Dayton and have not paid for the Winter Drumline program, we ask that you please send in a check for $500 made out to “LCHS MPA.” The checks can be dropped off in the black lockbox in the band room or mailed to:
LCHS MPA
P.O. Box 1307
La Cañada, CA 91012

If you cannot remember what you have paid with regard to the Dayton Trip and Winter DL contribution please reach out to the MPA Treasurer, Marshall Bohannon and he can email you your student balance to date. Please put “Winter Drumline Contributions” in the subject line.

Thank you for your continued support of the LCHS Instrumental Music Program.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Bohannon
LCHS MPA Board President
Mobile: 818-257-1210

New York and Dayton Trips Cancelled

As many of you already know, both the NYC trip and the Dayton trip were cancelled today. We are very sorry as our students have worked very, very hard for both of these trips and were really looking forward to performing and competing.

We know you have many questions regarding the trip payments and we are working on solutions for both trips. We will provide an update in a few days once we have more information.

Thank you for your patience and continued support of the LCHS Instrumental Music Program.

Elizabeth Bohannon
MPA President
Mobile: 818-257-1210

Mr. Stone’s Thought of the Week…

Looking forward to seeing you all at the Concert this Wednesday night. You’ll get to see the fruits of all the hard work the students have been putting in to make great music.

Also, New York meeting Monday night. Come find out all the info for the trip.

Ms. Munday’s News & Notes…

I wish everyone a healthy and happy week and I look forward to seeing you at our festival concert on Wednesday where you can hear all of our instrumental groups play the music they will take to Festival and New York.