Music Dates 2010-2011
Monday, September 20, 6:30 - NK Music Instrument Night, MDI HS cafeteria
Friday, October 15, 6:00 - Lip Sync/Talent Show
Thursday, December 9, 6:00 - Conners Winter Concert (new time!)
Friday, March 4 - District VI Jazz Festival for show choir/band, Ellsworth
Thursday, March 31, 6:00 - Show Choir Extravaganza, MDI High School
Saturday, April 2 - State Vocal Jazz Competition, Ellsworth
Wednesday, April 9 (tentative) - 4th Annual MDI String Festival, MDI HS
Thursday, May 5, 6:00 - Conners K-2 Spring Concert (new time!)
Wednesday, May 11, 6:00 - Conners 3-4 Spring Concert (new time!)
Tuesday, June 7 evening - District Recital (formerly Island Solo/Ensemble
                                             Recital, Pemetic

*Please note that the winter and spring concerts are at 6:00pm rather than the 6:30pm time in previous years.

Dates yet to be set:
February - Show Stoppers! K-4 performance
March - Show Stoppers! + HS Show Choir performance for 5-8

(updated June 2010)
Please check back for additions and changes.

We will welcome new members and kick off the new show choir season with a first rehearsal on Tuesday morning, May 4 at 7:30am in the music room. Our new show is The Music Man. Please come, if you are interested in becoming a member of the Show Stoppers! You will learn to sing in parts plus learn some dance steps and stage techniques. Being a team player is required and good rehearsal attendance is expected. Participating in fund raisers makes the show choir possible. Lots of work goes into designing and building the staging and sewing the costumes. Hair and make-up is a must for the shows. There are lots of opportunities for parental involvement! The show is performed five times: a K-4 school performance, District Jazz Festival, a 5-8 performance, the MDI Show Choir Extravaganza at the HS, and the State Vocal Jazz Competition. This year, Districts was held at Ellsworth HS and States was in Houlton so be prepared to travel. For the remainder of this school year, we will rehearse every Tuesday morning at 7:30. Beginning in September, the show choir will rehearse twice a week, 7:30 Tuesday mornings + Friday afternoons at the MDI HS dance studio. A third rehearsal is added in February on Monday mornings at 7:30. Show choir is lots of fun!

The Bar Harbor Show Stoppers! received a #1 rating at the State Vocal Jazz Competition on April 10 in Houlton. Eight show choirs in Division II competed and only four received a #1 rating. The show choir pit received the rhythm section award! Our six individual soloists also received a #1 rating. Congratulations to our 25 singers/dancers and 4 pit members in grades 4-8!

The Bar Harbor Show Stoppers!, Conners Emerson's very first show choir, performed at the MMEA District VI Jazz Festival on February 26. We are very pleased to announce that we received a #1 rating and will be competing at the MMEA State Competition in Houlton on April 10!

Nora's composition, Borealis, received a strong review in the recent MMEA's (Maine Music Educators Association) composition competition. Nora received a detailed letter praising and critiquing her work from Dan Sonenberg, Assistant Professor and Resident Composer at the University of Southern Maine. He was impressed that Nora composed such a mature piece for her age and he feels that she truely captured the airy and light feeling in her music, inspired by the beauty of Mount Desert Island. Dr. Sonenberg also commended her on her "syncopated conversation between all the instruments, leading to a cadence that is rhythmically and tonally just right."

Nora has been invited to participate in the All Young Composers Festival event on Friday, May 21 at the MMEA All-State Conference at the University of Maine Orono where her piece will be performed by live musicians for the music educators of Maine.

Congratulations Nora!

The MDI RSS AOS 91 held its Third Annual String Festival on Wednesday, April 28 at the MDI HS. String students in grades 3-12, totallying 150, participated in a day of making music together and presented an evening concert open to the public. Many thanks to the many parent volunteers who helped make this a fun and educational event . It was a great day. The students were divided into two string orchestras and performed the following pieces:

The 3-5 String Festival repertoire is:
1) The Magic Flute by Mozart
2) Hunter's Chorus by Weber
3) New World Symphony Theme by Dvorak
4) Allegro by Suzuki

The 5-12 String Festival repertoire is:
1) Dia de Alegria by Phillips
2) Variable Stars by Bock
3) Themes from Braveheart by Horner/Conley

This year's Lip Sync/Talent Show was sponsored by the Conners Emerson Show Choir known as the Show Stoppers!  Many, many thanks to all who baked, sold, cleaned and scrubbed.  A special thank you to Kelly Mitchell for organizing the food and her mom for making the luscious stromboli.  The food tables looked great.  With all your help, The Lip Sync/Talent Show was a huge success with 20 acts, which included over 60 students.  What a fun family evening it was!  I am extremely pleased to announce that we can begin work on the show choir costumes and staging because with your help, we made . . . drum roll please . . . $1128!
A HUGE THANK YOU!!!

The Swallowtail Fiddlers were honored when invited to perform at Agamont Park for the maiden voyage of the Queen Victoria luxury liner. We helped make history!

M and M enjoy playing the hose horns! toot-toot

Enjoy listening to an imprompt jam session with a Conners 3rd grade drummer!  It's unrehearsed and others were in and out of the room so it is not perfect but it sure was fun!
Click on the following .mp3

The Conners Emerson Orchestras (grades 3-8) are cordially invited to attend a concert given by the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra at the Ellsworth High School on Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 5:00pm.  Please arrive at the Conners Emerson School for the 4:00 departure.  The concert begins at 5:00 and will a bit over an hour.  The estimated return time will be 6:45-7:00ish.

We are pleased that some of our Conners Emerson musicians play in the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra.  Maybe you will too some day!

The BSYO has a fun concert prepared for you, ranging from Classical to animal themed! 

William Tell Overture - by Rossini, you learned about him in music!
Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring - by Bach, he is on our wall of composers!
Bach's Double Violin Concerto - featuring former Conners Emerson student
                                                            Jacob Pollien and Taylor Clark
The Phantom of the Opera - the 4th grade learned about this show!
Ballet des Coqs - this is a flute ensemble
Sabre Dance - think spinning plates at a circus!
Entry of the Gladiators - think circus tune!
The Pink Panther - by Henry Mancini, on our wall of composers!
Tiger Rag - fun piece
The Carnival of the Animals - you learned about this in 3rd grade music class!
The Thunderer - a Sousa march!

To show your respect for the BSYO performers, please dress appropriately and display good audience etiquette.  The BSYO concert is free and is open to the public (donations accepted) so you may attend with your family if you wish.  Please complete the permission slip that was sent home and return to Mrs. Edmondson by Friday, March 20.  
For more information about the BSYO, please click on BSYO at left.

You may view a slide show of the concert song, When the Lights All Shine by Theresa Jennings.  Librarian, Ms. Ryan, collaborated with Mrs. Edmondson's 4th grade music classes in researching all the cities sung about in this song.  Photos of the students "visiting" these places were taken using PhotoBooth in tech class with Mrs. Smallidge and Mr. Barter.  When the song was performed in the winter concert, the students held up their own art work of the city signs at the appropriate moment within the song.  Please click on the song title above to view/hear this integrated project! 

The day after the concert, Mrs. Smallidge came into the music room to record a second grade Music Class singing one of their concert songs, A Gift for Santa by Theresa Jennings, to be included in a blog to a Conners Emerson alumni who is now serving in Iraq. 

Reaching Across the Globe in the form of a blog.... Corporal G.A. Bradshaw, a former Conners Emerson student currently serving in the U.S. Marines, has agreed to partake in a global conversation with our students via a blog.  Third graders kicked off the conversation by asking a series of questions about his current duty assignment.  His answers to those questions, along with a holiday greeting recorded by Mrs. Edmondson's 2nd grade music class (Mrs. Barter's students) to him and his comrades, can be seen and heard here. 
Corporal Bradshaw is now back in the United States!  Welcome home!

 
The Lip Sync Show/Talent Show 2008 was great!  Seventy five students in grades 1-8 in 26 acts performed on Friday, October 17.  It was a fantastic, family, fun-filled evening with participants performing original acts from vocal solos to skits to a drum playoff and more.  All the acts were very creative!   Special thank yous go to techies Mme. Millar and Miss Duley for  CDs, Karen Ressel and Ann Bohrer for greeting the audience, Ms. Neilly for backstage shuffling, and MCs Miss Cough and Miss Wright.   Thanks to all the parents for your generous donations and support of your child's creativity.  With your help, we raised  . . . drum roll please . . . $665, which will be used for enrichment, instrument upkeep, rhythm instruments, and more!

Announcing ~ Volume II ~ a brand new Swallowtail Fiddler CD! 
31 CDs have sold so far!  Order your CD from Mrs. Edmondson. 
Please click on track 8, Lord Inchiquin, to hear a sample.
Volume II playlist:
1.   Oh the Britches/Swallowtail/Kesh  Irish tune and two jigs
2   Innisheer                                          Turlough O'Carolan, 1670-1738
3.  Liberty Hornpipe                            American
4.   Si Bheag Si Mhor                          Irish air
5.   69th Street/Padraig O'Keefe's      Irish polkas
6.   Cillcias Waltz     from Tipperary, lament for Irish timber, 1798
7.   Tom Billy Murphy's/Culruagh    Irish polkas
8.   Lord Inchiquin                               Turlough O'Carolan
9.   The Old Man /The Bellharbour   Irish jig and reel
10.  Give Me Your Hand                     Rory Dall O'Caghan, 1603
11.  Ceol an Mala                                 Irish jig
12.  Mountain Spring Waltz               Edmondson

The Conners Emerson School is piloting a new project, "Discovering Strings and Orchestra," in the general music classes in grades 1-3 and will begin the week of May 19.  We are very excited to participate in launching this nation-wide outreach project created by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and generously sponsored by NAMM!  This project may be repeated in other communities.  Students will pluck string instruments, do a science lesson with measuring decibels using violin mutes, do a counting and patterns math lesson, plus do a walking field trip to Song of the Sea to learn how instruments are made and repaired.  For more information about the Discovering Strings and Orchestra project, please visit: www.astaweb.com

The lessons that are presented in the Discovering Strings and Orchestra are aligned with the National Music Standards and dovetail quite nicely with the Union 98 curriculum.  This project presents the standards in a manner that integrates other content areas with the use of string instruments, thus differentiating for the learner while sparking musical interest and creativity in the students!

Click on left to view more photos
To view a slideshow, please click here: ASTA Discovering Strings and Orchestra