This Year's Show Unveiling!

Here it is! The official announcement of next year's 2010 Roslyn Marching Band Show! I have leaked out various aspects of the show and this past week I have finished all the uploading of the audio and music parts so that we can get going.

First of all I have conceptualized many shows and always like to do something fun and interesting. This year's show is a show the staff and I picked earlier in the year, but I was searching for some way to give this a cool twist. Then one day, it came to me and here in the following paragraphs is what our show for next year will be!

Here we go! I have a whole dramatic plan for it in my head along with the drill, staging, and visual design. Like the shows that I have written in the past, it is pretty simple to play, easy to understand and we can absolutely master all aspects of the show, allowing for us to achieve some very high scores as well as a tremendous amount of audience appeal. There are two main actors, a young couple, that will be present throughout the show. There will be no talking by them, just poses, acting, and a little dancing. It will be very obvious what is going on throughout the show. The opener and closers are arranged by Jay Dawson, the same arranger of our "Piano Lesson" show. The middle work is the original piece by Holst, which is a part of the famous "Second Suite for Military Band" which can be played indoors or outdoors. The audio and all music is now up on the downloads page of the roslynband.com website. Here we go!

Opener: Emperata Overture by Claude T. Smith - Bride and Groom getting married, Ballerina Dance group (6 to 15, as many as make the team) will do abstract and modern choreography around two actors getting married and throughout the show. The colorugard is a separate entity that provides additional visual support, so we have two "visual" teams working throughout the show. This is a staple of almost every show that I have conceptualized and implemented. By having two visual things going on we can keep the attention off the fact that we are only doing 35 sets. Dancers in very light off white lace, guard in a very light color, pastel orangeish or light light blue. The guard will use huge streamers and flags throughout, providing tons of visual "fireworks." The dancers will dance around and between the couple at all times throughout the show.

Ballad: Song Without Words, Gustav Holst. This is our "class winner" piece. One of the most beautiful ballads ever written for the Wind Band, Holst composed this for the military band and is meant to be played indoors or out. It is mysterious, beautiful, and fitting to what we are going to do visually. Between tunes the bride changes into yellow dress, groom changes to army fatigues, they are separated by war, he goes to a bunker and she stays at home, they write letters to each other, all staged, while the dancers react with abstract and fitting dance moves, letters going back and forth, etc. The colorguard provides the intensity of the war with big streamers as an additional visual. Picture this playing out as you listen to this piece. Drums do not play on this tune. We will have the drummers doing fitting poses throughout this work, showing how a war can impact our lives, something "out of the box" and modern.

Closer: Chorale and Shaker Dance, by John Zdechlik - Pretty simple, they are reunited at the end. Once again, I have it all storyboarded in my mind integrating the guard, dancers, and drill. This song is built around the famous melody "Simple Gifts" which is fitting in that the young couple is reunited to spend their lives together at the end. There will also be some surprises in the closer which will give everyone goosebumps, patriotic stuff!

The actors will change clothes behind two movable backdrops on wheels, not that big, that will also provide a place for the guard and dancer props and flags to be hidden.

The show will be called "Show Without Words" based on the second piece. These three tunes are all very famous works from Wind Ensemble literature, are well known by all judges and will be received very warmly by everyone, especially in this context.

Trust me on this one! I have a ton of incredible ideas that will really work. It's a winner! A bonus is that this show is totally appropriate in terms of us being at war. This is something that we are dealing with as a country. It also has struggle and a happy ending.

Along with today's unveiling, all the music is downloadable on the "Downloads" page of the roslynband.com website, along with the audio of the show. This is a simple show that we can master, have fun with, and get into! Download your music and start learning this immediately! We can win with this show!

Show Unveiling Coming Any Day This Week!

I will be posting the entire plan for this coming year's show, including my drill plan, dramatic aspects as well as attaching audio recordings and the music downloads to the website! Keep checking for the unveiling!

The Band Sounded Great Last Night!

We had a rehearsal for Florida last night, marched around the gym about 40 times, and looked great. We will not need to have an additional rehearsal next week. We will have about an hour backstage at Disney before each parade to rehearse a bit. Great job!

The New Schedule for 2010 is Posted!

The new schedule is now up on the roslynband.com website. I spent alot of time developing this schedule. We are using the 2006 and 2007 marching band years as the models for this schedule. Let me explain. In my now 28 years of running marching bands, those two years stand out as the most incredible programs I have ever run as a band director. In my opinion, those two years were the perfect balance of all the aspects of running a great marching program. Those two years were efficient, fun, and we were at a super high level in terms of teamwork and morale while we fit the program perfectly into our school's high academic culture. We are going from 121 rehearsal hours in 2009 to the old 80 rehearsal hours of 2006 and 2007. I am excited and feel this will totally boom our program in every way. This, coupled with bringing back the "team building" activities to band camp, will bond us better as a team as well. We will still be adding the three home games including the homecoming parade and game and the "Friday Night Lights" soccer game night. All of those will be added in March, as soon as the dates are set. In addition, I am planning on participating in the "Chick Fil-A" bowl game sometime between Christmas and New Year's Day. The bowl game schedule is also out in March. This was an incredible trip we did 3 years ago and included a great parade, bowl game performances before the game and during half time, along with a huge pep rally, tour of CNN studios and a trip to the amazing Atlanta Aquarium. I will be proposing this trip to the Board of Education in the Spring for their approval. I wanted to let you know what our goals are early so that you can plan accordingly. As far as the Fall season, you really need to be here every weekend with the exception of the Columbus Day weekend, which we traditionally have left open for college visitations. We will need all the marching band members to be here all other weekends between Labor Day and the Carrier Dome State Championship weekend on Halloween.

2010 Band Camp Plans Under Way

We have always had great band camps here at Roslyn and are looking forward to continuing the tradition. Although Band Camp is not until August the planning stage is now upon us. In the past months I have searched to find parents to lead our incredible band camp. I have contacted past parents who have experience with running our yearly successful camp. I am very pleased to announce that, after a brief hiatus, Susan and Jed Schlacter and Bruce Goldman are coming back to be the directors of Band Camp. With their previous four years of experience, we should hit the ground running, and have a smooth transition this summer. Any parents who are interested in being chaperones for all or part of the week or in any other capacity should contact Jed at his e-mail at jed10123@aol.com. We are fortunate to have this dynamic team of parents return to assist us.

A Great Turnout at the Board Meeting!

Thanks to all the parents, students, and family members who attended the Roslyn Board of Education meeting for our presentation last night. It was absolutely incredible seeing all the support! Thanks to Susan Passaro and Claudia Wolfson, our Band Fans Presidents for getting us on the Board Agenda. It was their idea to do this presentation and it certainly was a great way to show our thanks to the administration and Board of Ed for their continued support of the Marching Band!

Board Of Education Meeting Tonight!

Please show your continued support for the Roslyn Marching Bulldogs by wearing Bulldog blue to the Board of Education meeting tonight at the Roslyn Middle School at 8:30pm.

We are on the agenda to show a short 2 minute clip that will give a snapshot into what the Marching Band program is all about. We are also presenting the 2009 season DVD to each Board member as well as to Administration and students will be presenting the 4th Place New York State Plaque.

We want to thank the School Board and Administration for their continued support. Showing up proudly wearing our Marching Band apparel or Bulldog Blue is a reminder to the School Board and Administration that we support their efforts on behalf of our children. When we show our support for this program we are sending a powerful message to the entire community.

Thank you for your support. Hope to see you at the Middle School tonight!

Bake Sales!

Run or help with a Bake Sale and get service points!

Check on Roslynband.com and go to the Bake Sale Page!

A Great Marching Band Story!

We are all guilty of it. Being in our bubble. Trying to tweak the itinerary, to make the trip perfect is an obsession with me. I get upset over things which are just not that important sometimes and excited over little things as well. With next year’s show, the same thing. Going back to my roots, I am trying to think “out of the box” with the design of the show, finding something which is fun, touching, emotionally captivating and educational. I think we have a winner, and I will be posting it up here on the blog in the next few days! Keep checking back.

But now back to the real reason I am writing tonight’s blog. Today my wife Jen came across this story, she sent it to me in an e-mail and kept on bugging me to watch it. Waking up with the baby, I checked it out just a few minutes ago....... and........it is an incredible life story.

Once in a while we come across a story which changes us, a story which makes us a better person after we see it. I’ve put the link on the sidebar of this website for this incredible youtube story. Watch it. It’s about a marching band too!

Roslyn Receives 4th Place in New York!

All I can say is WOW!!! The band definitely did their best performance of the year. The music was incredible, drill fantastic, and the guard was amazing! We totally peaked! Everyone in the band, the staff, and parents are thrilled with the incredible year we had. Bravo!

Outside the dome many parents have asked me why we were 4th place, that they thought we should have placed higher with the scoring. Now that our website is password protected I can be a bit more forthcoming in addressing this now. So here it is, I am going to go for it. Many parents said we should have probably scored in 2nd or 3rd place. Everyone has their own opinion and even when we look at our show a few months from now, many of us will still be scratching our heads. What is going on here?

Obviously we should have scored higher. The big spread over us is, to say the least, way out of line. The judges had us in a row, coming in 4th or 5th across the board. Traditional or let’s say “classic” judging is definitely taking place. I must be honest with you, none of us are surprised. The ironic thing, all the judges have the same exact opinion, which really shouldn’t happen if you think about it. Judges should have different opinions and different views. And bands should be strong in some areas and weaker in others. This did not happen. We were lined up on the sheets like ducks in a row. Well we know this is subjective, and yes, perhaps I should have waited to find a more cryptic way of writing it, but I do get upset when our kids get slighted. I felt today, especially with that spread, that we were slighted. We all know what we deserve, hey, we all knew we were having issues at the Bethel show, and we all know we are amazing now. Remember, each band we are competing against has been in existence for many years. They have all been competing for 30 plus years, even if they only say a few years in this conference. We are in our 7th year and what we have done the past 7 years is nothing short of incredible. We are a force to be reckoned with! Today, we showed that.

I am so proud of all the kids. We got the highest score we ever received, did a fantastic job, and are now at the mall, being with each other. We had an amazing year!

Thanks to everyone and check us out on youtube!