School District of Haverford Township

Department of Music

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News and Notes

Volume  15, Number 1 * Winter,  2010-2011

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Editor: Dr. Thomas Rudolph * Copy Editor: Mrs. Wilma Frueh

KUDOS:

The High School Competition Marching Band, under the direction of Rick Whitcomb, had another successful season. Once again they qualified for the Tournament of Bands Atlantic Coast Championships held in Hershey, PA. This was the 15th consecutive season that the band qualified for the Championship contest. The band placed 9th out of 26 Championship finalists and 73 bands overall in Group 2 competition. During the season, the group placed first at the Spring Ford HS, Marple Newtown HS and Central Bucks West HS competitions.

Seven Members of the High School Chorus will participate in District Chorus. Marsha Bobnak, director, announced that the following students were accepted by competitive audition. They include: Chris Angell, Jared Gross, Tristan Horan, Liz Kurdyla, Sara Nealley, Sadie Peden, and Soo Jung Rhee.

Four members of the High School Orchestra will participated in the District Orchestra Festival in 2011.  Joe Brennan is the director of the ensemble. Students include: Teddy Thorogood - Violin; Annelise Stull - Viola; Justin Bang and Joon Jung - Cello.

Four members of the High School Concert Band, under the direction of Rick Whitcomb, will participate in the District Band Festival to be held at Penncrest HS on February 10 - 12, 2011. Students include: Anthony Cherego - alto saxophone, Jonathan Friedman -trumpet, Eli Pollock - French horn, and Jeremy Amdur - trombone.

Six Haverford High School Orchestra members performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City including Justin Bang, Margaret Huang, Eli Pollock, Katie Shao, Andrew So, and Teddy Thorogood along with HHS Orchestra Director, Joe Brennan, on Thursday, December 2, 2010. They were part of an orchestra consisting of other area high school students, orchestra directors, and professional musicians performing in the "Tim Janis - An American Christmas Carol" concert to benefit the Little Sisters of the Poor. Performing with the orchestra was a 500-voice choir and various well-known entertainers. The orchestra started rehearsals over the summer culminating in a nearly packed house performance in Manhattan's Carnegie Hall.

Philadelphia Orchestra Concertmaster, David Kim, presented a master class to the Haverford High School Strings on Friday morning, December 3, 2010. Mr. Kim worked with four high school students on the following repertoire: Margaret Huang (Violin), Air On the G String by Bach; Katie Shao (Violin), 3rd Movement Violin Concerto in E by Mendelssohn, Soyoon Park (Cello), Theme and Var. I  from Variations on a Rococo Theme by Tchaikovsky, and Teddy Thorogood (Violin), 1st Movement Violin Concerto in D by Mozart. After working with each of the students, Mr. Kim played a Fritz Kreisle piece on the newly acquired Yamaha SV-200 Electric Violin. To conclude, Mr. Kim answered questions from the audience consisting of string students from the middle school and orchestra students from the high school. In addition to being a violinist known world wide, Mr. Kim has a wonderful rapport with young people along with a witty and entertaining sense of humor.

STAFF NEWS

Michael Fein, High School music technology instructor, will soon be a published author of a new book entitled Making Music with GarageBand and Mixcraft by Robin Hodson, James Frankel, Michael Fein, and Richard McCready. The book is chock full of tutorials, strategies, and clear, step-by-step instructions for both GarageBand and Mixcraft. As a result, readers can more readily expand their knowledge of these vital software programs, and more successfully pursue their passion for making music on a computer.

Tom Rudolph, middle school instrumental and classroom instructor, completed the Second Edition of his book, Sibelius A Comprehensive Guide. The new edition will be shipping in January, 2011 by Hal Leonard Publications. The book is co-authored with Vince Leonard. It is used in many college courses including  the course Dr. Rudolph authored for the Berklee Online music school entitled Music Notation Using Sibelius.

Drew Shanefield is the invited guest conductor for the 2011 District 12 Delco Bandfest to be held at The Penn-Delco School District in 2011. The group will be performing several of Drew's compositions and arrangements.  In addition, Drew passed his Doctoral Dissertation Defense in November and is now Dr. Shanefield. He will officially graduate from Widener University in May, 2011.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

The entire Music Department Calendar of Events is available on the Haverford web page.

For more information on the Music Department, contact Dr. Thomas Rudolph, Director of Music: voice - 610-853-5900 ext 5141 or via email: Rudolph@havsd.net