REGION II MUSIC FESTIVAL GUIDELINES

 

The purpose of Region II Music Festival is to encourage and nurture the musical experience for the small school student. Therefore, we support the diversity of school efforts at music performance.

 

The host school needs to follow this timeline to help insure a successful festival.

 

September 15th

Invitation letter to schools

1. Date and place of festival

2. Special considerations (travel cost to schools off the road

     system)

 

October 1st

1.     Order awards for festival

2. Enlist guest conductors and request Festival Music list from conductors by November 1st

 

November 1st

          Enlist Region II directors to judge honor tapes

 

November 15th

          Second letter to schools

1.     Registration (A requirement before honor tapes will be judged)

2.     Honor Tapes requirements

3.     Guest Conductors and Festival Music List

 

January 15th

          Deadline for honor tapes

 

January 30th

          Mail honor students their music

 

March 1st

          Enlist solo and ensemble adjudicators

 

March 7th

          Third letter to schools

1.     Registration cost

2.     Food cost

3.     Reply form to confirm the total numbers for festival

 

March 15th

          Fourth letter to schools

1.     Forms for adjudication

2.     Reply form for solo and ensemble

3.     Festival schedule

 

April 7th

          Fifth letter to schools

          1. Solo and ensemble performance schedule

          2. Special events at Festival (and cost)

3. Housing assignments

 

Guest Conductors

 

The host school needs to enlist four guest conductors:

1.     Mass Band

2.     Mass Choir

3.     Honor Band

4.     Honor Choir

 

Directors from Region II can provide suggestions for the guest conductors. In addition, ASAA’s Music Director, currently Cam Bohman, can also give suggestions.

 

The guest conductors need to work well with students of various abilities. It is our desire to encourage and nurture the musical experience for small school students and in so doing support the diversity of school effort at music performance.

The school should provide a list of previously performed music to aid the guest conductors in music selection by November 1st.

 

The host school should provide food, housing, (ask local motel to donate rooms) and a stipend for each conductor ($350). The host school should provide transportation cost for each conductor if they are not able to travel the road system.

 

Guidelines for selecting music

 

Mass Band

1.     One or two selections could be a grade 3, the others should be a 2 ˝ and possibly one selection a grade 2.

2.     A total of 15 minutes should be selected so the number of selections will vary based on the length of the piece.

Mass Choir

1.     Music selected should be SAB and possibly one selection SATB.

2.     A total of 15 minutes should be selected so the number of selections will vary based on the length of the piece.

Honor Band

1.     Music selected should be grade 3 and higher with one piece easier than grade 3.

2.     A total of 15 minutes should be selected so the number of selections will vary based on the length of the piece.

Honor Choir

1.     Music selected should be SATB. Remember this is a small choral group when selecting the music.

2.     A total of 15 minutes of should be selected so the number of selections will vary based on the length of the piece.

 

Honor Band and Choir Guidelines

 

The student must be enrolled in his/her school band or choral program to be eligible for the honor groups.

 

Honor Band Tapes

Students should follow the All-State Honor Music Festival Handbook guidelines with the following changes:

1.     All wind instruments should play the first three requirements for their tape.

2.     Percussion entries should play all exercises. All tapes should be labeled with student name, school, and instrument. Student should repeat this information at the end of the audition tape recording.

 

Honor Choir Tapes

Students should follow the All-State Music Festival Handbook Guidelines. All tapes should be labeled with student name, school, and voice part. Student should repeat this information at the end of the audition tape recording.

 

Selection of Honor Students

 

Enlist Region II directors to judge honor tapes by November 1st. You should have a director for each of the following groups: (1) Clarinets and flutes (2) Saxophones and other woodwinds (3) Trumpets (4) All other brass (7) Altos and Tenors. Region II directors should use the state adjudicator forms from the All-‘state Honor Music Festival Handbook when judging the honor tapes. The All-State Honor Music

Festival Handbook can be downloaded from the ASAA site at www.asaa.org . Region II music directors should return honor student list to host school by January 20th in order to mail honor students their music by January 30th.

 

Solo & Ensemble

The student must be enrolled in his/her school band or choral program to be eligible for participation in the solo and ensemble competition. Only high school students with a superior rating will be eligible to go on to the state solo and ensemble festival.

 

Adjudication

The host school must enlist solo and ensemble adjudicators by March 1st. Directors from Region II can provide suggestions for the adjudicators. In addition ASAA’s Music Director, currently Cam Bohman, can also give suggestions. There should be at least four adjudicators for the following catagories:

          Piano and vocal solo

          Brass/Percussion solo ensembles

          Woodwind solo ensembles

          Vocal and other ensembles

The adjudicators should receive a stipend of $100. each.

 

Adjudication forms should be mailed to schools by March 15th and prepared before the student arrives to perform. The student must have the original music for the adjudicator to use during the performance.

 

Food and Housing

The host school should provide food and housing for all the participants. As is needed, in the smaller schools, students may be housed in churches as well as the school. The host school should also provide the meals for festival. Some schools have enlisted local restaurants to help in feeding students. It is important to keep the meal ticket at and affordable rate. The host school should offer two rates for the meal ticket.  One ticket includes all meals and a second one that does not include Sunday morning breakfast. Some schools may leave on Saturday evening after the concert. The meal ticket should include the following: dinner on Thursday; breakfast , lunch, and dinner on Friday; breakfast , lunch, and dinner on Saturday; and breakfast on Sunday. A total of eight meals should be included.

 

Festival Cost

A $9. Registration fee per student is used to cover the following cost:

          Administrative cost       $200.

          Awards                          $100.

          Music                            $1,100. (host school to keep music after festival )

          Guest Conductors         $1,400.

          Adjudicators                 $400.

A festival needs at least 355 students to break even.

 

Festival Schedule

 

          Thursday

                   Registration from 3:00 to 5:00

                   Dinner 5:30

                   Director’s Meeting 6:00

                   Opening Program 7:00 to 8:00

                   Rehearsal  8:00 to 10:00

                   Light out 11:00

 

Friday

          Breakfast 7:30 to 8:30

          Rehearsal  9:00 to 12:00

          Solo & Ensemble Adjudication 8:00 to 12:30

          Lunch 12:00 to 1:00

          Band and Choir Adjudication  1:00 to 5:30

          Dinner 6:00

          Rehearsal 7:30 to 10:00

          Lights out 11:00

 

Saturday

                   Breakfast 7:30 to 8:30

                   Rehearsal from 9:00 to 12:00

                   Lunch 12:00 to 1:00

                   Rehearsal from 1:00 to 5:00

Each group will have a rehearsal in the gym to prepare for the evening concert.

Dinner with selected Solo’s & Ensembles 5:30to 6:45

Festival Concert 7:30 to 9:00

Dance/Movie/Special activity 9:30 to 12:30

 

Sunday

Breakfast 7:30

 

Festival Concert

The Saturday evening concert should be the highlight of the festival activities. Every effort should be taken to involve the local community’s attendance at the concert. This is a great opportunity to strengthen the school’s music program and increase the community’s awareness of the tremendous value of music education. There is no charge for attending the concert.

 

Programs should be prepared for the evening’s concert. The program should have notes about each guest conductor as well as the music to be preformed. Include a listing of all schools and directors involved in the festival. Be sure to include the names of the command performance individuals.