We have been focusing on the Christmas Program music in this class. We meet together on Mondays and Fridays, while only the girls meet on Wednesdays and only the boys meet on Thursdays. We have been working on learning how to sing harmony. The girls have been divided into Soprano and Alto, and the boys have been divided into Tenor and Bass.

Please join us for our Christmas Program on December 18 at 7pm!

I am currently working on music appreciation: allowing the students to hear music that they may not have heard before and evaluating it, actively listening to it, helping them to understand how much work goes into a good performance. I also hope that they will start to appreciate other kinds of music so that they will broaden their musical horizons.

We had a special in-class project that the class worked on last week. During Smetana's symphonic poem, "the Moldau," the students were to write a story or draw a picture or series of pictures (like a comic strip) that would go along with the music. I know I had a lot of fun looking at the pictures and reading the stories, and several of the students expressed their enjoyment of the project. The projects will be handed back to the students by the end of the week.

The 9th grade students have been added to the 7th and 8th grade choir to help make the choirs more even. This choir is now the 10th, 11th, and 12th grade choir. 

We have been learning a lot in the last few weeks. We started off the semester by learning a little about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the most famous classical composers of all time. We then were able to watch a video of his last opera, called the "Magic Flute."

We have since been learning the music for our Spring Program, which will be held on May 19. Everyone is improving, and I am excited to see what improvements we will accomplish before the end of the school year.