Faculty: Mrs. J. Nehila
Student Co-Directors: Calynn Choi and Luke Ostrow
Student Leaders:
Harry Economos, Brooke Greenberg, Caroline Haar, SeoYoung Kim, and Mitchell Poon
Weekly rehearsals
Monday evenings from 8:00 to 9:15 pm
Faculty: Mr. Matt Bilyk
The Jazz performs at two or three concerts per year. Rehearsals are held weekly on Wednesday evenings, 6:30 - 9:00 PM
Faculty: Mrs. Janine Nehila
Student Leaders: Jon Fitzner and Sky Winans
The new OT Guitar Club was created to give all students the opportunity to play guitar. The club’s two very talented student leaders, Jon Fitzner and Sky Winans, have introduced both novice players and those with guitar playing skills to the wide world of guitar music. Meetings take place on Wednesdays from 3:00 – 4:00 pm.
Curt Ebersole Director of Instrumental Music, Northern Valley Regional HS at Old Tappan Conductor/Music Director, Westchester Symphonic Winds
Click to enlarge map
The Wind Symphony is performing at the first annual Bergen County Invitational Concert Band Festival, this coming Sunday, May 20 at 4:00 pm. We will be performing along with the concert bands from Bergenfield, Fort Lee, and Paramus.
Please invite friends and family to join us for this event!
Please Plan to join me for my final concert of the 24th season, entitled “Choreography” this Saturday, May 19 at 8:00pm at the Tarrytown Music Hall.
Inspired by many types of dance, I am leading WSW in a performance which includes The Solitary Dancer by Warren Benson; San Antonio Dances by Frank Ticheli; and Three Dance Episodes from “On the Town,” by Leonard Bernstein.
Featured on the program are guest soloist TSgt. Joseph Bello, euphonium, from the United States Air Force Ceremonial Brass performing Beautiful Colorado, by Joseph De Luca and guest conductor Brian Worsdale, Music Director of the NYC ISO Symphonic Band and New York City Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band, who will conduct Arabesque by Samuel R. Hazo. Also featured on this program are ABA Symphonic March by John Cheetham and Puszta, a set of Hungarian gypsy dances by Jan van der Roost, conducted by our assistant conductor Matt Kowalski.
I want to especially encourage current band members to attend this concert!
Tickets to this concert can be purchased in advance at tickets.tarrytownmusichall.org at the door, or by calling the box office at (877) 840-0457 . Tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for seniors and students. Children under 10 are admitted free.
Finally, The Westchester Symphonic Winds would like to thank all members, family, friends, and supporters in the Hudson Valley for making this season our best yet! We look forward to seeing everyone next year for our special 25th anniversary season.
We have been invited — and I have accepted on our behalf — an invitation for the Wind Symphony to perform at the First Annual Bergen County Invitational Concert Band Festival. This will be held on:
Sunday, May 20, 4:00-6:00 pm (call at about 2:00 pm)
Overpeck Park, Ridgefield Park
I have applied for a Field Trip, and it has been approved, including the costs for the bus transportation. We will be participating at no cost to individual students.
Read the full article about this event on my new site — nvot.ebernet.biz.
The dress rehearsal for the Prism Concert is tonight at 7:00 pm. Everyone should arrive by 6:45 pm to prepare for this important rehearsal. Even though it’s a “dress rehearsal,” students do not need to dress in concert attire.
The concert will be presented on Thursday, March 22 at 8:00 pm. IMPORTANT: The doors will close at 8:00 pm when the concert begins; be sure to be on time, or you will not gain entry! This is because the school is hosting several 50th Anniversary events on Thursday evening, including building tours and an Alumni Social. Some of these activities will be held in the North Gym, and so it is important to protect the integrity of the concert. Please pass the word so no one will be disappointed!
The NVOT Jazz Band, directed by Matt Bilyk, will be sharing the stage with the One More Once big band at Trumpets Jazz Club, Montclair, on April 4. We need as many parents and students to come out for the rare performance opportunity. The students in the band are required to stay for the first set of the professional group and then may leave after that. Reservations would be a good idea, and Trumpets does offer a small menu as well as a bar.
NVOT will perform a half hour set starting at 7:30 pm, followed by sets by One More Once at 8:15 and 9:45.
We hope you will join us and continue to support live music in North Jersey and in our schools.
$10 cover ($7 for students) and $5 minimum. (Performing students receive complimentary admission.)
Here’s a copy of the Final Bulletin distributed to Wind Symphony and Choir today. I’ll give hard copies to String Ensemble tomorrow, Wednesday. We will discuss it over the next few days. Please share the bulletin with your parents if you are going on the trip.
We will be discussing details of the trip at the Music Parents meeting next Tuesday, March 27 at 8:00 pm in the Auditorium. We are asking ALL parents of trip participants to attend. If both parents have a conflict, then you (the student) should attend the meeting, so we have a representative of every family traveling present. Attendance will be taken. See below for information regarding the Waiver Meeting “semi-conflict” that evening.
Note that there are 2 forms in the packet with due dates before the parent meeting.
It is important that we have both of these documents returned, signed and complete, before the parent meeting on March 27.
Note that the NVOT Waiver Meeting is at 7:00 pm that same evening as the Music Parents/trip meeting, March 27, in the NVOT Academic Theater. This will not pose a conflict for math, science, and history waivers, because those groups meet between 7:00-8:00 pm. The waivers presentation for World Language is 8:00-8:20, and English is 8:20-8:40. So, if you are involved in a waiver for either of these departments, you should:
Contact me if you have any questions.
Wind Symphony and String Ensemble – Please think about this until tomorrow. For the trip you are allowed:
In order to transport instruments safely and eliminate awkward baggage checks at the airport, we will be sending all LARGE instruments on a truck that will be loaded on Tuesday, March 27 at 8:15 am. This will include instruments like alto, tenor, & bari saxes, trumpets, horns, trombones, euphoniums, tubas, and all percussion and string instruments not supplied by the Festival (including ‘celli, string bass, and all large percussion — the kind typically supplied by festivals such as this). Piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, and viola players are urged to take your instruments as your carry-on.
In order to expedite the truck rental, we must supply a manifest list to World Class Vacations by Thursday. On Wednesday and Thursday, I must collect this information from everyone who will be sending their instrument on the truck:
I will bring a set of scales to assist in weighing cases. We must assess our approximate percussion needs; we won’t actually pack, weigh, and measure the percussion cases. (These cases will include snare & tom drums, bongos, drum stands, cymbals, sticks, mallets, music folders, etc.)
For Wednesday, these players should be ready with the measurements and weights of their cases: alto, tenor, & bari saxes, trumpets, horns, trombones, euphoniums, tubas. This will help expedite gathering the information as quickly as possible in a shortened period, due to the HSPA. Please be ready! Thank you!
On February 29, 2012, I celebrated Leap Year Day by launching my new NVOT Instrumental Music website. The new address is: http://nvot.ebernet.biz (however the old address will automatically re-direct you for a limited time).
Although it’s not fully developed, the site is up and running with the basics, including links to the Instrumental Music Handbook (PDF format), monthly calendar of events, a Formsite login (for students who need to edit their personnel information), and a countdown clock to departure day for our trip to Disneyworld.
Please visit the new site and leave comments — I’m eager to hear from you!
What are you doing before the Superbowl? If you come to the Palisades Mall at 2:00 pm on Sunday, February 5, come by H&M on the first floor. You may see (well actually, you will see) a dance number break out of nowhere. The cast of The Wedding Singer will appear from nowhere, and perform the opening number from this year’s All-School Musical Production, It’s Your Wedding Day.
And remember, the very last tickets for the show on March 2-3-4 are for sale on www.seatyourself.biz. Hurry before the last 83 tickets disappear!
