2016-17 Royal Court!

Congrats to our students on the Royal Court this year!

Soprano:
Erin C
Katie P
Greta S
Maizy F

Alto:
Kirsten D
Delaney S
Erin H
Kaitlin P

Tenor:
Isaiah S
Michael M
Jaiden S
Brent F

Bass:
David F
Sawyer B
Quinn S
Hunter E

Fall Festival Information

Fall Festival: September 23rd @ Kalona Historical Village

Things to bring/wear:  You will need to wear blue jeans to the Fall Festival with your music polo.  If you do not have a music polo, you can borrow one from the Mid-Prairie Music Department.  Otherwise, please wear a black M-P shirt.  You will all have a few minutes of free time at the Fall Festival, so you can bring money to buy food/drinks while there.  Please remember that you need to have all food eaten/all drinks drunk BEFORE you get back on the buses to the high school.  There will be neither food nor drink on the buses.  Keep the buses clean and respect the bus drivers and school chaperones.

Schedule:

12:40 - HS Band and Choir load buses

12:50 - 7th/8th Band performs

1:00 - 6th Choir

1:10 - 7th/8th Choir performs

1:20 - HS Band performs

1:30 - LL HS Choir

1:40 - MC HS Choir

2:00 - HS Band and 7th/8th band march around town

2:20 - HS Choir Only students load bus at Fall Festival grounds

2:30 - HS Band students load bus at Kalona Library

You must ride the same bus to and from the Fall Festival.  No, you may not stay at the Fall Festival even if you have a note from your parent.  Everyone has to return to the High School via the school buses.  You also need to remember that there is to be NO food nor drink on the buses.  Eat/drink at the Fall Festival; don’t bring anything back with you.

Please remember the general rules of conduct.  You are all representing Mid-Prairie.  Be polite while waiting in lines, be aware of all the other people at the festival (elderly, children in strollers, etc.)  Also remember to respect the grounds at the festival.  People spend many volunteer hours taking care of the grounds and would not appreciate you trampling over the flowers.

You also need to be polite to the school chaperones.  If they tell you to do something (or to stop doing something) follow what they say.

Make sure you don’t “forget” what time you perform. Smile while on stage – have fun!

Sausage Gravy Dinner

The Annual Homecoming Pancake Supper has a bit of a change this year...  This year it will be a Sausage Gravy Supper on September 9th, from 4:30-7:15 in the HS Cafetorium.  Due to the construction, we won't be able to transport the large pancake griddle to the back of the school to cook our pancakes... and due to Homecoming and Fall Festival happening on the same day this year, we changed the date of our supper.

Friday, September 9th will be a busy night at the high school: we will be hosting our Sausage Gravy Supper, the 1969 Undefeated Mid-Prairie Football team (and cheerleaders) will be having a reunion, and the new Indoor Practice Facility will be hosting an open house.

All students in band and choir were asked to sell three tickets to this event.  All the proceeds help fund all the music camp scholarships through the Fine Arts Boosters.  It will be a great evening, so let us take care of supper and you can go cheer on the Hawks!

Welcome Back!

It's official: summer is over and school is in session!  I hope all of you had a great break and are ready to back into the full swing of things.  Today will go by so very quickly, I'm ready for choir to start :)  It is an adjustment getting used to choir being 4th block, but I'm sure we will all get the swing of it soon.

I will do my best to put the daily announcements and lesson schedules in the appropriate tabs.  Remember, please email or call if you have any questions!

Here's to a great school year!

Augustana Honor Choir

A great weekend at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL.  The Royal Court learned two new beautiful songs and listened to performances by the Augustana Choral Department.  They also listened to other high school choral groups from Illinois and Wisconsin.  Thank you, Fine Arts Boosters, for paying for the registration for this great event!

Congratulations to the Royal Court!

Congratulations to the following students for being accepted into the Royal Court:

Erin Campbell, Maizy Fugate, Katie Palmer, Greta Schmidt, Kirsten Duwa, Aleigha Gugel, Martha Swartzentruber, Montana Hart, Taylor Hillbrand, Hannah Van Roekel, Jami TeBockhorst, Josh Fox, Ben Stone, Isaiah Sents, Sawyer Black, Hunter Eden, Brent Foster, David Fleming, and Quinn Schmidt.

I really appreciated how much everyone prepared for the auditions!  We will have our first rehearsal Wednesday, September 23rd at 7:30am.  See you then :)

New York (again)

Hello All!

The year of the band & choir New York trip is finally here!!  Mr. Kunz and I are very excited about our trip and can't wait for all the exciting things it entails.  But before we get there, we have A LOT of paperwork to get through.

The trip will be held April 6-10th. We will leave Wednesday after lunch, and return on Sunday evening.  I know the biggest concern for most people is the cost.  I have breakdowns of prices ranging from 90 parents/students attending, all the way up to 150 parents/students attending.  The tricky part is figuring out how many people are actually attending the trip, which in turn lets us know how many charter buses we will need.  If we have 102 parents/students, the price is $884 per student (based on four students in a hotel room).  If we pass the 102 attendance, we need three charter buses and the price goes to $1,004 per student.  If we have 110 parents/students, the price is $972.  If we have 115 parents/students, the price drops to $951.  So, you can see that I can't give you an exact amount just yet.  It really does depend on how many people we have.  We will be able to have people register online, probably starting next week.

Parents, if you are interested in chaperoning, that's great!  Please be aware that the prices listed above are for quad occupancy rooms.  If you only want two people in a hotel room, the price will be higher.  For example, if we have 102 parents/students, the double occupancy price is $962.  If we have 103-109 parents/ students, the double occupancy price is $1,083.  If we have 115 parents/students, the double occupancy price is $1,029.  

What does all this money get you, you ask?  Included in the price:  motor coaches with DVD and wi-fi, two hotel nights, two nighttime securities guards at the hotel, two breakfasts at the hotel, boxed lunch at Central Park, group dinner and jazz band at BB Kings (based on availability...subject to change), group dinner at Ping's Restaurant, Admission to National September 11th Memorial and Museum (based on availability), Admission to Zepher Cruise, Admission to Radio City Music Hall Tour, admission to a Broadway performance, guided tour of Lincoln Center, Choir performance at St. John the Divine Cathedral (based upon availability), Jazz Band clinician (based upon availability), an exchange performance with a local NY City High School (based upon availability), admission to the observation deck at the Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Little Italy, Chinatown, Times Square, a group travel video souvenir package, and a drawstring travel bag.

Again, the price all depends on how many people register and pay for the trip.  We should hopefully be able to start registering online this coming week.  We will have a down payment of $200 required by mid-September.  If your child has participated in the fundraising activities for the last three years and has money earned from those events, we can use that money for the deposit.  I will not attach a list here showing all student names with money earned.  If you want to know the amount your child has earned, please email me and I will let you know.

Yes, we will be offering fundraisers for this school year.  We will be offering the typical food/gifts fundraiser, the poinsettia fundraiser, and the homemade pizza fundraiser.  The first fundraiser will start in October.

I'm sure there will be many more questions along the way.  I wanted to get the ball rolling and pass on as much information as I could at this point.  Feel free to ask questions... I may not know the answer right away, but I will work on it.