Intermediate & Advanced Band

8th Grade to Taft HS / Comm Arts HS

From Mr. Greg Mills, Head Band Director

Hello future Raider Band Members!
Now that we have gotten to the other side of UIL, I wanted to reach out and congratulate each of you on a wonderful season of making music in your band halls! Over at Taft, we are now changing gears to our band placement auditions for the 24-25 school year, and that includes YOU! I’m excited to hear the next version of the Taft Raider Band!

Here is what I need from you:
1. Find your pieces of audition music attached to this email. These two mini-etudes are written to showcase your ability to count rhythms and also play lyrically. Practice them to the best of your ability!
2. Record a video of you playing both the mini-etudes (one video file only) and email it directly to me at Gregory.Mills@nisd.net. If the file is too big, you can send it to me via Northside’s google drive. Try to get as much of your body in the video as you can so we can see your posture, hand position, and embouchure.
Please try to turn this video in at your earliest convenience so we can start building student schedules for the 24-25 school year.

***Percussion students do not have to worry about this video audition. Their audition is based on our training campus and marching percussion auditions occuring this Friday, April 12th. ***Interested in jazz ensemble? Our jazz ensemble program is open for students who play saxophone, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, guitar and bass. Attached you will find the audition music and information for this ensemble as well. This audition is IN PERSON on April 25th after school, and not a video style audition.

TAFT HS AUDITION MUSIC

Audition-Music-for-2024-2025-Placement

TAFT HS JAZZ AUDITION MUSIC

Taft-Jazz-Audition-Packet-24-25

8th Grade to Health Careers HS

From Cathryn Boethel Fowler, Head Band Director

Good afternoon! A reminder to let your students that are attending HCHS know about our auditions for bands (I have already heard from a good number of you- thank you!). Please forward this email onto those students. Our band audition is due by April 12th so that appropriate placement for each kid can happen.

We are happy you have chosen to be a part of the Health Careers Band. Your audition is to determine which band class best fits your instrument and skill level. We accept anyone who has previously played a brass, woodwind, or percussion instrument into our band classes, or anyone who wishes to begin participation in band. Please note that without an audition you will automatically be scheduled for a Non-Varsity ensemble.

Submit your audition electronically as an audio/video file to cathryn.fowler@nisd.net. The deadline for submitting auditions is April 12th.

Please type the following in your email:

First and last name
Middle School you are attending
Awards and recognitions

Required audition materials to record are as follows:

A solo or region etude that demonstrates your abilities.
You can also include a chromatic scale that shows your current range on your instrument. Please note this is not required, but it would be great to hear!

8th Grade to John Jay / SEA Academy

From Frank Foster, Head Band Director

Hey all, Congrats on a great year and I hope things are going well as we finish the last part of this school year.
I have attached some information for your students that may be attending John Jay HS next year.

Attached is information about May’s rehearsals and the Show and Tell Concert that will be featuring the upcoming freshman band members attending Jay HS.

Rehearsals will be on Monday May 20th through Wednesday May 22nd at 4:45-7:00pm. The concert will be on Thursday at 6:30pm at John Jay HS..
This will give our upcoming band students a chance to meet the members of the John Jay HS Band and see our new fine arts building. We will have a parent meeting on Tuesday May 21st at 6:30pm to answer any questions parents may have about our band and our school.
I have also included our band warm-ups.

We will be using these exercises to warm up the band everyday and for chair placement in our band for this next season. Chair placements will be based on pages 1, 3, and 4 at the tempo the student can handle (speed will not be a factor but understanding of the exercises will be). The chair test will take place during our rehearsals for our May Concert.

Percussion cadences and music will be handed out by Mr. Ramos. Mr. Ramos will also announce when our percussion camps will take place.

We will be having our ribbon cutting ceremony on Thursday April 18th at 6:30pm. Everyone is welcome to come and get a tour of our new building. This will also be a great opportunity for the students to meet the directors at John Jay HS. Hope to see you all there.
Please feel free to email me with any questions –>
franklin.foster@nisd.net