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The Note The Phoenix Elementary District
newsletter for all things Music!
The Note The Phoenix Elementary District
newsletter for all things Music!
Welcome to our Phoenix Elementary School District Music newsletter! We
are very excited to have the opportunity to share with you all of the success, events, opportunities and experiences that our students
have in our district. From chorus and piano, to guitar ensembles and
general music classes, your children have the chance to learn from
experts in the field of music. Many of the teachers are not only teachers,
but practitioners of their art as well. Through performance, reading, writing and listening, Phoenix
Elementary music students are flourishing into wonderful young
musicians. We thank you for your continuing support and cannot wait
to see you at one of our next performances!
“Music doesn’t lie. If there is
something to be changed in this world,
then it can only happen through
music.” - Jimi Hendrix
November 2015 – Issue # 3
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WELCOME BACK!!!
New Information
Here you will find many new pieces of information about our schools, events, classrooms,
classes and music educators. From our new teachers and their transitions into their new schools, to the
new traditions like singing the Phoenix Elementary School District Alma Mater, we are off to a great start
for this 2015 – 2016 school year. In this issue of the Note, we will be shining a spotlight on Kenilworth
School and its music director, Debra Brandsma. We also will have a section on our extremely successful
Greater Phoenix Choral Festival.
Our Wonderful Music Educators
Richard (Rick) Hernandez Bethune general music
Shannon Avecedo Capitol general music/choral
April Pettit Dunbar general/choral/instrumental music
Malgorzata Ceglinski Edison general music/choral
Dianne Anderson-Nickel Emerson general music/choral
Shawna Balzar Garfield general music/choral
Jacob (Jake) Nurse Heard general music/choral
Chris Granger Herrera general music/choral
Ricardo la Paz Herrera general music/guitar
Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral
Erin Crawford Lowell general music/choral
Michael (Mike) McDonald Magnet Traditional general music/choral
Katherine (Katie) Merrill Shaw Montessori general music/choral
Abdiel Bernal Whittier general music/choral
Debra Brandsma Kenilworth general music/choral
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Kenilworth – Our Spotlight School! Director Debra Brandsma
My name is Debra Brandsma and I have been teaching music at Super Cool Kenilworth for 5
years. I have been teaching music in the District for 39 years with most of my years at Whittier
School.
Kenilworth is a Thinking Maps School, helping students to think and learn every day.
Kenilworth celebrated” 95 years of Thinking and Learning” on Saturday, October 24th. Our
school was built in 1920 and is the oldest existing school building in Maricopa County. It is
included on the National Register of Historic Places. Kenilworth’s alumni include Barry
Goldwater, Paul Fannin, and Margaret T. Hance.
General Music at Kenilworth involves singing, playing various percussion and keyboards. We
also dance and studying the instrument families and famous composers. Many of our
classroom teachers participate in the Musicfest Listening Program with their classes five
minutes per day. The Musicfest Listening Program provides assemblies such as the “Tetra
String Quartet” the “Brass and Woodwind Quartet”. The “52nd Street Jazz Band” will present
another assembly in the spring. We also participate in the district-sponsored Symphony for
Schools field trip.
Kenilworth is the only school in our district that has a historical auditorium. Our beautiful
Auditorium makes a perfect setting for programs and performances. Kenilworth students
always love to perform for their family and friends! Music is an integral part of learning at
Kenilworth School!
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School Updates In this section, you will find the updates from each of our Signature Schools in the
Phoenix Elementary School District.
We had a guitar workshop with
the world renowned Swedish
classical guitarist Johannes Moller.
It too place at Herrera school on
October 6th. Herrera was the only
Elementary / Junior High School
chosen by Mr. Moller to present a
guitar workshop in AZ.
Emerson Eagles have been flying
high since our last newsletter.
Every grade level has studied a
musical element including,
melody, rhythm, harmony,
expressiveness, and dynamics.
Learner engagement included
instrument playing various
classroom instruments, Boom
Whackers, and Orff instruments.
The Eagle Choir worked hard
preparing for the Greater Phoenix
Choral Festival held in Phoenix
College. They also sang with the
CHS choir for the last home
football. What fun!!
Both the World Drummers
Ensemble and the Eagle Choir had
a wonderful afternoon performing
at the AZ state fair and then
enjoying all the activities.
Currently, we are preparing for
our holiday programs. World
Drummers and Choir have a
concert, the choir will sing at the
Capitol, and 4-5th graders will
present a musical. After school
piano students will also perform.
Herrera Guitar Ensemble Emerson School
Garfield
Garfield Grizzlies are working to increase
their music literacy. Grizzly cubs in
kindergarten and 1st grade are working on
reading, notating, and performing
rhythms. Using the solfege staff to read and
notate melodic patterns have been
objectives for2nd and 3rd graders. The choirs
were asked to perform at our school’s mural
unveiling and are working very hard to
prepare the music for the performance.
Garfield has also received 10 ukuleles that
will be used after school by the Music Club.
The students in the Music Club will learn to
perform on the ukulele and piano and
increase both individual and ensemble
musicianship.
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Students at Heard Elementary School are busy working to improve their musical literacy!
Kindergarten through 3rd grade is working on reading many musical examples using solfedge. The
4th grade students are applying their music reading to piano performances. Our 5th and 6th grade
Musical STEAM class has finished their work in calculating the velocity of transverse waves and has
moved on to learning about Pythagoras’s Monochord and the first examples of a musical, diatonic
scale. They have been working with ratios to learn why certain intervals sound the way that they
do. Music appreciation students have been working on several projects relating music to their
everyday life through a cross-curriculum design of a movie soundtrack. Choir is excited to receive
new music for our winter program coming up soon. They have been working very hard on
developing their musicianship through singing and are more than ever being HEARD! Our piano
and guitar clubs are also well underway as the students build the fundamental techniques to
become proficient guitarists and pianists. Everyone is looking forward to what the rest of this year
will musically bring at Heard School!
Edison students started anew 2015-16 school year learning, practicing Seven Habits Songs which
they will In September and October Edison students studied tempo and dynamics markings. While
practicing singing Halloween songs with good posture and diction students observed how changes
in tempo and dynamics changes the mood of the songs. Grades 3rd and up learned Italian names
like pianissimo for very soft , crescendo for gradually louder or largo for very slow. Upper grades
students also composed a Halloween song using repeat sign, DS al Coda, segno and coda.
Everybody enjoyed playing “spooky” high and low organ sounds on MIE keyboards.
Malgorzata Ceglinska
Heard School
Edison School
The Lowell Bucket Drummers and Junior High Choir have been diligently preparing for two
upcoming performances. They are excited for their performances which will take place on Friday,
Nov. 6 at 1:00 at the AZ State Fair and at the Governing Board Meeting on Thursday, Nov. 12 at
6:00. Please check-out the attached photos of the 8th grade drumming ensemble.
Lowell
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Shaw Montessori is very excited about what
is happening in the music classroom. First
through third grade had a lot of fun
practicing composing both in an
improvisation style as well as actually writing
down their simple compositions. They have
also had the opportunity to play many Orff
instruments this semester and are learning
how to read the treble clef. Recently,
students have been working on ear training
and are practicing identifying Do and So in
different key signatures. Students are putting
all of their knowledge together and are
learning fun winter and holiday Orff songs for
their holiday concert which will take place on
December 15th at 6pm. 3rd graders are having
a wonderful time in recorder getting ready
for the holiday concert as well and learning
more and more about the language of music
each week. Kindergarten students are
working on their singing voices and learning
lots of songs, some of which they will do at
the holiday concert. They have also been
exploring space and movement in each class.
After school choir has been approved for
next semester and will take place on Tuesday
and Thursday each week for fourth through
eighth grade students. We cannot wait to see
where the rest of the year will take us.
Shaw Montessori
Dunbar K-3 students are preparing to
dazzle their families with a winter
wonderland performance “How the
Penguins Saved Christmas”. Students
are already excited about this clever
musical featuring adorable penguins
and Santa’s reindeer. The students can
hardly wait for December to perform
their play!
Fourth and fifth graders are now working
in the piano lab. Learning to play the
piano is a lifelong joy and lead to a
greater understanding of music.
The beginning of second trimester
means preparing for winter concerts and
recitals. The Dunbar Dragons band
and orchestra students aren’t “dragging
their heels”, but are preparing music for
their winter recital.
Choir rehearsals are sparkling with
energy as learning music for the winter
concert under full swing. They are
looking forward to some
fun performances with student-
created choreography.
Dunbar
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The Greater Phoenix Choral Festival
On October 23rd and 24th, choir students from several schools throughout our district and a few others took part in a fantastic Choral event, the Greater Phoenix Choral Festival! Hosted at Phoenix College, our students had the opportunity to sing in a large group of students, attend workshops on musicianship and singing, rehearse with many high caliber music professionals from the greater phoenix area and enjoy a concert in which they not only performed, but were able to listen to some fantastic groups from across the valley. Students were able to learn breathe support, the importance of vocal health (both for singing and otherwise) and practice some of the most important skills used in singing. During the concert, students sang three pieces (wonderfully we might add!), were able to listen to honor groups from High Schools in the surrounding area and had the opportunity to experience the Phoenix College choir perform. We are all very proud of our students and are looking forward to more fantastic events to come!
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Musicianship in Action Welcome Back to the Musical School Year
Students at Herrera had a
fantastic clinic with Master
Guitarist Johannes Moller!
Students at Heard experiment,
attempting to tell the difference
between coins by sound alone
(dropping them into different
material glasses)
Bucket Drumming at Lowell!
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