Hello Warrior Band family,

Happy new year! We all hope you all had a fantastic break where you were able to recharge and relax.  

Welcome to the second semester where LOTS of exciting things happen. First and foremost, there are going to be some pretty significant changes to our band website, calendars, and how you can buy spirit wear and pay for band fees. Go check it out here: https://martinbands.boosterhub.com/home/1624. Over the next few weeks, we will use the Warrior Update to show off its features. For now, just go there and poke around a bit. In the next few days, you'll get an automated email from BoosterHub that will ask you to join the club.  THIS IS NOT A SPAM EMAIL!! Be sure to follow the directions to get fully registered.  

Another big project I completed over break is a complete reimaging of how we handle your band fees. When I send out charms statements, I get many emails back saying something to the effect of, "What am I even looking at?" I've created an individual google spreadsheet for every single band student which will follow them their entire time at Martin HS. In the next few days, you will get an email from me that will contain your personal link to your band account which is current up to January 2nd.  THIS IS AN EMAIL YOU WILL WANT TO STAR, SAVE, BOOKMARK, WHATEVER.

Next thing to discuss is the myriad of events that will be occurring this semester.  

• Sectionals - Every band, including percussion, will be having after school sectionals this semester.   In an effort to make our band calendar not look like a hot garbled mess, each band director will communicate their weekly schedule to each band. What I know is that they will be the same on a weekly basis and should not do different things on a weekly basis. For example, the wind ensemble low brass students will ALWAYS be on Mondays from 3:10pm-3:55pm, unless we have a day off of school. 

• Small Ensemble Night - February 17^th - Part of our spring semester curriculum is doing small, chamber ensembles. We do this project to enhance our student's listening skills and show just how important every voice is to an ensemble. The students will be working on this project during class time but depending on the difficulty of their ensemble they may want to do short rehearsals outside of school time. The project will culminate in a performance on Friday, February 17^th here at Martin. We invite all our friends and family come out to listen to the work the students have put in.  

• Winter Guard - there will be many performances this semester on Saturdays! The students can always use some energy from the stands cheering them on. Check the band calendar for all those events.

• Jazz Band - Mr. Ragland has a bunch of contests scheduled for this semester. We are waiting on confirmation from the colleges to make sure we are 100% registered. Once we get that, we'll put them up on the band calendar.  

• NTCA @ Martin - Saturday, March 11^th - One of our three major fundraisers for the year! We host a color guard contest that utilizes the majority of the school. Our commitment is using parent and student volunteers to host the contest. The only big difference this year is that we will not be providing floor crews for each team. However, that does NOT mean we need less people to volunteer! This is an ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK job!

• Pre-UIL - Thursday, March 23^rd - We will be having every concert band plus Boles and Young 8^th grade bands perform their UIL repertoire this evening for judges. We will receive comments to help us prepare for the big show later in April. Schedule for this event will come out later but please plan to come out and listen to your students. They will have been working very hard on this music!

• Warrior Band on the Run 5k - Saturday, March 25^th - Another major fundraiser for the year which is also ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK.  This event begins in the morning typically ends by 11am. We'll do a 5k fun run/walk/rollerblade/pogo stick (yes, a child did the whole 5k on a pogo stick last year) that goes through the neighborhood around the school. There are two ways to participate for students:
• Run in the event (preferred!)
• Play in the pep band that stands along the route
• There's also some team challenges and trophies up for grabs as well. More details on registration will be coming soon. Last year, we had about 350 runners and hope to break through 500 this year.

• UIL - April 11th-14^th @ CVPA - This is our big spring semester evaluation. What's new this year is that the contest will take place over FOUR days instead of three. Because of this, we can't tell you exactly which day we will play. Typically, the performances take place during school hours or slightly after school. We hope to have many friends and family out at the CVPA to enjoy the performances.

• Percussion Bash! - Friday, April 28^th - The percussion studio will be working hard on a fantastic concert that takes place this evening at Martin HS. It's one of our favorite concerts of the year because the sheer diversity of percussion music is REALLY cool! Mrs. Bolton will send out more details to percussion families regarding this concert and Drum-A-Thon.

• Spring Concert - Thursday, May 11^th  @ CVPA - Our end of semester concert! The directors are really excited for this because unlike last year where we had only 2.5 weeks between this concert and UIL, this year we have a full month!  

• Fiddler on the Roof - May 18th-20^th @ Martin HS - The spring musical is a REALLY big deal at Martin. Each year, the choir, band, orchestra, and theater department come together to put on a popular musical. This year it is Fiddler! Very select band students will perform all the music in the pit...and these musicals aren't watered-down at all. What you'll hear are all the same notes from what you'd hear on Broadway.  



And lastly....All of our summer 2023 dates are on the band calendar RIGHT NOW!!!  Before you plan a big vacation, double check the band calendar. Remember that summer band camp is mandatory.  

That's all for today. The next few emails you'll get from me or booster hub are important...be sure to read carefully!!

Love,

m