The final roster of students attending our spring trips on either April 28 or May 2 can be found here. There are 2 tabs at the bottom - one for each trip/band. The students in the Beginner Band or Hawk Select Beginner Band should have come home with a waiver for Epic Waters. This form needs to be returned ASAP and students who do not turn it in will not be able to go on the trip.

You can see the detailed itineraries for the trips below.

Beginner Band Epic Waters Trip - April 28

*Beginner Band Trip Rules*

Advanced Bands Peak Festival & Main Event Trip - May 2

Advanced Bands Peak Festival PERFORMANCE ONLY Trip - May 2

Please join us Wednesday, April 23 for our next booster club meeting. The meeting will be a virtual format to allow more parents the flexibility to join from wherever they are. We will be discussing all of the end of year events and our needs for parent help. We would love for this to be the most attended meeting of the year!

Band Booster General Meeting

Wednesday, April 23 · 7:00 – 8:00pm

Time zone: America/Chicago

Google Meet joining info

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/xas-oyac-dps

ALL current 6th and 7th grade students will complete an audition for the 25-26 HMS Bands, regardless of their desire to continue in band next year or not. This is a major grade, essentially our final exam, and culmination of all they've been taught this year.

Auditions will consist of scale pass-offs, a prepared etude, a short rhythmic sightreading exercise, and other factors that we've seen throughout the year. The audition information sheet can be found here.

You can find the prepared etude in this folder.

Scale pass-offs can be done in class or before/after school. All auditions must be completed by May 9th and results will be posted physically in the band hall and in the BAND app at 2:10pm on Friday, May 23.

The high school band audition music can be found in this folder. As we receive information about auditions at specific schools, we will add to this folder so all of the information is in one place.

Students who have turned in the spring trip contract can be found on this list. All spring trips must be paid for in full by Friday, April 18th. The Beginner Band trip fee is $50 and the Advanced Band trip fee is $25. If you are paying by check, please make them out to Hudson Band Boosters and send by April 17th (since the 18th is a student/staff holiday). Otherwise, payments can be made online through Presto at any time! Details for how to log into Presto and make an online payment can be seen in the video at the bottom of this Smore. If you have a question about a payment, please contact treasurer@hudsonband.org. If you have a question about a student being left off the roster, please contact Mrs. Becker.

Beginner Band students (NOT Hawk Select Band members) will have 2 full band rehearsals to prepare for our Epic Waters and Spring Concert performances. These rehearsals will take place on Monday, April 21 and Thursday, April 24 from 4:15-5:30pm in the HMS Band Hall. All students will receive a major grade for their rehearsal etiquette and attendance at these 2 mandatory rehearsals! These are the only 2 times we will rehearse together to put our parts together before performing for a judge. It is imperative that all students who are supposed to be there are on time and ready to work!

The remaining Hawk Select Band rehearsals will take place on Wednesday, April 9; Thursday, April 17; Wednesday, April 23; and Wednesday, May 7. The remaining rehearsals will end at 5:30pm. This is one less rehearsal than was originally planned. Thanks for being flexible as we have to adjust things towards the end of the year for a myriad of reasons!

Our final practice challenge of the year is well underway. All students who practice for 45 days of the challenge period will be invited to attend a movie party at Stike & Reel on Tuesday, May 27th. Students have to practice for at least 20 minutes for the session to count. All papers must be turned in by May 20 with a parent signature to count and receive an invitation to the party. Happy practicing!

Do you know an incoming 6th grader who wants to be in band? Or a 25-26 7th/8th grader who didn't join band but wants to now? If so, please share the flier below with them. We have our Instrument Fitting Drives to help our new beginner band students choose their instrument at the end of April. Our program continues to grow because our current families share their positive experiences with others. Please continue to do so if you have kind words to share - we love being the biggest and best band in GISD and want to continue that legacy for years to come!

Now is the time to sign your student up for a summer band camp! If you are looking for someplace to send your student over the summer to keep them busy, give yourself a break, or any other reason, please consider sending them to a summer music camp! In past years we have had students attend the Blast of Brass Camp, the Bocal Majority Double Reed Camp, the SFA and Baylor Band Camps, and the Plano Middle School Summer Percussion Camp. We will definitely have kids this summer at the Baylor Band Camp - mine is already signed up!

SUMMER BAND CAMP OPTIONS

This document is a work in progress, but should give you a little information about the camp options and I'll work on updating it ASAP!

ALL current 8th grade band students in GISD are required to fill out THIS FORM. It helps the high school band directors begin planning for next year and is super helpful to them. Please take care of filling this out ASAP if you haven't done so already.

Also, begin looking at your high school's band calendar. There will be activities for you to attend from now until the end of the school year. You definitely don't want to miss out on anything!

April

4, 11, 15, 21 - Rehearsal

22 - Manny's Performance (after school - 7:15pm)

May

1, 5, 9, 16 - Rehearsal

19 - HMS & SHS Cluster Jazz Concert

Spring Events

May 2 - Advanced Bands Peak Festival & spring trip

May 3 - Beginner Band All-Star clinic/concert for those students who earn a chair after April auditions

May 12 - ALL Bands Spring Concert (Beginners @ 6:00pm, Advanced Bands @ 7:30pm)

May 19 - Jazz Band concert

May 20 - Percussion Ensemble concert

May 21 - Performances in the Park Ensemble Concert (TENTATIVE)

This spring, the Wind Symphony will be recording for the Texas Honor Band contest. This is a competition that decides the best band in the state of Texas. We will compete against other CCC middle schools in the region, area, and state. We will be working on very difficult music, will record those pieces multiple times at different performances, and will submit the best recording to the contest. The winning band puts on a concert at the Texas Music Educators Association convention in San Antonio in February of 2026. It can be an intense process, but we believe working through the process will take our students to an even higher level of musicianship.

Please join us at Manny's Tex-Mex in Sachse on Tuesday, April 22. The jazz band will perform on the patio and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the HMS Band. You won't want to miss it!

We are offering VIP seats for our spring concerts again this semester! Seats are $10 each and you will have the opportunity to enter the auditorium 20 minutes before doors open to the general public to choose your seats. All of the details can be found on the seat order form. The order form will close when we have sold 100 seats to each concert OR at 12:00pm on the day of the concerts (May 12).

It’s not too early to get a jump-start on reaching out to corporate band sponsors! This year we have multiple levels of band sponsorships so potential donors can decide how they would like to support our band. Corporate sponsors in any of the four sponsorship levels will have their business logo included on our band website and in concert programs the entire school year. Feel free to print this flyer about the Hudson Band and the sponsorship levels and reach out to businesses in your community. Have your student ask a band director for copies of the flier too! Feel free to contact me at fundraising@hudsonband.org if you have any questions because I’m excited about fundraising and the opportunities we have this year!

The BEST investment you can make for your student's musical education is with PRIVATE LESSONS! We have the most wonderful group of private teachers around who are dedicated to providing quality one-on-one instruction to our students. Most of our teachers have been working with our students already this summer at our camps and have already told me how much they are enjoying getting to know your students. To sign your student up for private lessons, fill out this enrollment form and get it back to us ASAP. The teachers will schedule students as soon as they receive their enrollment form, so be first to get the most desired lesson time! Private lessons are $25 each week, payable directly to the private teacher. If finances are the only thing keeping your student out of lessons, we do have limited scholarship money available to help. This private lesson scholarship application is due Friday, August 23rd. We will issue scholarships at that time to as many students as possible, based on financial need. If you would like to contact the private teacher for your student's instrument, you can find all of our teachers' contact information on this page.

All band students should now have a band locker issued to them. Band lockers are for storing band instruments and band binders during the school day. We expect all students to take home both their binder and their instrument EVERY DAY because consistent practice is the best way to improve on an instrument. We do have combination locks available to students who request one, but we do not initially issue locks with the lockers. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND students to keep their locker locked all the time. Students are welcome to bring their own locks, however, they are REQUIRED to either share the combination with the band directors or give us a copy of the key. We do our very best to keep things safe, but the best way you can help yourself is to lock your locker and LABEL ALL OF YOUR BAND SUPPLIES!

Much like the beginner band year, as students continue with band there are new/different/extra supplies that will be needed. Many of these are the same supplies that we requested for this past year, so if your student will be an 8th grader, they likely already have these supplies. Please make sure your student has these supplies when we start school. The supplies on the list have been linked to Amazon to try and make it super easy for you - just add to cart and check out!

You can find all of the Beginner Band supply lists for each instrument on our band website. They're found on the handouts page, where there's also a list of our recommended music stores that can help you rent instrument or purchase necessary supplies. Don't wait to get your supplies ordered - it takes a few days for the stores to fill the orders and you don't want your student to miss out on the first sounds of the year with their class!

This year, we will be using a new fine arts management program called Presto. For our returning members, this is replacing Charms. This program allows us to keep track of band finances, inventory, music library, communicate with members, and much more. On Thursday, August 15th, all parents and students should have received a welcome email from Presto with details on how to log in. You will be able to see upcoming events, outstanding balances, make online payments, keep track of your student's school-owned uniforms and inventory, etc. We believe this system to be much more user friendly than Charms and are excited to transition to this new program!

You can watch a quick tutorial video below!

• Reams of copy paper
• Cases of bottled water
• Puppy pads (for emptying spit valves and saving the carpet)
• Candy/Stickers/Trinkets (to use as student incentives)

As many of you can probably relate to, I have become a bit overwhelmed by the amount of communication forms we are using. I have made some changes to my own notification settings on the apps. If you send me a message in Talking Points, you will notice an automatic message that lets you know your message has been received, but will be responded to on a school day during the hours of 8am-5pm. The same will happen to messages send on the Band app. The great thing about the Band app is that other parents and students have the ability to comment and answer questions as well (and I hope you all will chime in when you know the answers to questions that are being asked there).

The best way to contact the band directors is through email. Please know that we team-teach our classes and each of us only has one 45-minute conference period each day. If you haven't received a response to your message within 48 hours, please message us again. We all strive to respond within 24 hours, but that isn't always realistic. We are all setting boundaries to leave work at work (as much as possible), so we can be more present for our families at home. We spend many extra hours and days with your students, who we love, but our families must come first. Thank you so much for your understanding and for showing us grace as we put these boundaries in place.

For the remainder of this year, we will continue to share information through email (in both Presto and Skyward), post on Canvas and Skyward, and send through Talking Points and the Band app. At the end of the year, we will likely send out a survey to find out which form of communication works best for you. Our hope in the future is that we can simplify our processes and make our communication easier for everyone!

Heather Becker - Director

Dan Urban - Assistant Director

Ryan Neff - Assistant Director

Sue Manaois - Percussion Director

Website: www.hudsonband.org
Phone: 972-675-3070 ext. 52218
Facebook: facebook.com/hudsonmsband

Instagram: instagram.com/hudsonhawkband