Learning Music Index

On March 29, more than 400 HISD elementary students showcased their dancing or musical talents to hundreds of community members, parents, and school officials during the 13th Annual Multi-Cultural Music and Dance Festival.

The festival took place from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturday, March 29, at HISD’s Sutton Elementary, (7402 Albacore, 77074).

The event featured students from HISD’s Dodson, Burrus, Sinclair, Coop, Crespo, Gross, Energized for Excellence and Sutton elementary schools. The students competed for awards in categories of dance, band, choral, string, piano, and recorder ensembles.

The festival was started in 1996 by Sutton’s music director Dwain Dancy, who wanted to provide students, at a young age, an opportunity to perform in front of large crowds.

“I wanted to give elementary children another venue to show their performance skills to other students, parents and community guests in a contest setting,” said Dancy. “Children can learn to be confident in front of large crowds early in their lives and, at the same time, be rewarded it for it not only with applause but with trophies as well.”

After their performance, the students were able to enjoy a Spring Festival that included games and prizes. Over the years, the festival has grown to crowds this year of more than 1,500 people.

HISD Elementary Solo Contest
Saturday, March 1, 2008

And the Winners Are....

If in the past three weeks you walked by the music room and heard all this WEIRD MUSIC or noise, it's because 22 of our kids are practicing their individual solos for the solo contest this Saturday. Some of Sutton's Advanced and Intermediate band members will participate in HISD's Elementary Solo contest this Saturday morning at Parker Elementary. Each student will have to play by himself an entire solo in front of a judge for scoring of first to fifth place rating. They will also have to play this solo along with a piano accompaniment (former librarian, Ms JoAnn Sanders). All solos are of middle school grade and very difficult for elementary kids to learn. So if you know or see any of Sutton's band students who will compete in the solo contest, please give them your best wishes for success Saturday.

Thank you,
Mr. Dancy

P. S. Those weird sounds you hear when passing the music room may sound like noise to you but to me it's music to my ears. Remember these are our remarkable kids at work.

	Ladies 4Ever Perform at the Clarewood House
Sutton's Chorus and "The Ladies Forever Club" will perform a Valentine program for residents of Clarewood House Nursing home in the Bellaire-Sharpstown area. The date is Weds. Feb 13th starting at 10 a.m-10:45 a.m. The chorus will sing and dance to a number of Valentine songs while "The Ladies Forever" girls will perform individual and choral reading of their own personalized home-made valentine cards. After the performance students will greet and introduce themselves to the residents with hand shakes and short conversations. The Ladies Forever members will then hand out a their Valentine cards to all the clients who are in attendance. This has always been a very heart warming and inspirational learning event for our students.

HISD All City Band Performance

Congratulations to flute players Janett Ordonez, Jessica Heflin, and Julian Magsino, mallet players, Ashley Queszada, Ana Hernandez, and Daniela Moreno, clarinet player Andrea Aragon and bass clarinet player Giselle Alvarado, trumpet players Veronica Guajardo and Gilbert Perez for their outstanding performance this past Saturday at Houston I S D Elementary All-City Honor Band Concert which was held at Westside High School. These fantastic 4th and 5th grade band students really represented Sutton well with their exceptional talent. So if you know them and see them, please congratulate them on a job well done.

Special Thanks to Ms. Mayra Plancarte and Mr. Alberto Gonzalez who came out and volunteered their time with the concert.

Telemundo

Sutton's Chorus will take part in a live TV performance along with Telemundo's TV host Marcelo Marini and Houston's Mayor Bill White. This is Telemundo's annual Christmas Give- Away for unfortunate Hispanic people. It will be held in front of Houston City Hall next to Tranquility Park, on Friday, December 14 at 5 pm. Sutton's chorus will sing a number of Christmas songs as Mayor White and Mr. Marini pass out donated gifts during special segments of the news broadcast.

December 4th Winter Concert 6 pm
Mr. Dancy Speaks Out Sutton's Band and Chorus parents came up with the ideal of having a Winter Dinner before the Winter Concert. Well during last night's concert I received a WOW! surprised as Ms. Pinto (Kimberly Pinto mom and main organizer) made an announcement that they had raised $1,077 profit in dinner sales. What a wonderful group of band and chorus parents who raised this money and just as I had been informed by Maria the day before that the band/chorus account was headed for a negative balance. Also this wouldn't have been possible if not for Ms. Manzano & Ms Guajarado who got faculty and staff to purchase a number meals before the concert. Thank you faculty for supporting Sutton's band and chorus. Sutton's band and chorus put on a terrific show last night in which parts of the show will be aired on HISD TV news. Mr. Dancy would like to thank these volunteers who helped with the program last night. Ms. Sarah Cripps-Rains- remarks, Ms. Patty Rodriguez-program copies, Ms. Laura Adame, Ms. Wendy Rosales, Ms. Wright-Costume change, Ms. Seybret-video, Ms. Patton-decoration & monitoring, and Mr. Gonzalez-staging, camera, instrument set-up. Also a huge number of parent volunteers. More notable volunteers are: Diana Alderete, Sandra Coley, Rosa Depujadas, Edwin Dubon, Barbara Frank, Rina Juarez, Hernandez, Mr. Michael Hill, Reva Joshlin, Maciel Lopez, Olga Lopez, Sandra Solis, Rafael Torres, Ana Vazquez, Maria Vazquez, Teresa Valdez, Elsa Wright, Isabel Garcia, Diana Fraser, E. Cruz, Ruby Terrell, and Jose DeRio.

SCAN Performance
Mr. Dancy Brags

Sutton's Band and Chorus had a wonderful performance at the Sharpstown Recreation Center for the Sharpstown Civic Association News (SCAN) final meeting. Both groups received numerous rounds of applause from the packed house of Sharpstown guests. A number of our kids will be featured in the Houston Chronicle News paper, Alief's Homepage in the upcoming weeks. A SCAN donation of $200 was made to our band and chorus to help pay for transportation. I would like to thank Sutton's band parents & grandparents (which were over 30 in number) and special thanks to Ms. Manzano who locked up and oversee the kids safe return home when I had to rush off to attend the HISD All-City band selection meeting.

Mr. Dancy, Music Director

Results of HISD's All-City Honors Band Auditions

Sutton Wins

Janet Ordonez	Flute, 1st Chair
Jessica Heflin	Concert Bells, 1st Chair
Julian Magsino	Concert Bells, 1st Chair
Ashley Queszada	Mallets
Ana Hernandez	Mallets
Daniela Moreno	Mallets
Gisella Alvarado	Bass Clarinet
Veronica Guajardo	Trumpet
Gilbert Perez	Trumpet
Adrea Aragon	Clarinet

Mr. Dancy would like to thank the Sutton teachers for their help and support in making these honors possible. And a special thanks to all the band members for their hard work and accomplishment.

HISD's All-City Honors Band Auditions

Sutton will have 22 Advanced & Intermediate Band kids auditioning for HISD's All-City Honors Band on Wednesday, November 7th. There will be over 800 students district-wide auditioning for only 140 positions in the All-City Band.

Here is the criteria for winning a place on the All-City Band:

Each student will audition individually.
Each student will have to play 2 Major scales two octaves ( that's starting from one of the lowest notes and playing to one of highest notes that this instrument can play).
Each student will have to tongue up and slur down all scales.
Each student will have to play a chromatic scale ( that's each whole and half step notes of a scale).

If you are a musician you must know how very difficult this test is and it has to be played to perfection. Students who make over 3 mistakes probably will not make the All-City Band.

Best of luck to all the band students!

Special Note: Since Sutton is one of the audition sites. We will have band members from Energized School on campus to audition along with our students.

Energized For Excellence Academy Fall Music Competition 2007

Sutton's Band and Chorus participated along with a number of schools in a fall festival music competition this past Saturday. The competition was held at Energized For Excellence Academy and here's the results: Sutton Chorus put on a wonderful performance which delighted the audience as they received numerous applauses. They placed 3rd. Sutton's band brought down the house with many grandioso cheers, and bravos. For their performance, they were rewarded a FIRST PLACE, from the three judges who gave them an average score of 95% of 100. Congratulations boys and girls of Sutton Band and Chorus for a job well done.

	Hispanic Heritage Program at Sutton Dwain Dancy, Band and Chorus Director Tuesday, September 25, 2007 at 5:45 pm
	The Sutton Band
Sutton will kick off Hispanic Heritage Month with a performance by Sutton's Band and Chorus. The program is entitled Hispanic Heritage, A Culture of Music and Dance. The band will play Viva Mariachi, La Cucaracha, and the hit tune La Bamba. Sutton's chorus will sing "DeColores" and perform the hispanic songs & dances, Cumbia, Meringue, Batacha, El Carnavelito and The Mexican Hat Dance. Sutton students can attend the performance dresse rehearsal on Monday, September 24th at 1:30 p.m. Sutton's parents and community are invited to attend the program on Tuesday, September 25th at 5:45 p.m. in the school's cafetorium.

Sutton Chorus





		Congratulations! Outstanding Performance! Sutton Band and Chorus!
Special Note from Mr. Dancy Thank you 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teachers for keeping your kids in an orderly manner while the band & chorus were being video taped by HISD News of Today. Also students from Ms. Seybert ( Kimberly) and Ms. Coley ( Giselle) gave a wonderful after performance interview. Parts of our performance will be aired later this week or next week on HISD News. I would like to thank Mrs. Cripps-Rains, and Mr. Hill for their morning and afternoon help. Nora, Alberto, Myra, DePujadas, Laura G. , Ana V, Orozco, Adame, and Claudia for their work with the rehearsals, dances, & programs. Also Ms. Carvajal, Ms. Tran, Mr. Dubon, Ms. I. Garcia, Ms. Fraser, for their most needed help with the program today. . Mr. DelRio and his staff did a wonderful job getting the cafetorium ready for our performance. Tomorrow night this performance will be given again for the Sutton community and public. The Houston Chronicle has already said they will have a photographer at this show taking pictures for the local paper. Please remind your students to tell their parents and friends. HELP! HELP! We can always use volunteers to help us with Tuesday's evening program. It starts at 5:45 p.m.- 6:30 p.m. and the kids will arrive at 5 pm. So if you have some free time please give us a hand. Thank you. Mr. Dancy P.S. The Pk-2nd students were outstanding and well behaved. Sorry you didn't get a chance to be on TV. Thank you teachers!