This form is for band students of all levels to sign up to play a District solo for the Broward Solo & Ensemble Festival on April 28th and April 29th at New River Middle School.
Our students will be grouped together on EITHER April 28th OR April 29th. Those assignments will be posted the week before the event, so make sure to leave both dates available.
The Solo & Ensemble event will take place at New River Middle School. There will be many judges in different rooms, each room with a piano, music stands, and chairs. The students will enter their assigned judge's room at their assigned time and play their solo with the accompanist for the judge. No audience will be in the room when the student performs. The parents and/or family of the student is permitted to be in the room if the student requests them to be present. No one else other than the judge, student, accompanist and student's family will be in the room.
EVENT EXPECTATIONS
Attire - The soloists are expected to dress as formally and professionally as possible. The school concert uniform is perfectly fine for this.
Transportation - All soloists must obtain their OWN rides to the event and must be there an HOUR before their solo to check in and warmup. Since all the solos are at different times, it is impractical to take a bus to the event together. Depending on assignment times, students are welcome to carpool with other soloists, but this must be facilitated and agreed upon by the parents.
Behavior - All soloists must be on their best behavior at all times while at the event to represent themselves and Franklin Academy with the highest level of respect and professionalism.
VIDEO LINK
At the bottom of the form, a link to the students full solo videos must be included for review. The student may use the same video as the fall submission for class IF they are HAPPY with the quality of their performance in the video. It is recommended that a new video be recorded after any mistakes have been fixed. Either way, a video must be linked on this form whether it's the old video or a new one. The previous submissions have since been deleted from the class assignments.
REGISTRATION
After approval, I will enter the students into the broward system for the event and pay for their registration. The registration will be COVERED by the school, but this is why we must have signatures and confirmations now so that the school's money is wasted when a student backs out of a performance.
ACCOMPANIST
We have already secured an accompanist for the solos who is an exceptionally talented pianist who has been doing Solo & Ensemble for many years. The accompanist fees include two 15-minute rehearsals and the event:
GR1-2: $25
GR3+: $40
The accompanist prefers their fee in CASH and given to them at the FIRST rehearsal. The fee must be placed into an envelope with the student name written on the envelope. The fee will be given directly to the accompanist at the first rehearsal. Mr. Saenz is not permitted to hold onto any fees for the accompanist.
If you would like to schedule an additional rehearsal at the accompanist's home, here is her contact information:
Lisa Fisher
Cell: 954-309-4444
pianohanzz@aol.com
REHEARSALS
The accompanist rehearsals will take place the week before the event, AND the week of the event earlier that week. Each student will rehearse with the accompanist the week before and the week of the event. The event will most likely be on that Saturday, April 28th.
The accompanist rehearsals will be posted as soon as a schedule is made available. Rehearsals will be scheduled for during the day and will take place in room G203 (next to the bandroom). Students will be given a pass to come to the rehearsal from whichever class they are in.
INSTRUMENTS
All students must bring their instruments to the event except for tubas and percussion. Percussion instruments will be provided by the event, or by Franklin Academy and brought to the school. We will only bring one school tuba to the event, so make sure to bring your own tuba mouthpiece.
All other woodwind and brass students must bring their own instruments.
Make sure to have your instruments maintained ahead of time to guarantee they will work perfectly for your solo.
ORIGINALS
Students doing the approved solos do not need to provide the necessary original copies of their solos for the judges as the school has all the originals we need. Any student doing a separate solo that is not on our class list, but is approved on the district list may still play their solo, but they must provide their own originals of the solo and piano parts for the accompanist and judge. You may play with your photocopy for the event.
GRADING
Participating as a soloist as the Solo & Ensemble festival is VOLUNTARY and not a mandatory grade. But, any student who participates in the event will be given 100% on their May 7th Test for class regardless of the score the judge gives you. Participating as a soloist teaches the students how to follow a piano accompanist, how to be confident in front of a judge, how to prepare a solo for a performance, and shows a lot of courage and dedication. These are skills the students would not otherwise be afforded if it was not for their solo participation.
***This form must be completely filled out and signed by the student and parent by APRIL 1st***
