Happy New Year! SY 2026-2027 AC Starts Friday!

AC Begins Friday, August 7! 

Actual footage of kids clamoring to sign up for AC

Sign up here for

Advanced Chorus 

Rehearsals begin Friday, August 7, 2026 

(singers can join later, too)

Rehearsal is on Fridays from dismissal until 4:30pm

Be sure to let your child’s HR teacher know your singer will stay after school on Fridays  Ms. Turgeon will call for AC members to come to the Gym at dismissal  We’ll rehearse in the Music room and sometimes in the Gym AC members will sing, dance, play instruments, create, and more! After rehearsal Singers will be released to the Briarcliff entrance Exemplary behavior is expected — interruptions of rehearsal won’t be tolerated Absences must be communicated to Ms. Turgeon, please. No audition necessary!

Studying Music: Tips and Benefits:

Here's a great article about how to help your child build great study (and practice!) habits. Article from Yamaha.com Studying music includes singing, dance, and instrumental music!

5th Grade Awards 2026

If you have trouble opening the slideshow above, you can see it HERE

And check out the rest of this blog to see other Music@SPARK content!

Se Habla Español Music@SPARK concerts May2026

If you can't open the slidesho below:

Se Habla Español program & videos

Happy Retirement, Nurse Carr!

upload items here

The best to ever do it. I have worked with Nurse Kimberly Carr for pretty much as long as @springdaleparkatl has been open (est. 2009). She is the most caring, thoughtful, funny, lively, loving person in our building, and that takes some doing! You will never walk past her without a hug, being told you are loved, her saying something fun or funny or kind. But also, Nurse Carr don't play. She is delight personified.

Her timer went off, and she is going to take her boundless energy to the other parts of her life. 

We just have a couple weeks to let her know how much she has impacted our entire community. 

Spread the word! 

You can send cards and gifts to the school, and/or I am collecting a folder of photos, videos, and letters to share with her. 

SPARKFan26 & Inman Park Festival Parade 2026

SPARK Fine Arts Night!

View the performances here SPARKFan26 slides or below:

 

SPARKFan26 Live Slides 

Inman Park Festival Parade

The rain didn't dampen our spirits, not one tiny bit. Check out the fun!

Midtown HS Marching Knights Rolling in the Deep

#MIOSM Ridibund Chamber Music Society

 

Set List (not all pieces are in the video)

Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond

The Philip Glass version of Sweet Caroline

Back in Black by ACDC

Beethoven 9-->Kashmir-->Bacchanale

Running Up that Hill by Kate Bush

Golden Waltz

Golden from KPop Demon Hunters

La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf --> Pink Pony Club by Chappel Roan

Gladiators and Hawks ticket links!

Gladiators and Hawks flyer link

Black History Month Program and LGPE!

Did you know?

Our AC LGPE team worked hard and earned 

an Excellent in Repertoire and a Superior for Sight Singing!

Thank you to Ji-Young Lee for filming!

Circle Round the Moon by Mark Heirholzer

Kalanta of the New Year by Malcolm Dalglish

Voices of Therrell with Renise Allen

Washington High School

Practicing great audience behavior!

Working on that sight-singing!

Our AC singers did some great work learning different types of harmony for "Circle Round the Moon" and "Kalanta of the New Year" has 3-parts at the end PLUS Greek text!  

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Chandler the Cello

Rehearsing with Ms. Wesley

 SPARK Black History Month Program! 

GMEA Statewide Elementary Honor Chorus (SEHC)

GMEA Statewide Elementary Honor Chorus

The kids had a blast working with Dr. Stanton Usher @usherstanton and Ms. Dena Byers @denabyers, and the event ran so smoothly! Kudos to our organizers, planners, and teachers who've taught the kids so well!

Our SPARK singers represented us perfectly and had great behavior! Go, Dragons! I'm so proud of Alex, Aria, Olivine, Tate, and Zachary!

 

Lining up for the concert in the Classic Center atrium

500 of the most dedicated singers from every part of Georgia working on our finale with Dena Byers

The view from the stage

Pre-dinner photo shoot on UGA's North Campus

Dr. Stanton Usher

Ms. Dena Byers

Our sweet SPARKies!

SPARK goes to the ASO!

 Nearly 500 students, teachers, & staff (including our cafeteria staff!!) and 9 buses for the field trip. 🥹😲

As you know, I'm super passionate (aka obsessed) with giving our students every opportunity to perform, see, and hear music whenever I can. Each year, I do my best to allow every student to attend an ASO concert, because it gives us an opportunity to hit on every Music standard for every grade level and make connections to and through academic standards, too. We will be continuing our study and revisiting the concert music and connections in the coming weeks.

The Concert

Post-concert study: 

Upper grades explored the sound science behind tuning, and used apps and their ensemble instruments to apply what they've learned.

 

Tone generator: two pitches--comparing two pitches at A440, then altering one of the pitches by small and large increments to hear the beats and sound interference. 

oscilloscope -- exploring amplitude and frequency

Online tuner -students used this tuner to check their intonation on instruments and singing--their goal was to get to A440! 

Lower grades learned about the orchestra seating chart 

(Where do the players sit, and why?) 

Generally, 

Soft instruments sit in front, and loud instruments sit in back!

High-pitched/small instruments sit to the left of the conductor

low-pitched/large instruments sit to the right of the conductor

except for the piano and harp.

Instruments made of wood are generally quieter than instruments made of metal.

Love letters to the ASO:

Did you know:

*Most people don't know how to listen—our society is fast-paced and visual, so just sitting and listening is not a skill we have anymore (adults and kids!) Listening to music helps!
*Some wiggles show authentic physiological response to listening
*when an orchestra plays a huge crescendo (gradually getting louder), it will make folks yawn!
*Many of our families use classical music as a lullaby & bedtime music, so it's natural for the kids to get sleepy. My goal is to teach them to hear an orchestra actively and override that sleepy tendency.
*Classical music is for everyone
*if students and families attend events and opportunities at the High, Alliance, ASO, Atlanta Opera, Synchronicity, Carlos Museum (and more), if they hear and learn about the hip hop & popular music, street art, muralists, and creators in our city, and they attend Atlanta United, Hawks and Gladiators games it will make our SPARK family feel familiar and welcome to walk into any space in our city and experience our city's culture.