Happy Summer from Music@SPARK Chorus and AC!

The SPARK Song was written by SPARK parent Dawn Bell before the school opened in 2009. It has been sung every day that Springdale Park has been open during the morning announcements, and at school and community events. We are grateful to Dawn and her daughters Caroline and Meredith for sharing the best school song in the land with us!




Pure Imagination playlist

Music@SPARK Chorus and AC Get Down, Get Up & Git Down

Our concert, especially the final songs, were dedicated to the amazing, wonderful Ms. Pirnstill. Here are some of our favorite moments from our 2018 Field Day to show what an amazing person, planner, teacher, and colleague she is. More than 700 students participated in Field Day, and every station was about fitness, skill, cooperation, and sportsmanship. It was a beautiful and fun day in every way.  Scroll down for photos and for a video of our Chorus AC concert where we dedicated our final several songs to her and her work at SPARK.

To see all of Ms. Turgeon's Field Day photos click HERE

Get Down, Get Up & Git Down
(night, day, boogie)


Our singers were accompanied by members of our musical village: Millie Turek, Jon Marvel (Mary Lin), Melanie Relyea (MES), and Colleen Kingston (Hope-Hill), and Ms. Valkova for coaching our Baby Elephants, and our Amazing Stolen-From-Inman House Band, featuring 
Everett Stubin, bass & Former SPARK student

Peter Haynes, drums

Matthew Vincent, guitar

Futa Kakinuma, keyboards

Also, thank you to Elizabeth Hill for coming to talk to our rising 6th graders, to Ms. Wade for all your help, and to Meaghan Curry from Henderson Mill ES for always being there.

A final, and gargantuan thank you to ASO Bassist and Composer Michael Kurth for always being generous with his talent, his time, his connections, and his joy for music. 

Michael's music has been featured by the ASO all season this year, and we (ASO and Chamber Chorus) just recorded a CD of his work that will be released next year. 

In the meantime, for fun, he wrote Promenade des Elephants Bebes, a piece that RL, SB, and RR have been working on since January, a mashup between Henry Mancini's Baby Elephant Walk and Saint-Saëns The Elephant from Carnival of the Animals. 

Michael has always been eager to share his love and enthusiasm for music all over Atlanta, and we are all grateful for his willingness to come to SPARK, record videos, create music, give advice, and stay connected with us. 

Michael (back) with Rodolfo meeting Maestro Stephen Mulligan

Teaching, Learning, Creating projects are rolling in!

I'm so impressed with the work and sweetness this project is bringing out. So many friends are helping others to be more musical, more physical, and more creative. This is supposed to be just a fun, low-stress project, and I'm not expecting giant or time-consuming work, but some kids felt inspired.
Check out some highlights below:

Maria's Haunted created on Soundtrap

Alexa's Snake Charmer created on Flat.io

Gianna's Original Song


Aub and Iz's Dance


Aine's Original Song


Emma's Creative Kata

Friends teaching Friends

QTR 4 Project: Teaching, Learning, Creating

Click HERE to download and print the project sheet

In this project students may choose to do a Musical activity that uses their musical skills and includes Teaching, Learning, or Creating. Students are only required to choose one activity, but, of course, they are welcome to do more.

There are not too many rules. Students may work alone or with others. No group size limit. Be creative. Be ambitious. Bring something you’re excited about working on. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be lazy.

• Teaching: teach another student a song or dance you learned on an instrument or by singing or dancing
• Learning: learn a song, dance, skill from another student or group
• Creating: create a song, a dance, a composition (use Flat.io or Soundtrap or staff paper or GarageBand….)

Teaching or Learning

SPARK Song with ukulele chords

https://ukeability.org/

Creating

Flat.io

Soundtrap.com  

Soundtrap has lots of functionality to play around with, including a podcast template. Students are welcome and encouraged to use the podcast template to teach or learn about a musical concept or academic concept.

AC's LGPE

Our AC singers and I had a blast at LGPE today. The performance was just FUN. It feels good to be satisfied after all that hard work!

The judges enjoyed the performance, and our sight-singing judge had warm praise for our kids' preparation! For the second year in a row we earned straight Superior ratings from all judges.

Fine Arts Night and Hawks Game Performance March 15

Fine Arts Night is 

March 15 from 5:30-7:30pm

Students who wish to perform solo or as a group or with AC should sign up with Ms. Turgeon.

GCMC and invited AC members will also perform at the Atlanta Hawks game on March 15. 

I would love for AC to perform at Fine Arts Night, but we also have Grady Cluster Music Night at the Atlanta Hawks the same evening. If your child is in GCMC OR wants to perform at the Hawks game they are invited to do so. All others are invited to Fine Arts Night--performance time to be determined.

Atlanta Hawks Night, Thursday, March 15
Grady Cluster Music Night! Atlanta Hawks vs Charlotte Hornets

Philips ArenaThu, Mar 15, 7:30 PM
From $25

Come and watch Grady Cluster Music perform on the Hawks main court prior to the Hawks game on March 15. Stay after, and watch the Atlanta Hawks take on the Charlotte Hornets.


What will the kids perform? Good Feeling by Flo  Rida, based on the performance in this video, but with all Grady Cluster kids.  We'll have rappers, drummers, and singers.


How can I make sure my child will be able to perform?  BUY YOUR TICKETS ASAP  and be sure your child knows the chorus and moves to Good Feeling (see video above)

Questions about tickets, please contact Ryan Coller with the Atlanta Hawks at ryan.coller@hawks.com or 404-878-3714.


Link to buy tickets: https://www.fevo.com/edp/Grady-Cluster-Music-Night-JCwSbROj

3rd Quarter Project Write, Read, Sing, Play posted

Check the tabs at the top of the blog for all of the information and resources you need for WRSP.

Grady Cluster Sings the National Anthem at GSU

Ms. Kingston, Mr. Marvel, Ms. Relyea, and I are SO proud of our great singers from Hope-Hill, Mary Lin, Morningside, & SPARK!  Our Georgia State performance was lovely, and we can't wait for you to hear the US AND Canadian National Anthems next week at the Atlanta Gladiators game!




Also, if you didn't get a chance to see our Grady Cluster December Concert it's here:

GSU Game is ON, and don't forget to buy Gladiators tickets!

Phew. What a weird week! I spoke to the ticket rep at GSU, and the games are ON as scheduled. No need to send regrets if you didn't buy tickets, but we may be able to get extras if you just decided your kid wants to sing and you want to get out of the house!

Park in the G Deck (#1 in the photo--you'll see the signs from Decatur Street), and parking is FREE! Yay! I'll arrive early to pay for your pre-ordered tickets--seating is General Admission, so it won't be complicated--and you can go to Will-Call at the Box Office (2 in the photo) at 11am to get your tickets. You can drop your child with me, and we'll take the singers in to line up and warm up!

Game time is noon, and your ticket is good for both the Women's game and the Men's game. Kids can wear jeans or dark bottoms & the Music@SPARK shirt.  We can sit down low for the Women's game, but will have to relocate up to Gen Admission for the Men's Game.

 There will be kids from Hope-Hill and Mary Lin, so we hope y'all have a great time at the game. Go Panthers!

Also, we've only sold ~40 tickets for the Gladiators, so please don't forget to get your tickets and bring some friends! Call time 1pm, game time 2:05pm

Gladiators tickets please go ASAP  to Groups.atlantagladiators.com<http://Groups.atlantagladiators.com><http://groups.atlantagladiators.com/> (no www. In front)
Music@SPARKChorus/AC Enter Code: SPARK18
GCMC (only) members Enter Code: GRADY18

Websites to explore and learn about rock and folk music, and websites to create and arrange music~

Fourth and Fifth Grade SPARK students have been learning a bit about some very exciting websites that you should check out!

1) TeachRock.org  This website ROCKS! Students and parents will find tons of fascinating information that includes actual rockstars and clips of musicians, producers, and legends who have shaped the music industry. Beware! You will want to watch and learn for hours. Search for lessons, musicians, or topics you'd like to know more about! 

Stevie Van Zandt’s TeachRock project brings rich educational materials to teachers and students everywhere – at no cost. The lesson plans and resources at teachrock.org allow a one-of-a-kind, multimedia experience that helps young people connect the history of popular music to classroom work across the disciplines. From social studies and language arts to geography, media studies, science, general music, and more: TeachRock has engaging and meaningful material for every classroom.

2) Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and videos of folk music and roots music from America in history and modern times. Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution, the national museum of the United States. We are dedicated to supporting cultural diversity and increased understanding among peoples through the documentation, preservation, and dissemination of sound.

You can create free accounts on the sites below to play around with. Please do not create a for-pay account, unless you want it solely for home use.

SPARK SONG created with Flat and Soundtrap

3) Flat.io  Whether you're a beginner or a professional composer, our user-friendly music composition software gives you all the tools that you need to make your own sheet music. You can write, listen, share and discover music scores right in your web browser on any device.You can also plug MIDI enabled keyboards into your computer to compose direct to score!

Flat has free accounts, and paid subscriptions. We will use team accounts in Music class for 4th and 5th graders. Flat has a very cool function that will allow you to export compositions from Flat into creations on Soundtrap.

4) Soundtrap is like a multi-platform, multi-device web version of GarageBand. 

Music Making Your very own online music studio where you can record your creations with your device microphone. 

Multi Device Soundtrap works on Mac, Windows, iPad, iPhone, Android phones and tablets, Linux and ChromeBooks. All your projects are stored online so you can access them wherever you are. The cloud is the limit.

Hockey (and Basketball) New Year! and an Invitation to join GCMC!

Welcome back, and I hope you had a fantastic break! We have several gigs coming up very quickly, and I'm hoping you're all on board for your kids to sing! 

1) If your child is at GSU's double header basketball game on Saturday, 1/20, please don't forget to purchase your tickets by Friday--they're giving us an amazing $5 deal for singers and all of our folks. Cash/check in an envelope with your child's name and how many tickets you'd like (form attached).

2) for your Gladiators tickets please go ASAP  to Groups.atlantagladiators.com (no www. In front)

Music@SPARKChorus/AC Enter Code: SPARK18

GCMC (only) members Enter Code: GRADY18

3) Students who signed up for Statewide Honor Chorus (AH, CD, HA, JB, CML), the music is in, and we'll schedule times to meet and go through it. If you have not paid the $50 fee please do so asap.

GCMC is accepting new members!

Come join the fun!

Day of the Arts with SPARK and Hope-Hill

703 students plus a couple hundred students from Hope-Hill made for an exciting, inspiring, delightful day! 

Little Rodolfo was moved by the music in 1st Grade

Rodolfo is still aspiring to be a conductor in 4th grade! Here he is with Conductor Stephen Mulligan.

Young Conductors meet Maestro Stephen Mulligan and our SPARK friend, composer, and bass player Michael Kurth

The ASO featured art by audience members during Christopher Theofanidis's Rainbow Body

Cute SPARKies in the Galleria of the Woodruff Arts Center 

We were grateful that our outgoing APS Board Member, Matt Westmoreland, and our incoming APS Board Member, Michelle Olympiadis attended
L-R Ms. Brianne Turgeon, Mr. Matt Westmoreland, Ms. Kim Muhlheim, Ms.Colleen Kingston (Hope-Hill Music teacher and DASHH logo designer), Ms. Tiffany Jones our ASO representative, Dr. Jennifer Toney, and Ms. Michelle Olympiadis

Twelve buses, 29 classes, 703 students and about 60 adults. Phew!