BIEMS Bandestra

08/27/2024

INSTRUMENT DONATIONS OF ANY CONDITION WANTED!!!

Are you an alumni, or a guardian of an alumni that played in band or orchestra?

Did you, someone you know, or their child play in band or orchestra?

Our program which is projected to grow by nearly 50 students in the next 2 years, would greatly appreciate any instruments of any condition (broken or perfect condition) donated to our mission to ensure that every child who wants to play an instrument can play an instrument, whether or not they can afford it!

We are currently working on securing a professional to appraise the instrument and any and all instruments donated will be tax deductible, after they’re appraised. Any instruments that are broken or in need of repair will be fixed by us, as fixing an instrument is generally cheaper than buying new ones and we need to maximize every dollar.

We’re the most in need of flutes, clarinets, and percussion.

Please message us or email [email protected], if you have an instrument you’re wishing to donate!l

If you don’t have any instruments, then help us by sharing this post!

05/16/2024

04/23/2024

Bravo to all on an awesome performance to end the year! Gotta say thanks to the 6th and 7th band who decided it was a good idea to add a story line! Making concerts fun is the BEST!

We would like to give 2 BIG shout outs!:

1) Special shout out to all chaperones, but especially our super chaperones/volunteers: Ms. Patrick, the Ortiz’s, Ms. Marzett, and the Clark’s! Our concerts and events would not have gone near as smoothly without your help and literally dozens of hours of collective support!

2) Our 8th graders who debuted as either a conductor or a for real for real soloist at their concert! Super proud of y’all! Handle it like a champ!

Donation/Mr. Perry’s hair-dyeing update: we well exceeded our goal and raised more than enough to ensure THE Mr. Perry will be dyeing both the top of his head AND his beard! Way to go Bulls!

Enjoy the concert and feel free to share!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/18sF6QHVXl5-Dg3qjp15KuOblIQVZho5EV64307KNcCA/view

04/04/2024

A reminder that the band-only concert will be April 16th and the orchestra-only concert will be April 19th!

A LOT of music will be played, and there might be a story or 2, by student/performer request! Make sure to invite the fam and come have fun!

There will also be a fundraiser at Papa John’s that night on April 16th. We encourage everyone to buy pizza for their child’s/family’s dinner so that they can eat and you can give back!

For no particular reason, Mr. Hall’s favorite PJ pizza is thin crust ultimate pepperoni with extra cheese. Do with that what you will. 👀👀👀

04/01/2024

Today begins our annual unveiling of our favorite homework assignment to our 5th graders in music. If you wanna participate, feel free to join and watch!:

A performance by William Marx of John Cage's 4'33.Filmed at McCallum Theatre, Palm Desert, CA.Composer John Adams wrote the following in The New York Times r...

03/30/2024

Congratulate our students who performed today at solo/ensemble! Heard some stinking hard music and everyone got a I or II! Way to go!

03/08/2024

Shout out to the bands! I can personally say that the 8th grade peaked at just the right time and know our 7th grade has been putting in that work! They earned it with a great showing and some excellent scores!

Big shout out to Ms. Kelly, Ms. Patrick, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Hudson, and Ms. Combs for all of their help to make our celebration at Main Event a success! Even bigger shout out to Mr. Perry for doing so well his in his first year! And, most important of all, Mr. Hall’s red team remains undefeated in laser tag 💁🏽‍♂️💪🏽🔥. See if we can keep the streak alive next year!

TBD CALENDAR UPDATE COMING:

Be on the lookout for some schedule changes for the end of year concert which will be sent out before spring break! We have seen that state testing started a bit earlier this year which always conflicts with rehearsals, so we want to ensure the work students have put in before it begins is shown and means we have to move it up! Likely will only be moved up a week, but wanted to make sure it was posted (remind/email coming when finalized)!

Photo dump below:

03/06/2024

Brava orchestra!

They received II’s on stage and in sight reading!

Tomorrow we see band at Putnam City North High School!

7th is at 10:05am

8th is at 10:30am

Partaaaaaay at Main Event afterward with pick up at 4!

03/06/2024

Good luck to Mr. Perry and our 7th and 8th Grade Orchestra who will be performing at Edmond Santa Fe High School at 2:00pm!

Mr. Hall votes teal and brown!

02/29/2024

A big thank you to our clinician, Mr. Hudson, for all of his help today and to Mr. Craven and Annissa for being such gracious hosts who supported us in using the contest space at Putnam City North High School that we’ll be using at OSSAA next week!

You know what that means! Photo dump of our time at Cici’s!

Next stops on the road to contest (it’s a busy week!):

March 6th: 7th and 8th Orchestra perform at 2:00pm on March 6th at Edmond Santa Fe High School

March 6th: Mrs. Watson comes back to help get the band through our last trek before contest

March 7th: 7th Band performs at 10:05am on March 7th at Putnam City North High School

March 7th: 8th Band perform at 10:30am on March 7th at Putnam City North High School

March 7th: errrrrrrbody celebrates at Main Event!

02/22/2024

You can find all the videos of our Band OSSAA Parent Preview Concert from Tuesday here:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9b6UHkg1VOgMjB_vb-QF3ThzfEjaeFm5&si=7H1pooXxA9_oPjVF

Wanna give a special shout out to our 7th grade band who had their first sight reading of a real piece in 7 minutes or less in front of a whole audience LIVE (see the video in the comments below)! That’s hard to do - let alone well - and they absolutely rocked it!

Next stop: 8th grade band clinic Putnam City North High School on the 29th!

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

02/21/2024

Thank you to everyone who came out to watch our Band Contest Parent Preview last night, including our 7th and 8th grade sight reading a whole piece in 7 minutes or less LIVE in front of the crowd!

Videos in the process of being downloaded and posted (hopefully ready tomorrow morning), but here’s a preview of how motivated our kids were for the night!

02/10/2024

Thank you to Mrs. Watson for coming and working with our 7th graders! They are gonna be music-making machines by March!

So many 7th grade band members got to try Cicis Pizza for their first time today after working hard and playing (music) harder! Next stop, the OKCPS Band Clinic on 2/13 at Southeast High School for 7th AND 8th grade!

(No pizzas were harmed in the making of these pics, but some of these kids’ mile times today at track practice might’ve been 😬)

7th band performs at 10:30am

8th band performs at 12:00pm

Guardians/alum, feel free to come watch!

01/27/2024

A little photo dump of your kids hard at work at All City, including Belle Isle alum! Video of the start of the coolest part of the middle school concert in the comments!

05/02/2023

Another great opportunity I highly recommend for all our students and alumni for over the summer that takes part at Southwestern Oklahoma State University Department of Music! Mr. Hall went to this camp every single year I could since the 6th grade, and I can promise you… band camp is… FUN! I can honestly say I probably had the most fun in band at band camps!

There is audition music, but it’s just for placement purposes! That said, you wanna be in the best group, you still gotta practice! As always, students are welcome to practice this during our independent practice time in class/receive help!

Registration is open for the 2023 SWOSU Music Camps! Scan the QR code or visit swosucamps.com for more info and to join us for another summer of fun! Southwestern Oklahoma State University Department of Music

04/28/2023

As always, your students did a tremendous job! If you wanna relive last week or just want to see how the other groups did, everything can be found in this link! Everything is also posted on Canvas!:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Sh7j7xmSD64M8JCcFtB5Yklgbcbn1tavnPdMaIUGPkc/view

We would like to give a special shout out to our administration for being so supportive with all the new things being done this year, the Local Oklahoma Music Assocaiton for providing their fundraiser that allowed us to purchase new music we performed (along with so many other supplies), and the families who have been so supportive over the years, especially those who have supported us with their time, money, and effort!

Lastly, everyone give a round of applause (and maybe even an email, thank you note, or both) for Ms. Nichols who has proven just how strong and compassionate of a teacher she is in an extremely short time and pushed the orchestra to finish strong in spite of such a big change in the middle of the year!

6th Band https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9b6UHkg1VOiY6OZp9cisM4mU5OsN55eQ 6th Orch https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9b6UHkg1VOi59cSXeBWi01n8EPMQsuI_ 7th Band https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9b6UHkg1VOiQKoq7aThmBR17Ti4xqyWi 7th Orch https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9b6...

04/20/2023

Can’t wait to see everyone tonight for our last concert of the year at the 78 gym!

Performance times are below!:

5:30 - 6th band
6:00 - 6th orchestra
6:30 - 7th band
7:00 - 7th/8th orchestra
7:30 - 8th band
8:00 - 8th band/orchestra - Alma mater

Let’s gooooo bulls!

04/11/2023

As we start thinking to the future after the end of the year concert on April 20th at the 78, we highly encourage students and their guardians to start looking into this program!

This is a wonderful program that myself and Mrs. Akagha spent many, many years in. Not only is it one of the best resume builders for a fine arts-oriented high school or college, but it also is an opportunity to play much more advanced music (which is always way more fun) and be introduced to some of the classics that even professionals do! I cannot support this program enough and encourage everyone from 6th to graduates to try out!

Mr. Hall and Ms. Nichols are happy to help you choose music for your audition and we will have daily time in band/orchestra class to allow you to practice, assuming the testing schedule is accommodating!

2023-24 AUDITIONS ANNOUNCEMENT 📣 OKYO is excited to announce that our 2023-24 season audition window will be open from May 8 to May 30! We will be accepting auditions via video this year and the submission window will close May 30 at 5 p.m. You won't want to miss what we have in store for next season.

For more information about our ensemble offerings and audition requirements, please scan the QR code on the flier below or visit www.okyomusic.org/join. To receive audition reminders and updates, text the word AUDITION to (405) 467-1456.

04/01/2023

Today we got to introduce our 6th graders to solo and ensemble hosted by the always hospitable Putnam City West High School for the second year! We are so incredibly proud of their bravery in spite of their nervousness!

It is with as much pride as I can muster to say that 100% of our students who performed received the best score possible and one of them even got a perfect, perfect score (they got the best score possible in all 8 categories)!

Can’t wait to finish out the year strong with our concert April 20th 💪🏽

03/25/2023

To top off an already spectacular day of playing, our band finishes off with 2 Superior Ratings, 4 Excellent ratings, and 1 Good rating for our ensembles! Nice job!

BUT GUESS WHAT?

Our band soloists cleaned house with 8/8 soloists receiving a Superior rating! Perfect streaks with perfect scores is practically impossible. They are them! 💪🏽

In total, our Belle Isle Band and Orchestra programs had 33 unique performers and 32 performances (roughly a dozen students played 2 ensembles or an ensemble and a solo), we received 20 Superior ratings, 11 Excellent ratings, and 1 Good rating from all the performances.

Y’all… I cannot say enough how proud I am. And you KNOW when you have pride, you gotta pose 💁🏽‍♂️

03/25/2023

Way to go Belle Isle Orchestra!!!!

Because of students and guardians being understanding of the massive changes we had to make to fix original plans for all involved, all orchestral performers have exceeded expectations! Way 👏🏽 to 👏🏽 go!

Your incredible musicians are walking away with 6 Superior (perfect score) for solos, 6 Excellent ratings (the second best you can get) for solos, 4 Superior ratings for ensembles, and 1 Excellent rating for ensembles!

You’ll be receiving your medals, comments and certificates in class next week!

Information for scores for both band and orchestra can be found at the site below - a post that includes band will be made later today!

03/08/2023

Our onstage judges were significantly harsher with multiple groups today, so we didn’t get what we wished for on stage…. Buuuuuuuut we totally nailed sight reading and BOTH 7th grade AND 8th grade are walking away with some hardware for receiving a superior rating (the best possible score) in Sight Reading!

As a bunch of students who only get to play 90 days a year while other schools play 180, to be able to do that and do so as a 7th grade-only band is probably one of the hardest things to do!

To add, 8th grade received a near perfect score on sight reading with the best score possible on 6/8 categories, even though it’s music they’ve never seen until the moment they start learning it! To have someone else tell us we played almost perfectly on music we’ve had a total of 7 minutes to prepare speaks for itself at just how talented these musicians are!

Extremely proud of these students and all their hard work! Get some rest, have more food if you somehow have room, and enjoy the fruits of your labor!

03/08/2023

Today’s the day for band contest! Wish our 7th grade band and 8th grade band luck as we go to see our hard work pay off at Putnam City North High School!

Here’s to allllll the pizza, no more rep city (iykyk), and some incredible music!

03/07/2023

Wonderful opportunity for students over the summer. Mr. Hall knows LOTS of current 8th graders and a couple 7th graders who would be exactly what this opportunity is for!

Calling all aspiring composers! In July, tweens and teens will create unique classical quartet scores infused with cultural influences. Join world-renowned composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate (Chickasaw) for this five-day workshop from July 24-28 or July 31-Aug. 4, 9am-4pm. Limited to 6 students aged 11-15 who can read music and play at least one instrument. Required rehearsal and performance on Aug 5. Don't miss out! Learn more and apply at https://famok.org/famcamp/composition-academy/

03/01/2023

Grateful to say that our 7th and 8th grade orchestra got an Excellent rating on stage and Superior rating in Sight Reading! Getting a 2 is extremely hard, getting a 1 on music you’ve never seen before is literally as difficult as can be, and having second-year (and some even first-year) players make up half the group to accomplish both of those feats just shows how determined these musicians are! Our kids worked hard and now have something to show for it! Let’s goooooo, Bulls!

Onward to 7th grade band and 8th grade band contest, March 8th! And allllll the pizza!

02/28/2023

So proud of everyone last night and their hard work showing out! Students have shown tremendous improvement since just the clinic. Also, wanna give a big shout out to the Ruhl’s and Mrs. Webster for showing why they’re servant leaders time and again by staying after to help put stuff away!

To kick off contest season, wish our 7th and 8th orchestra good luck as they head out today to Edmond Santa Fe for contest!

02/25/2023

Excited to see everyone at our Parent Preview Performance for OSSAA Band Contest at 6pm at the 78 on Monday! Come see all our bands perform with the 6th grade showing you their personal preview of what’s to come at the end of year concert with 3 full pieces already down, 7th grade debuting their introduction of Mr. Hall’s personal favorite and made-up musical term, “carneficina finale”, and 8th grade cap us off with music that can only be described as glorious. This time it’ll be short and sweet with us ending by 7:30 at the latest, so try to stick around for all of them!

And guess what? You don’t need to go to the movies to get an extra bonus credits scene because our 7th and 8th will sight read a piece they’ve never seen before with only 7 minutes to spare *live* in front of friends, family, fans, and stans, just like they will at contest! It’s a concert where anything could happen. Literally!
👀😬🤷🏽‍♂️

02/15/2023

This was something Mr. Hall went to every year and allowed him to make friends all across the state, have fun making music, and gave his family a bit of a break, too!

Scholarship opportunities are available through SWOSU!

SWOSU Music Camps are...fun! Mark your calendars for 2023! Online applications will open March 15. Visit
swosucamps.com for more information and PDFs of applications.

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01/30/2023

Here’s your awesome kids doing their thing Friday night!

Enjoy!

My name is Torrey Purvey. I'm an educator and photographer. My photos used for ESPN, Essence Magazine, Sports Illustrated, LA Times and other fashion show en...

01/27/2023

So proud of our kids and their hard work that resulted in being able to be a part of the Oklahoma City Public Schools All City Middle School Honor Band. Some actions shots and bloopers from today’s event.

You’ll get to hear our current students rock it out at 6:30pm and Belle Isle Alumni can be heard in the High School Honor Band at 7:15pm! Be there or be square!