What a year it's been so far...

Well, what a year it's been so far. It's been crazy few months of exciting performances, interesting listening assignments and intensely rewarding rehearsals!

DECEMBER

DEAR SANTA
So, we had three amazing performances of 'Dear Santa!', our annual Christmas show. Every grade effortlessly performed with absolute panache and class. The Eighth grade gave fun, exciting accounts and the Seventh Grade did a stella job or ensuring that everyone knew where to sit, where to go and when to sing!

You can see more pictures of this show by clicking below:

Gallery 2013/2014

LIGHTS, CAMERA, CHRISTMAS!
The Cabaret Troupe rose, once again, to the occasion and performed 'Lights, Camera, Christmas!', Cabaret Troupe's annual Christmas present to their parents. Grades 6 and 7 sounded and looked both amazing and classy as they explored the idea of different film genres, from Adventure and Western, to Film Noir and Musical Theater!

You can see more pictures of this show by clicking below:

Gallery 2013/2014

JANUARY
January starts our Spring season of Musical Theater, with the 8th Grade Graduating class performing Aladdin Jr. and the Cabaret Troupe performing Xanadu Jr. We are so pleased to have the 5th Grade join the Cabaret Troupe as the Greek Chorus. It is going to be a show of epic proportions - how apt for a Ancient Greek stylized musical! Mr Tubb has been extremely busy behind the scenes creating new lighting and sets for these shows!

The dates for these performances will be:
Aladdin Jr. --- May 14 & 15 both at 7pm
Xanadu Jr. --- June 4 & 5, again at 7pm.

Tickets will be available shortly, and will be available online. A note will be go in the Tuesday Folder.

As for the lower school we have also been extremely busy...
Kindergarten have been learning songs from the classic - Free to Be You And Me - learning how songs can coincide with actions. 1st Grade have been looking at Music and Emotion/Colors. 2nd Grade have started the difficult task of reading music. 3rd Grade have been writing their own stories based upon Prokovief's Peter and the Wolf. 4th Grade have just finished a really fun and interactive unit on African Drumming, and are now going onto Brazilian Samba!

- Mr. Tubb

Welcome 2013

Hi Girls & Parents,

Welcome to Music 2013/2014, I hope you're as excited to be back as I am!
This year will mark my third year - I can't believe it's been three years already! I hope you're ready to learn some brand new things this year! 

This trimester we will focus on our individual topics, as well as gearing towards the Christmas Show (don't ask me about it - I haven't even CHOSEN it yet!). This trimester's homework will focus upon Listening Tasks. During classes we will be talking about these tasks - how to answer them, how to format them and how to ensure you're getting the best grades available. 

Middle School - make sure that you bring your instruments back to school with you if you took it home over the Summer and make sure you bring your music textbooks with you too!

Cannot wait to see you all!

- Mr. Tubb

What's going on in February?

So, in one of our shortest months of the school year - what's going on in the Music Department?

Lower School
Well, the lower school are working on each of their individual topics through singing, theory, games and performance!

Pre K & Kindergarten are both working on Music with Movement. Pre-K are experimenting with tempo and dynamics by playing fun rhythm and movement games, whereas Kindergarten are doing selections from 'Free to be you and me' with really fun actions to go alongside!

1st Grade are continuing with their Music and Color project. They've just finished creating their masterpieces and this month we will be 'translating' them into music with classroom instruments. Super fun!

2nd Grade are hurtling head first into musical theory. Through a variety of ways we're learning the treble and bass clefs, creating our own rhymes and we'll continue with our partner songs, instilling the idea of two-part singing!

Brazilian Samba!

3rd Grade are continuing with the Carnival of the Animals. They're doing a super fun composition project based upon fantasy animals that they created. They will also continue their listening of Saint-Saëns' masterpiece!

4th Grade have just been to Africa. They're now visiting NYC with a little taster of Broadway music, and the next stop on our whirlwind journey is China followed by Brazil (which is really exciting as we actually have a student with Brazilian heritage in our class) and Samba!


The lower school are all working towards a performance in June, where we show what we've learned to all the parents!

Middle School

Grades 5, 6 & 7 are getting on really well with their instrument. Especially the 5th, who have only been learning for a few months. They're sounding great, and we can't wait to play for the parents in June!

In addition to brass banding - we are also learning all about key signatures, time signatures as well as improving our listening week after week!

8th grade have started rehearsals for 'The Little Mermaid Jr.' and they are doing swimmingly well (I apologize for the pun!) and it is shaping up to be an amazing performance! The dates are May 8th and 9th (7.30pm) if you need to write that in your diary.

Extracurricularly we are doing amazing things. A brand new JUNIOR CABARET TROUPE has just been created for the 5th grade, and we are learning some really hard music which will be great. Cabaret Troupe is doing a great job on Honk Jr. and chapel choir are simply stunning - the best we've had in the last few years!

Have a lovely rest of February!

- Mr. Tubb

Welcome 2012!

Hi Girls,

Welcome to Music 2012/2013, I hope you're as excited to be back as I am.
This year will mark my second year, and I hope you're ready to learn!

This trimester we will focus on our individual topics, as well as gearing towards the Christmas Show (don't ask me about it - I haven't even CHOSEN it yet!).

Cannot wait to see you all!

- Mr. Tubb

You Should Be So Proud Of Yourselves

http://www.homereporternews.com/news/general/local-wounded-warrior-bryan-dilberian-visits-visitation-academy/article_5774b2e2-9f8a-11e1-a063-0019bb2963f4.html#.T7ajHhpdIZk.blogger

You should be so proud of yourselves VA Students.
You are a very special group of girls.

- A proud Mr. Tubb

President's Week

Dear Lower & Middle Schoolers,

Have a lovely homework-free President's Week vacation!

Hope you have fun in what ever you're doing!

- Mr. Tubb

Welcome Back - Jan 2012

Welcome back, I hope you all had an absolutely lovely Christmas break. It was definitely too short, wasn't it!

Lower school: we'll be continuing with all of our topics of studies.
Middle school: we'll be re-starting our brass band program. We'll also be introducing weekly listening tests and regular composition tasks.

8th grade: I simply cannot wait to see your reactions to the cast list on Monday. Hope you aren't too worried over the weekend!

- Mr. Tubb

HUGE congratulations

Visitation Academy Girls,
You should be EXTREMELY proud of your efforts these past two days.
It's been hard work, it's been hot and tiring, but Mrs D'Auria and I are so pleased with what you have achieved. We have a lot of work ahead of us mixing all the tracks together and adding effects, but we should have an awesome CD ready to hear before Christmas.

Once again, THANKS: you are awesome and I'm so proud!

- Mr. Tubb

Christmas Show

So the Christmas show has been decided. It's going to be a version of 'I Need a Little Christmas Vacation' with some additions and omissions.

It's mega exciting, fun and cool! Here's a synopsis from someone else's website!


It's the last day of school before winter vacation officially starts. Excitement fills the air with plans of tropical vacations, shopping at the mall, visits from relatives, NO homework for a while, favorite holiday meals and lots of presents! Everything is just right, including the beginning of a beautiful snowfall. SNOW!! Oh no! The snow keeps coming and vacation appears to be heading for disaster. Everyone may have to spend the holidays at school! Dinner cooked in the Science Lab? Shopping on the web? Perfect for all ages, this musical features 7 original songs arranged for piano and unison voices, clever dialog, choreography and a helpful production guide with staging tips, set ideas and costume suggestions.


It's gonna be a blast!

- Mr. Tubb

Keep Fit Calypso

Hey Kindergarteners and Parents,

Today we finished learning the first verse of the 'Keep Fit Calypso'.

Here is an MP3 that I found on the internet that demonstrates how it should be sung and the right words/lyrics.

It would be fantastic if you could practice at home ready for Thursday's lesson.

Here is the link. Happy Singing!

- Mr. Tubb

Penguin Warm Up

Girls,

Almost every single grade has the experience of becoming a penguin. The extra special ones have had the chance to be a zombie too, if you haven't had the chance yet, don't worry, there are still many weeks until Halloween!

If you want to warm up at home before you practice any of the songs, there is a great recording here so you can sing along with it at home. Get your parents to do it with you - they'll love it! Remember, we're not only warming our voices, but our bodies too, so make sure you do the actions with the song. You can also try doing each verse in a different voice: my favorites are a witch's voice and a big scary monster voice.

Click here to become a penguin!

- Mr. Tubb