Clio Bands, January 31st Newsletter

Hello Clio Band Families, 

Here is our bi-weekly newsletter for January 31st, 2021 . All information/updates will be posted below so you can keep up to date with all that is happening in the Clio Band Program! 

Upcoming Calendar of Events (stay up-to-date by visiting cliobands.org/calendar): 

February 1st at 1:35PM, HS Jazz Band Meeting, CHS Band Room

February 2nd, All Day, Virtual Day (District-wide), 

February 15th, No School (Presidents Day) 

February 15th, Band & Music Booster Meeting (Virtual, Zoom link here) 

February 24th, Virtual Day (MS & HS)

March 5th, 5PM CHS Chamber Music Performance (Livestream)

May 15th, Celebration of the Arts 

Summer Dates for MMB 2021 (All dates are TENTATIVE, and are subject to change) 

Spring Rehearsal Dates (Times TBA): May 20, May 27, June 3, June 8

MMB Leadership Training, July 9, 12  

New Member (Winds), Percussion (All), Colorguard Camp, July 13-15

Pre-Camp (All members), July 19-23

Band Camp, July 26-31

Week of Rest (No Rehearsals), August 2-6 

From Mr. Mufarreh: 

Reminder for our virtual students, please make sure you are attending the daily Zoom meetings! At least for our 6, 7, and 8th grade band students, there are some inconsistencies with meeting attendance. Please remind your student to login each and every day! 

Students at the HS have started our chamber music unit, and we are excited to share this music with our Clio Band families! Each student is rehearsing and performing in small groups of 2-4, and will create recordings of their performances which will be premiered via Livestream on March 5th at 5PM. Don’t worry if you cannot make it at that time, as this will be made as a video that can be accessed at any time!  

For our 7, 8 and HS Bands, we are looking ahead for MSBOA Band Festival. While Festival will not be the same format, we are excited at the prospect of preparing for a performance. MSBOA Band Festival will be held in a virtual format, and will be a pre-recorded video to be submitted for feedback/ratings. The event will be in the beginning of May, which will help prepare us for our annual Celebration of the Arts, which is our district-wide, all day performance which is scheduled for May 15th, 2021. 

From Mrs. Witham

We are excited to be getting started with 5th Grade Beginning Band! All students have been fitting for instruments. Please contact Port Huron Music for instrument rentals (810-984-5081), or contact Mrs. Witham for more information/questions. 

From the Band & Music Boosters: 

Just a reminder that we will resume our regular Booster meetings next Monday, February 15th at 6:00 PM and will be held on the 3rd Monday of every month. If you have a child in Clio bands in any capacity or are thinking of joining, please join via zoom (or in person when we can resume).

Keep in mind that we are looking to fill some key Board roles coming this Spring and would love for you to join us in keeping our band programs going even during these unprecedented times.  Training will be provided.

Band Jackets are available for purchase by HS Band Members through Kidd Co. The jackets can be purchased at the following link for $55, for an additional $5 students can get their name embroidered. These can be purchased until 2/15/2021 at the link here. 

Questions? 

Mr. Mufarreh, wmufarreh@clioschools.org

Mrs. Witham, vwitham@clioschools.org

MMB Season Finale Weather Update

Hi MMB Members & Families,

Regarding the weather concerns for tonights performance, I wanted to address a few things:

1) We will plan to move forward with the performance for this evening, please do plan ahead for the rain.

2) In the event of thunder/lightening, we will have to cancel the performance for this evening. The performance will be rescheduled to Tuesday (10/27) at 6PM in the event of a cancelation. There is a thunderstorm alert until 3:15PM, so we will continue to monitor the weather closely.

3) The senior photo scheduled for today will be rescheduled to that next week Tuesday. Time is TBD.

We are hoping to more forward for this evening, so keep thinking “dry” thoughts!

Mr. Mufarreh

MMB Update - October 21st 2020

MMB Update 10/21/2020

Reverse Homecoming Parade

In order to give our students the Homecoming experience , the HS is hosting a "reverse" parade the HS next week Wednesday, 10/28. Families will be able to drive past the school on Mustang Dr. to celebrate our band seniors, MMB, as well as varsity sports and homecoming court.

Here is the tentative timeline for the afternoon

5:45PM - Report to HS (be here ready to go by this time!)

6:00PM - Block up on Mustang Dr. outside of the HS

6:30PM - Parade Starts

- We will perform the FS for cars as they drive by!

7:00PM-ish - Parade over! Attire will be secondary uniform/Clio spirit wear.

This event was planned by the Homecoming committee to give our students a great memory/experience for this year's 2020 Homecoming! Since this event is technically after we will conclude our, it is OPTIONAL for MMB students. I do encourage any students that can make it to attend!

Weather Concerns regarding Season Finale

I have been keeping a close watch on the weather for our Season Finale this Friday. The MMB is a resilient group of members & families alike. Any veteran parent will tell you that the MMB has performed many times in less-than-ideal conditions!

We will be moving forward with our Friday performance. We do have our raincoats that students will wear if necessary to keep the warm and dry. We courage families attending to bring umbrellas, and bundle up for that chilly and potentially wet evening.

We are nevertheless truly excited to be able to put the finishing touches on this season, and do it in style. Reminder, please make sure you or your member fills out the RSVP guest list form linked HERE. See you Friday!

Mr. Mufarreh

MMB Returns to Pride Stadium! (MMB Update: 9/30/2020)

MMB Members & Families,

Please read through this entire update as there is a lot of important information!

I hope everyone is having a smooth transition back-to-school! Clearly, nobody could have predicted how this year would end up, but I have been so impressed with how well our band students have remained resilient to all of the changes that have happened due to this pandemic

I am writing to you today to let know that due to the most recent executive order regarding outdoor gatherings, and information that was relayed to me from our administration and MHSAA, I am happy to announce the MMB will make an appearance at Pride Stadium for our last home football game on October 9th!

This is exciting news, but there are many logistical pieces that need to fall into place, I have outlined all of the information that we have as of today (9/30), and will continue to update members/families as we know more.

Here are some things that we know:

1) ALL MMB members will be able to attend the game for the full duration, including half-time.

2) The MMB will perform the opener of the show intended for their 2020 Season (Noir).

3) This is the LAST home game for 2020, due to the adjustments made to the football season, this is our only shot!

Here are some things we don't know:

1) We are waiting for clarification for MHSAA on whether bands are counted as "participents". Until we know, we don't have confirmation that each band student will be given two tickets for MMB families to attend the game.

2) Senior Night. Even though this is the last home game, we don't quite know if this will be our traditional senior night game. We will update once we know. Don’t worry seniors, we will take care of you one way or another.

Here is what we are going to need to do moving forward:

1) Members, this is our ONLY shot for the MMB to be seen by students/families outside of the band program, we need to really work these next few rehearsals to have a stellar performance!

2) If you work/have a job, PLEASE do what you can to work with your employer to be there. If there is something I can do to help, let me know as soon as you can.

This information is coming as soon as it possibly could have. Ideally, we would have this information much sooner to be able to prepare and plan, and I am understanding to any individual situation where a member absolutely cannot make it. If a member/family is in that situation, please let me know as soon as possible. We are excited to have this opportunity, and we want to take advantage of it as much as we can. The 2020 MMB has worked hard, and we want to showcase all of that effort.

Again, please reach out if there are any additional questions/concerns, and we will update everyone as soon as we can!

Mr. William Mufarreh

Bands Update - The "Eve" of Day 1

Dear Clio Band Families,

Hopefully everyone has had a restful Labor Day weekend, here are a few updates as we head into day one of school.

1) Mustang Marching Band: The big news about football returning doesn't yet have a clear impact on us. There are still heavy restrictions on the number of attendees which makes our potential contribution difficult to know. Once we have more information, it will be communicated, thanks for your patience. There will be NO rehearsal this first week, as there will be a lot of adjustment to the new schedule. We will see you all next week Tuesday (9/15), and so on!

2) As we head into the first day of classes tomorrow, you will NOT need your instruments for day one. We will spend some time reinforcing protocols, cleaning procedures, as well as go over our handbook. Very standard procedures for a first day. If you are an online student and need a school instrument, please fill out this form (https://forms.gle/oJDuL4eMMuV3k1ti7) to indicate what instrument you will need to be successful. Material Pick-Up will be at the HS Band Room (Near the loading dock), on Tuesday and Thursday from 4PM-6PM. Please contact your students teacher if you cannot make it during those times.

3) The district has been kind enough to purchase specific musician masks with a flap to allow playing with a mask on, as well as instrument covers to go over the bell of the instruments. The bell covers will be provided free to your student for the first one (they are $8 for an additional one). The musician masks will cost $6, and will be charged to your students account via Charms. If you are a 6th or 7th grade parent and have not yet logged into Charms, please see our Band Handbook for instructions on how to do so, or check out the "Charms" link on our band website.

4) Online students, please see your classes Google Classroom for the link to our Zoom Meetings under the “Classwork” tab.. These links will be the same for each day, so it would be easiest to bookmark the link. For Mr. Mufarreh's classes, you should already be added to the appropriate Google Classroom.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Please continue to check back to the bands website or Google Classroom for all updates/reminders!

Mr. Mufarreh