NSYWE News

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Important NSYWE Information – Oct. 4

Hello NSYWE Students and Parents,

Important NSYWE Information

Please read the entire document. 2 Attachments

  1. Full Day Schedule for Sunday, October 4, 2020
  2. NSYWE Permission Form (sign and bring to rehearsal on Sunday)

2020-2021 Season

We are following our May 2020 schedule, virtually or live, in person. How we will proceed for our third weekend this year, and our planned dates for next year, will be determined by the COVID-19 situation in the province, the availability of locations and public health guidelines from the Department of Health and Wellness.

2020    October 2-4 & October 23-25

               Online Concert – TBD

2021     January 15-17, January 29-31 & February 19-21

Zoom Question and Answer Meeting, Wednesday, September 30, 7:00 pm

If you have questions and can not drop in please email me.

Topic: NSYWE Zoom Meeting, Q & A for In-Person Rehearsal

Time: Sep 30, 2020 07:00 PM Atlantic Time (Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3702785621?pwd=NklaekpRVlZsbmx6WGxMWFZDclZGUT09

Meeting ID: 370 278 5621

Passcode: 4ww6tJ

Nova Scotia Band Association (NSBA) guidance
for band rehearsals during COVID-19

This weekend, NSYWE’s musicians will alternate between Cole Harbour Place’s Multi-Purpose Room or Small Ensemble break-out rooms, in 30-minute increments, giving the vacated rooms sufficient time to change air before being used again.

This approach is based upon the NSBA’s recommendations that reflect research being done at the University of Colorado and the University of Maryland and Nova Scotia public health guidelines.

You can read about the study’s progress here.

NSYWE Schedule

Saturday, October 3 – 4, 2020

Your private lesson teacher will schedule your lesson with you this week.

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm    Virtual Master Class, Zoom meeting – (Link will be sent later in the week)

               10 Things I Love About Great Musicians

Wendy McCallum

Professor and Co-Chair, Joint Department of Music Education

Brandon University School of Music, Brandon MB
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm    NSYWE Social – Zoom meeting – (Link will be sent later in the week)

Sunday, October 4, 2020
Cole Harbour Place, Dartmouth, NS

 

8:00 am – 8:30 am            Committee arrives and sets up the Multi-Purpose Room

 

8:30 am – 9:00 am            ARRIVE but you cannot enter Cole    Harbour Place; Social Distance (6ft.), dress for the weather, keep your mask on.

The NSYWE committee will meet you outside Cole Harbour Place.

2:45 pm – 3:00 pm            End of Day – Pack up and leave room

October 4th in person rehearsal?

  1. Before you come to rehearsal on Sunday.

Please consider this checklist before leaving home.

Daily-COVID-checklist-en.pdf

  1. Arrive on time and move quickly between rooms.
  2. NSYWE permission form, signed by parent/guardian.
  3. Masks should be worn by all students and staff prior to entering the performing arts room. Masks should continue to be worn at all times.
  4. Money for lunch or bring a lunch to eat outside.

               (There are many locations for lunch within walking distance.)

Musicians must bring to rehearsal:

  • Reusable Individual Mask when not playing
  • Instrument and/or Mallets/drumsticks
  • Music Stand for your own use.
  • Music (No sharing of music)
  • Pencil
  • Playing Mask (Rachel Roy’s Mom is making flute masks for all flutes! Thanks!

A surgical style mask with a horizontal slit in the centre or a homemade playing mask

Directions are available at: http://novascotiabandassociation.com/musician-performance-masks/

  • Bell Cover

            Two layer of Denier (Pantyhose) or a homemade bell cover

Directions are available at:

http://novascotiabandassociation.com/musician-performance-masks/

  • Spit Valves Hygiene
    • Empty away from others
    • Have an absorbent disposable material to catch the condensation (Puppy Pad) or a (container with lid and paper towel) to collect condensation from instruments.
  • Water bottle and Snack
  • Personal Hand Sanitizer
  • Personal Garbage Bag
  • Lunch will be on your own

NSYWE will provide for the Sunday rehearsal

  • Location: Cole Harbour Place, Multipurpose Room and Small Rooms
  • NSYWE Conductor – Dr. Mark Hopkins
  • NSYWE Coaches for Small Ensembles
  • Percussion equipment for the day
  • Music stands for Small Ensemble rooms
  • NSYWE Mask
  • NSYWE T-shirt
  • Hand Sanitizer at room entrance
  • Kleenex
  • First Aid Kit
  • Extra surgical type masks
  • Extra Puppy Pads
  • Small Snack – Hallowe’en type – self contained package
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Ilan Mendel Takes Home Hargreaves Scholarship

Ilan Mendel, Halifax West High School, is the 2020 recipient of the Nova Scotia Band Association’s James H. Hargraves  Memorial Scholarship.

Ilan Mendel (left) accepts the 2020 James Hargreaves Memorial Scholarship from NSBA Executive Director Hope Gendron.

Ilan played trombone and piano with the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble for three seasons and participated in a variety of musical endeavours at Halifax West. He will study at the University of Toronto in the fall.

(It was a good year for Halifax West; band director David Burtt received the NSBA’s 2020 Outstanding Band Director Award.)

Ilan joins a cadre of distinguished NSYWE members who received the Hargreaves Scholarship, including Anna Dickie (2010), Patrick Lewis (2015), Hope Salmonson (2017), Breton Hickey (2018) and Madeline Tuffs (2019).

The James H. Hargraves  Memorial Scholarship awards $500 to a graduating Nova Scotia high school student who will pursue musical post-secondary studies at a recognized institution, and whose band director or private music instructor is a member in good standing of the Nova Scotia Band Association.

James H. Hargreaves was born in Perth, Scotland, emigrated to Canada in 1959 and was a virtuoso performer, renowned conductor and gifted teacher in the Canadian world of music. He was a full professor at the St. Francis Xavier University School of Music from 1970 until his retirement in 1999, and was the founding Music Director and Conductor of the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble from 1991 to 1999. The James H. Hargreaves Memorial Scholarship Fund was established after his death in December 2003.

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A Message from Artistic Director, Dr. Mark Hopkins

All of us working with the NSYWE team hope you are safe, well and thriving as best you can under these difficult circumstances.

Your safety is especially important to us.

I am writing to update you on our plans for our 2020-2021 season. At present, it is impossible to predict what we will face this fall. We all hope that it will be business as usual, but we are also preparing for the possibility of rehearsing and performing with physical distance measures in place, or even in an online ensemble setting. ln other words, we are ready to adapt the delivery of our program as required. For instance, this could mean that the NSYWE might meet in sections and/or mixed chamber groups, with scheduled face-to-face meetings and distance between players. Or, we may form online player “teams” and work together until we can return to in-person rehearsals.

We will access the best research-based ideas as we plan the 2020-2021 season.

We are working closely with the Nova Scotia Band Association, the Canadian Band Association, and the College Band Director’s National Association to glean the best up to date research on distances and “best practice” in the band room.

 So, I hope you will join us this fall for a terrific season of music-making. In these times, I feel the best response to the pandemic crisis is to come together and make music. You can check our website or e-mail our Chairman, Hope Gendron, if you have any questions.

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Message for New and Returning NSYWE Members

Hello, NSYWE musicians:

First, all of us working with the NSYWE Team hope you are are safe and well,  and thriving as best you can under these difficult circumstances.  We were very lucky indeed to complete our NSYWE concert earlier this year, prior to the Covid-19 shutdown.  Let me say again that I was very pleased and proud of your performance, and each of you should feel a sense of pride in that accomplishment.

I am writing to you in this uncertain moment to update you on our plans for next year.  At present, it is impossible to predict what we will face this Fall.  We all hope that it will be business as usual, but we are also preparing for the possibility of teaching with physical distance measures in place, or even in an online ensemble setting.  ln other words, we are ready to adapt the delivery of our program as required.  For instance, this could mean that the NSYWE might meet in sections and/or mixed mixed chamber groups, with scheduled face-to-face meetings and distance between players.  Or we form online player “teams” and work together until we can return to in-person rehearsals.  We are reaching out to our colleagues across North America  for the best advice and research, to provide a great ensemble program in a safe environment.  Your safety is very important to us.  We are working closely with the Nova Scotia Band Association, the Canadian Band Association, and the College Band Director’s National Association to glean the best up to date research on distances and “best practice” in the band room.  We will access the best research-based ideas as we plan the 2020-2021 season.

So, I hope you are planning to join us once more this fall for a terrific season of music-making.  In these times, I feel the best response to the pandemic crisis is to come together and make music.  You can check the website (nsywe.com) or email our Executive Director Hope Gendron (nsywe@eastlink.ca) if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Mark Hopkins
Artistic Director
Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble

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Website Registration Disabled

Due to numerous spam attempts to register on the Nova Scotia Youth Wind Ensemble website, we have disabled site registration applications.

Instead, NSYWE will send an e-mail to the address indicated on your online application form, providing you with your website registration information including a temporary password.

At that point, you can log on to the NSYWE website and reset your password. Or you may continue using the password that NSYWE provided.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience.

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Lucas March Performs with NSYO, Nov. 24-25

NSYWE clarinetist Lucas March will perform with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra on Nov. 24 and 25, in Lunenburg and Halifax, respectively.

Lucas, who hails from New Glasgow, was the featured soloist in NSYWE’s fall concerts this year, and is the most recent NS Talent Trust scholarship recipient.

“I wish to thank every supporter of young musicians like me because it encourages me to continue to strive and expand my craft. Being a musician can be extremely expensive. If it weren’t for the generous support of family, friends, community partners, and organizations like the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do.

“I hope to inspire other music students in my community and in the province.”

On the program:
Beethoven: Egmont Overture
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto No. 1
Béla Bartók: Violin Duos
Bedřich Smetana: Vltava (Die Moldau)
Johann Strauss: On the Beautiful Blue Danube

When and where:
Saturday, November 24, 2018, 7:00 pm
St. John’s Anglican Church, Lunenburg
Sunday, November 25, 2018, 7:00 pm
St. Andrew’s United Church, Halifax

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Ilan Mendel wins national composition award

NSYWE trombonist Ilan Mendel recently won the Canadian Federation of Music Teachers Association’s (CFMTA) Helen Dahlstrom Award for his composition, Emergence.

Ilan, a grade 11 student at Halifax West High School, won first place at the provincial level and then prevailed in the 15 and under age group at the national level. Student composers in all age groups compete for the Dahlstrom award.

Each spring, provincial Canada Music Week Coordinators submit works by student composers for adjudication. The provincial winners then square off at the national level during the CFMTA’s Student Composer Competition.

Scholarships are awarded to winners in each age category and the Helen Dahlstrom Award is given annually to the best national composition, across all age groups,  as selected by the adjudicator. Helen Dahlstrom was the founder of Canada Music Week.

Ilan has studied trombone for six years and participated in regional choirs for seven years.

Besides NSYWE, Ilan also plays with the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra and has participated in several Halifax All City Music programs including the Intermediate and Senior Jazz Bands (piano and trombone), the Halifax Boys Honour Choir, and Soundtrax and Jazz Voices choirs. He also started and conducted the jazz ensemble at Acadia Summer Music Academy.

He has studied piano with Shahein Hamza since 2007, completing the first half of his Grade 10 Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) level in 2018, and is a certified RCM elementary piano teacher.

In his “spare time”, he swims competitively and enjoys travel.