THE Houston Band

Hello Houston Band family,

It has been a while since I sent out a general newsletter. I try not to oversaturate inboxes, because our students and families stay busy with academics, band, and all kinds of other activities! That said, I wanted to share some important information as we approach our major assessment, the next concert cycle, and a very different school year from what we're used to!

Before we get to details about all of that, I want to share just how proud I am of a lot of different people and developments. In no particular order:

• Freshmen and sophomores who are either playing many years above grade level in the Wind Ensemble or growing twice as fast as the state mapping says they should in the concert band!
• Amazing guard students new and experienced who have grown our indoor program an ENORMOUS amount since last year!
• Juniors and seniors that show up every day ready to help underclassmen, perform diligently, and set the standard for what a high school band CAN be!
• Staff members that show up each and every day ready to help our amazing students continue to improve little-by-little.
• Booster extraordinaire CARA ORTIZ, along with the rest of our amazing board, for the amazing fundraising efforts this year! We've raised multiples more than previous years, and that takes a ton of effort! We ALL appreciate her!
• Our jazz band students who have exploded the quality and quantity of that programming through the thoughtful leadership of Mr. Sims. If you're interested in joining next year, let me know.
• The HHS Brass Quintet for an exceptional performance at the monthly Germantown Chamber Luncheon. They represented our band, school, and district exceptionally.
• The Wind Ensemble for performing amazingly at the HMS festival preview day. They continue to work diligently in preparation for CPA on March 12th. I'm excited to hear what they're capable of at that performance.

With excitement and gratitude,

Mr. C

Block schedule is coming and will create some major shifts in our band programming. I'm excited to have more time with students each day, to receive more field rehearsal time (rather than lot time after school), and to have a secondary band class to review or teach fundamentals. If you have any questions about block schedule or you're worried about fitting band into your student's schedule, please reach out to me!

Butter braid pickup will be this Thursday (3/5/26). Please make a plan to pick up butter braids immediately after school. Upper classman students are typically more than happy to pick up underclassman students' butter braids if families can't get here. Butter braids must be put in a freezer ASAP after pickup. Let me know if you have any questions!

We have several graduating seniors whose parents serve on our booster board, along with a few new positions we are looking to fill. If you are interested in helping out, reach out!

If you work in East Memphis/midtown and are able to swing by our CPA time slot at the University of Memphis (in the new SFPAC building on Central), please do! We will perform Thursday 3/12/26 at 12:10pm. Arrive very early, because there is no late entry!! Find the student schedule below.

8:30am - Students arrive to band room

8:45am - Healthy warmup

9:30am - Pack U-Haul, small snack

10:15am - Load buses

10:20am - Depart

11:00am - Arrive at UofM. Time allowing, watch a band or two. Otherwise, go to the warmup room.

11:35am - Ready to go outside the warmup room

11:45am - Warmup begins

12:05pm - Travel

12:10pm - Stage

12:35pm - Sight Read

12:50pm - Lunch

1:15pm - Ready to watch Bartlett Wind Symphony

1:25pm - Bartlett Wind Symphony performance

1:50pm - Load buses

1:55pm - Depart (Mr. Carpenter stays at SFPAC to assist Mrs. Woodring with CPA. Mr. Sims travels back to HHS with students)

2:30pm - Arrive at HHS, unload, dismiss

After our CPA cycle concludes on 3/12/26, students will audition for ensemble and chair placement on 3/13/26 for our Q4 cycle. If students have travel plans that will cause them to miss that audition date, they need to reach out ASAP for an alternative date. They can just come by my office to let me know.

The material for this cycle will be

• Chromatic scale
• Two major scales (randomly selected)
• Sight reading (4 measures, 10 seconds preview)

THE Houston Band is so happy to share that our jazz workshop, in collaboration with the Memphis Jazz Workshop, has finally begun! ALL GMSD students with instrumental experience can attend the weekly in-depth workshops most Mondays after school. Reach out to Mr. Sims for details.

Please read these few bullet points, follow the simple instructions, and make a huge impact on the future of a young musician and our band program!

As we continue through school/elective choice season, please know that word of mouth is our best recruiter for the amazing band programs here at Houston High School and within all GMSD Bands. I hope you have seen firsthand the transformative power of instrumental music education and band as an activity.

• If you have a friend, neighbor, family member, or ANYONE else in your life in 5th grade within GMSD, let them know about the transformative experience band has been in your students' lives. Students pick electives earlier and earlier every year. Prepare them to make the decision to join band in middle school! The HMS and RK8 band programs are some of the biggest activities on their respective campuses, and they immediately plug students into social and musical opportunities!
• If you know a GMSD 7th or 8th grader that loves band and is considering private school options, please encourage them to reach out to me about our amazing band (along with curricular and extracurricular) offerings at HHS! We offer deeper, more diverse instrumental music opportunities than the vast majority of schools that HMS and RK8 students transfer into, and many families frankly don't know that's the case because of how much some schools highlight the more limited programs in their brochures.
• If you know a talented non-GMSD 8th grader that wants to be in a great school band program, let them know about our academies, which enable a limited number of non-Germantown students preferred-transfers into our amazing school district. Some of our most musically-talented, strongly-contributing, highly-involved members are part of our band through these life-changing academy opportunities!
• If you are a freshman or parent of a freshman with friends in the RK8 or HMS band programs, reach out to those friends/family friends about continuing their band journey at HHS! Get the "band" back together! Your call or text can be the difference between a student joining and not joining.

This year through the hard work of students, staff, and word of mouth, our band grew by forty students. That is an incredibly rare and impressive feat, and I couldn't be prouder of our team. If trends continue, we will have 180-220 students in band in a couple years. We are so excited to continue building our program's numbers back to these more sustainable levels, but that takes work from everyone. Thank you for helping with that work!

If anyone has ANY questions about GMSD Bands at any level, I'm more than happy to field those questions. Folks can email me at kevin.carpenter@gmsdk12.org.

They can also check out our info page about band here: https://www.thehoustonband.com/join

If you work for or own a company that makes charitable contributions to nonprofits at the beginning of the calendar year (or any time!), please reply and let me know. I'll put you in contact with our booster parents on how to make a tax-deductible donation to our HHS Band Boosters, a 501(c)(3) organization that supports our band operations!

It is extremely important to plan ahead for ACT dates when you are in band, as we often have Saturday events outside of our scheduling control. The upcoming ACT dates with no conflicts are: April 11 for most students, June 13, July 11, October 17, and February 27, 2027.

That is more than enough dates to take the ACT an adequate number of times. Missing a band event for the ACT is NOT excused. We understand the inconvenience of not having these dates available, but all of these Saturdays are outside of our scheduling control. Our ACT date conflicts this year are: April 11 (for All State Students only), September 19 (Mini Camp Rain Date), December 12 (Gtown Holiday Parade). Please plan accordingly.

As we get closer to next school year, we will know more dates that will/won't work with the ACT for the spring of 2027 semester.

There are several major events in the second semester. Please plan accordingly! As a reminder, please check out our Google Calendar and sync it with your own calendars! https://www.thehoustonband.com/calendar

April 9-12: All State Conference (only for students who auditioned into All State ensembles)

April 22: Annual Band Banquet @ Great Hall

May 6: Spring Band Concert 7pm @ GPAC

May 8: Graduation performance

We are still waiting on a bit over $9,000 of outstanding dues to be paid. Please make sure you continue to chip away at your balance if you have not yet paid dues in full.

Our school district provides a bit over $60,000 to run our program each year, and as we ramp back up to a full-sized band, we aim to spend about $250,000 annually on our programming. Nothing we do is cheap--bus transportation, staffing, instruments, repair, contest entry, uniform maintenance, show design, etc. Please do your part by paying dues. Students that do not pay dues will not be able to participate in any extracurricular band activities in the next school year. Seniors that do not pay dues may not be able to participate in certain extracurricular band opportunities this semester. Please reach out ASAP if you are behind, and we can sort out a plan.

If you would like to "Give the Gift of Band" to a student in need of some help with a payment ($250) or full dues ($500), please reach out!

If you are a handy individual who wants to contribute to our band, we are working on two projects this Spring.

1) Overhauling the trailer over this off-season to better serve the needs of our program

2) Building about a dozen bench props for next year's show

If you'd like to help, please reach out to Mr. Sims and me. brian.sims@gmsdk12.org; kevin.carpenter@gmsdk12.org

If you're unhappy with chair placements or all west results, please consider asking about private lessons. Mr. Sims and I are happy to give all students a few free one-on-one lessons each year before or after school. We are also happy to provide recommendations for great lessons teachers in the area for students that want to push themselves further as individual musicians. Our core goal as a band is ensemble musicianship, and lessons are a great way to supplement that instruction.

Private lessons make a great gift and can help students secure potential music scholarships and honors ensemble experiences! All five of our All-State students this year are enrolled in regular private lessons.

If you work at or own a business (big or small!), please consider sponsoring the band. Our booster president Mrs. Gilbert has created the following sponsorship document that is printable to present to interested parties. We are grateful to all businesses that support arts education in Germantown.

Please note, students that miss rehearsals and performances without prior approval will be penalized with grade deductions. All you have to do is give us as MUCH heads up as possible, emailing me the reason for missing and (when relevant) a doctor's note. Please note that the closer we get to a date, the less likely exemption will be granted. Give us time to plan for other students' success when sending us your reasonable conflicts due to health, religion, family emergencies, etc.

Please look ahead in our calendar when scheduling routine doctor or dental care. Your appointment may have been scheduled for six months, but our calendar has been set for 18 months. If you have an immovable appointment, let me know ASAP, not the day before. The former will be exempt, and the latter will not.

Thank you for your understanding and commitment to our band's success!

Mr. Sims has created a list of some practice resources for students. If you have any additional resources that have been helpful for you, please feel free to share them!

• The Woodwind Fingering Guide
• "Fingering Chart by Tremolo" on iOS
• PlayScore 2
• Sight Reading Factory (see Mr. C for activation instructions at the start of band camp)
• MusicRacer.com (note that there are strobing lights in this game)

Additionally, students have reported having improved outcomes utilizing the Tonic App. I've heard comparisons to the popular running app Strava, but for music. Parents, please feel free to explore this option for your young musician but be advised that there is a social media element to this app.

Find upcoming dates for performances, events, and one-off rehearsals below. Note that regular rehearsals are Tuesdays and Thursdays, with sectionals on Mondays.

You can always find our full calendar (including Google and iCal integration links) here: https://www.thehoustonband.com/calendar

Upcoming Dates

• 3/12/26 - WTSBOA Concert Performance Assessment
• 4/9/26-4/12/25 - TnMEA All State Clinic and Conference
• May 6th - Spring Concert
• 5/8/26 - Graduation Orchestra

• July 13-18, 2026: Color guard and percussion camp

• July 20-25, 2026: Full camp

• July 28, 2026: Summer rehearsal 1

• July 30, 2026: Summer rehearsal 2

• August 6, 2026: Begin after school rehearsals (every Tuesday/Thursday)

• September 12, 2026: Mini camp

• September 19, 2026: Possible contest "0" (unlikely but possible depending on rest of season's schedule--leave open!)

• September 26, 2026: Contest 1

• October 3, 2026: Contest 2

• October 24, 2026: Contest 3 or Film Session (do not schedule an ACT test)

• October 31, 2026: Contest 3 or Film Session

• November 7, 2026: Possible contest 4 (depending on Bandmasters scheduling, TBD by UofM football schedule)

• December 10, 2026: Holiday Concert

• December 12, 2026: Holiday Parade

• December 13, 2026: Holiday Parade makeup date

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