Current Schedule

We had an excellent week coming back from Spring Break this last week - we sight-read our 3rd parade-piece (“Any Way You Want It”, which is really a Drumline cadence with Marching Band accompaniment) and we also sight-read our Graduation music for June 10th (with all we’ve got going on in May and early June, we thought it would be a good idea to get the music into everyone’s hands so we can work on it from time-to-time). We also started back to work with our Musical Pit Orchestra as we moved into the PAC-pit to start pre-tech rehearsals with the cast. The highlight of the week, however, was our Drumline performing and competing at the Orting HS “Battle of the Sound” Drumline Competition on Saturday at Orting HS. Some of the highlights of the day included:

• A 7-minute performance of their multiple-cadences in the morning session for the judges by our 13 Drumline members who attended (lots of the pieces we played we had played a lot during the Basketball season and the group played with excellence and confidence along with having fun)
• Great performances by other Middle and High Schools as well as a really outstanding performance by the University of Washington Drumline
• An afternoon “Battle Round” between schools in a playoff-type format for the championship of the Battle (decided by audience-voting). In the first round Sumner HS defeated Bonney Lake HS to earn a performance in the semi-finals where Sumner HS defeated Garfield HS, setting-up the championship battle against Lincoln HS. In a great final, Lincoln HS won the Championship Belt with Sumner HS receiving the 2nd Place Belt (pictures of the belt are attached). Understand that this was a friendly competition with a lot of smiles and congratulations all around (we even had a picture taken with the Lincoln HS Drumline after the competition.

Special thanks go to Kyle (and Henry) Laramore, who kept everything organized during the day and did a terrific job in leading our Drumline in their first competition since 2018. A BIG thank you also to Chris Bland, who drove the Band Trailer to Orting HS and stayed with us all day as we loaded and unloaded things over and over throughout the day and brought all of our equipment back after it was over. Also a big thanks to the parents who attended along with several Band and Color Guard members who really helped to cheer us on in all of our performances. This was an excellent chance to challenge ourselves and to see and hear other groups and will likely be a regular part of our performance-year as we move on.

Now we move on to another big week with the State Ensemble Contest on Friday April 25th and the State Solo Contest on Saturday April 26th, both at CWU in Ellensburg. We’ve got 7 students representing our Band Program at this BIG event;

• Friday at 10:00AM our Sumner HS Sax Quartet will perform. The students in the quartet are Emerson Blumenstein, Mitchell Goff, Nyiah Hartley, and Aiden Hatcher
• Saturday is Solo-Day and we’ll have 3 different events:
• Aiden Hatcher performs his Clarinet Solo at 9:30AM
• Aiden Hatcher also performs his Tenor Sax Solo at 11:50AM
• Makayl Sanchez performs his Tympani Solo at 1:00PM

We know they’re going to do a great job and I hope they enjoy being at the top-level in the State of Washington at this championship event.

We’ll continue to work on our Marching Band music and Color Guard routines as well as our Symphonic Band graduation music, along with sight-reading the Symphonic part of our BIG June 5th Spring Collage and Marching Band Concert.

This is also Tech-Week for the Addams Family Musical, so the 18 students participating in the pit will be working hard with long and VERY important rehearsals each day after school (we’ve also got some Color Guard members in the cast!) as they prepare for Opening Night on Wednesday April 30th in the Sumner PAC - we hope you’ll attend!

Other events coming-up soon include:

• The Stafford Suites “Senior Prom” with both of our Jazz Ensembles performing the evening of Friday May 9th
• The CWU John Moawad Jazz Festival in Ellensburg with both Jazz Ensembles performing Saturday May 10th
• The Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival Parade Saturday May 17th
• Music in May Honor Band May 23rd-25th in Forest Grove, OR (we have 10 of our Band students attending this event)

There will be other events as well coming-up, but these are the main dates to remember and make sure if you have any concerns or conflicts please let us know ASAP. Take care of yourself health-wise and make sure you’re ready-to-go every day. So, here we go with our upcoming 2-week Sumner HS Band Program schedule:

Schedule for THIS WEEK: