Members of White Hill 6th Grade Concert Choir will be caroling at Peet's Coffee in the Red Hill Shopping Center on Thursday, December 16.

4:25pm: arrive/set up
4:30-5:00pm: sing!

Updated 12/4/15

Holiday Caroling
- Saturday, December 5 - San Anselmo Tree Lighting Ceremony, 5-6pm (not a mandatory performance). We will meet at Imagination Park at 4:45pm - dress for the weather as the ceremony is all outside. Bright scarves, Santa hats, reindeer antlers, jingle bells, etc. encouraged.
- Monday, December 14 - Chorale (1st period 7th/8th grade) Caroling Field Trip to Windchime of Marin, 9:45-11am. Click here to sign up to drive/chaperone this field trip! Click here for the permission slip.
- Tuesday, December 15 - Chamber Choir (7th period 7th/8th grade) Caroling Field Trip to Aldersly Retirement Community, 12:45-2:30pm (we'll have an early lunch in the chorus room at 12pm). Click here to sign up to drive/chaperone this field trip! Click here for the permission slip.
- Wednesday, December 16 - 6th Grade Winter Sing-Along, 1:35-2:05pm in the White Hill Gym

Formal Concert Attire
- Many thanks to Tina Andropoulis, Kathy Baker, Suzanne Jansen, Kimmie Lee, Ronda Lundbaek, and Bridget Minutoli for helping with the dress fittings!
- The boys will wear black long-sleeved button-down dress shirts for the formal uniform, along with black dress pants and black dress shoes. Matching blue ties will be provided.​
- Our formal performance attire debut will be at the Winter Chorus Concert on Tuesday, January 26. I will send the dresses home with students after Winter Break. Every effort was made to find dresses of the right length, but please check those hems to make sure your singer won't be tripping over her dress to get on the risers!

YES Photo Release
- The YES Foundation would like to share images and videos featuring students and their performances via YES’ website, emails and social media. Photo releases from the school district do not apply to YES communications. If you haven’t yet, please click here  to submit a YES photo release. Thank you for letting us know if you're comfortable with your child’s image being shared.

Thank you, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

P.S. We still need drivers for the 1st period 7th grade play field trip on December 11. Click here to sign up.

I'm excited to announce that seven White Hill students were selected for the 2016 California All-State Middle School Honor Choir! Our singers will join other students from all over California to sing under the direction of Dr. Judy Bowers in San Jose from February 11-13, 2016.

See the message below from Debra Chambliss, Director of the Marin Symphony Children's Chorus.

Hi, everyone!

This is coming to you later than I’d like, but it has been a year of many changes for me and they’ve kept me busier than usual.

I am excited to welcome you to join me once again for our annual Holiday Pops Concert! This is easily one of my favorite events, and and I love working with your children.

I have extended an invite to some of my older singers this year, and we will have high school singers joining us this year. If you know of strong singers, especially if they sing harmony and are between 9th - 12th grade, I’d love to invite them, just let me know. A few of our new singers have been added to this email list as well; welcome!

The routine will be the same as last year; you may miss no more than 2 rehearsals that are approved in advance; and you cannot miss the run-thru, or the last Saturday as Maestro Neale attends this rehearsal to conduct the children before we join the full Symphony. There is a participation fee of $75 per family; and each family will receive 2 comps, and a t-shirt with your singer’s name on the back. 

Please let me know at your earliest convenience if you can join me this year, and if you have any friends that would like to join us. Enrollment continues to be limited (no more than 50 singers can participate), so I will need to reserve your space in this choir asap as I am continuing to invite new singers as well, and I wouldn’t want to fill the choir before I know whether or not each of you can join me!

Here is this year’s schedule:

Rehearsals at St. Anselm School:

Saturday rehearsals are 10am - Noon
Wednesday rehearsals are 6:30 - 8:30pm
Wed, Nov. 11th
Sat, Nov. 14th
Wed, Nov. 18th
Sat, Nov. 21st
nothing Thanksgiving week
Wed, Dec. 2nd
Sat, Dec. 5th
Wed, Dec. 9th
Sat., Dec. 12th

at the Civic Center:
December 14th, Monday - Run through w/ Symphony (approx. 45 minutes)
December 15th, Tuesday - Performance (less than 2 hours usually)

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Debra Chambliss

- Honor Choir for 7th and 8th grade chorus students from all over the Bay Area.

- Mandatory rehearsal the morning of Saturday, December 12 at Chabot College in Hayward (approximately 8am-noon).
 
- Event is on Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9, 2016. (All day Friday and Saturday morning; concert on Saturday afternoon.) 

- Participation fee will be approximately $40. You don't have to stay overnight, but last year our White Hill singers did stay overnight with chaperones and it was less stressful. (Staying overnight would be an additional cost.)

- Click on this link to apply if you are available and interested! Application deadline is Wednesday, October 28.

There will be a brand new middle school all-state chorus at this year's state music educators' conference in San Jose! The guest director is Judy Bowers from Florida State University - a fabulous music educator and fantastic with middle school kids. Click here for more information on the event.

Audition requirements:
Element 1 - Upper Range Vocalization (determine your highest pitch and sing an ascending major scale up to that pitch, a cappella) 
Element 2 - Lower Range Vocalization (determine your lowest pitch and sing a descending major scale down to that pitch, a cappella) 
Element 3 - “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee” (America): Sing the first verse unaccompanied beginning on the pitch designated according to your chosen voice part. (Soprano and Tenor: F; Alto and Bass: D flat)
Audition fee: $15

I will be recording auditions during Advisory time on Tuesday, 10/6, Thursday, 10/8, and Tuesday, 10/13. Email me with any questions!

I'm excited about a brand new local honor choir for 7th and 8th graders that will be held this fall!

There will be a mandatory sectional rehearsal on the evening of Wednesday,October 21, and the event will be held on Friday, November 6. The guest director is Lou De La Rosa, director of choirs at West Valley College ad president of the California chapter of American Choral Directors Association. Click here for the application form which has more details on the event's logistics. Applications are due to me by Friday, September 18.

There is also a regional honor choir in January (applications due end of October) and the first All-State honor choir in February (auditions must be recorded and submitted by October 15). Stay tuned for more details on those events!

We're off to a great start for the 2015-2016 White Hill Choirs! We all learned a few new rounds this week, "Belle Mama" and "Popocatepetl." Singing rounds and canons is a fantastic way for us to develop part independence and listening skills and have some quick success with harmony.