khallum

Developing a jazz band at your school can be fun and inspiring.  A jazz band can serve as a mighty tool for recruiting. It helps students with sight reading.  It teaches leadership, self-confidence, and reinforces creative expression.  If your background does not specifically include jazz performance, you can still start a jazz program for your […]

When taking a student group on any trip, you are faced with the prospect of feeding a lot of hungry teenagers.  Feeding the endlessly ravenous can be a pretty daunting task.  How about a short list of ideas to feed the crowd?  Meal vouchers – Offered at most theme parks, students can individually redeem vouchers […]

It takes the pressure off remembering to register when school starts. Your first choice date is locked in. You can announce your plans to parents & boosters at Back-to-School night. Potential students are attracted to sign up for band, orchestra, choir, etc. More time for fundraising! It allows more time for grant writing or to […]

Include your students in a big musical thank you to administration & staff for supporting the music program this year! Include your students in a big musical thank you to their parents and boosters! Tell your students to sign up for next year and give them a reason why they should!  (Music trip, friendship, choir/band/orchestra […]

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!  Never too late or too early to thank a teacher for his or her impact on your life!  Melissa Salguero built an remarkable music program at P.S. 48 in New York City.  When she started, the program had absolutely no instruments, no funding, and the school hadn’t had a music program […]

Your students are lining up to choose classes for next year. The time to recruit students for your music program continues.  How about sharing with your school community a list of famous people who participated in school music programs?  Maybe you’ll light an artistic fire in a celebrity of the future! Blake Lively – The […]

Over the past 24 years, we’ve hosted thousands of music groups at festivals.  But, guitar ensemble registrations have markedly risen over the last 10 years.  NAfME’s ongoing series, “50 States of Guitar Class,” features interviews with respected music educators across the country.   According to the series, some programs have developed because of the teacher’s own […]

A young middle school jazz band instructor recently came to a festival armed with handwritten notes on school notepaper and thrust them at me on the way to the warm up room. His plea as he ran – “Please make the judges read this!”  Wading through the notes, I learned that Johnny so and so […]

In our history, we’ve welcomed groups of all sizes and abilities.  Whereas some festivals require a minimum number of students, that’s something that we’ve never done.  Because our founders were themselves music educators (with big programs, by the way), they felt that the quality of the program was not necessarily determined by the quantity of […]

As we get ready to celebrate the holidays, we reflect on the privilege of hosting many of you at festivals over the past 24 years. We hope that you will enjoy the holidays and focus on friends and family. Our staff wishes you the very best in the coming year and  a season of health, […]