holiday gift exchange

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving holiday break and have had a chance to relax and refresh. I ran the Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon and whipped up a great Thanksgiving meal to celebrate with my family and some friends. I want to express my gratitude to all of our orchestra students and parents, our AHS faculty and administration for their love and support. I’m so thankful for all of you!

Hot Chocolate Social

Our first Hot Chocolate Social will be this Friday, December 3 before school from about 7:40 to 8:15 AM in the orchestra room. Come warm up with some yummy hot cocoa and socialize with your orchestra friends from all of our classes!

Students should RSVP for the Hot Chocolate Social using this link: https://bit.ly/alpharettahc

Winter Concert

Our winter concert is just around the corner. Be sure to mark your calendars for Thursday, December 9 at 6:30 PM in the AHS auditorium. Each orchestra will perform including the AHS Symphony Orchestra, our first time putting this ensemble together since February 2020. In addition, we will be joined by the 8th grade orchestras from Webb Bridge and Hopewell Middle Schools. It will be an evening of great music and will help bring out your inner holiday spirit!

For students, a dinner provided by AHSOA will be served around 5:00 PM. There will be an RSVP form that will go out this week, so stay tuned.

This week students will be signing up for and drawing names for our annual “Secret Santa” gift exchange. The spending limit is $10. We will hold our gift exchange on Tuesday, December 14.

SPF – Student Participation Fee

It is expected that each orchestra student pay their fair share toward the orchestra program. Like any other activity that has activities outside of the school day and provides services and opportunities for students, we must charge a fee in order to make everything happen.

This year the fee is $120 per student. If you have not paid your SPF, please do so as soon as possible. You may pay online at https://www.alpharettaorchestra/pay or via check made payable to AHSOA.

Compared with other orchestra programs across the county, state, and country, our fees are nominal. Some examples of things that SPF funds are the KSU Orchestra Invitational, LGPE Entry Fees, our pre-concert dinners, orchestra socials, the orchestra t-shirts, orchestra room supplies and accessories, sheet music, and more. To date, less than half of students have paid this fee. Our annual budget is constructed with the anticipation that we will receive these funds from every student and we may be unable to continue to provide the goods, services, and experiences to students for the remainder of this year if we do not receive the remaining funds.

Please let me know if you have any questions and do feel free to reach out if you have extenuating circumstances or would like to divide the SPF into smaller payment increments. We are happy to work with you on this.

Thank you for your help and understanding.

Washington D.C. Trip

There are still openings for our trip to Washington D.C. on March 11-14, 2022! We would love to have you travel with us! We will explore D.C., experience an orchestra clinic with a nationally-known clinician, and perform a public concert. These experiences don’t come around often and I know many of the students have not traveled since before the pandemic. An orchestra trip like this can be the highlight of a student’s high school experience!

Our Itinerary and trip details: https://www.alpharettaorchestra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Alpharetta-HS-Washington-DC-March-11-14-2022-LOW-1.pdf

How to register: https://www.alpharettaorchestra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/How-To-Register.pdf

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns!!

AHSO on Social Media

Don’t forget to check out the AHSO on social media!

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/alpharettaorchestra/
Twitter – https://twitter.com/alpharettaorch
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/alpharettaorchestra
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/c/AlpharettaHSOrchestras

The AHSO Podcast

Winter Concert Wrap Up

Congratulations to our orchestras on a spectacular Winter Concert this week! I am so proud of each of the groups and am excited to see their continued progress!

Special thanks to our amazing AHSOA parents who organized the concert cafe and our very delicious pre-concert dinner. You all make the occasion extra special!!

If you have photos of the orchestra, please share them with me via Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.

Semester 1 Exam

This week is exam week and everyone will take a 100 question multiple-choice test. A hard copy of the study guide was released last Wednesday and it was also put on Google Classroom along with a Quilt that will help students study. We will complete a final exam review on Monday in class where students can ask questions.

Orchestra Hoodies

We are currently taking orchestra hoodie orders for $25 each. The absolute final time to submit your order and payment (checks to AHSOA) is this Monday morning BEFORE school. Please come see Dr. Laux! Again, if you haven’t already submitted your payment and would like a hoodie, you must come in before school with your payment, as the order will be placed first thing on Monday.

Students will need to select their size (S-XXL) and their design (Treble Clef, Alto Clef, or Bass Clef).

Orlando Trip Update

It is with great sadness that I must announce that we have been forced to cancel our trip to Orlando this year. Our response was far less than anticipated and we did not make our minimum required ticket count. If you paid a deposit, you will receive a refund check from AHSOA. Again, I am very sorry to have to announce this and we will come up with an alternative plan for this year and will continue to seek out travel plans for the future. Thank you for your understanding.

LGPE – Save the dates!!

Our Large Group Performance Evaluation (LGPE) will be held February 19-21 at AHS. Since we are hosting we will be able to perform on our own stage and do not have to travel. We will also need student assistance with stage set up, serving as group guides, audio recording, and more. Our AHSOA board will be figuring out concessions so that we can also raise some much-needed funds. More details to follow, but please save the dates!

Clinicians & Demos

In January we will host Ms. Tyler Hartley, a professional harpist, who will give a harp demonstration in class and will see if any of our players may be interested in learning the harp! Second, we will have clinics during 2nd, 3rd, and 4th period by Elizabeth Fayette, violinist with the Vega Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence at Emory University. This clinic is sponsored by D’Addario Strings. Last, we will be hiring sectional coaches to work with each of the orchestra sections before LGPE.

Tag: holiday gift exchange

Newsletter #8 – 12/14/2019

Winter Concert Wrap Up

Semester 1 Exam

Semester Exam Schedule (half days)

Orchestra T-Shirts

Orchestra Hoodies