Booster Meeting May 6th

Eustis Mustang Parents

We are having our monthly booster meeting 

This coming Monday at 6 p.m.

In the band room.

• On the discussion table:
• Our Budget
• The Spring Concert and finished details
• The Band Banquet and details
• Ideas for fundraising for the budget next year

Please if you are available our meetings never last more than an hour. 

We would love to see you there. 

Mr. Ricke has directing here at EMS for almost 20 years!

Hey everyone I am looking for past students of Mr. Ricke. He has been the director at EMS for 19 years! I want to give him a big thanks on 20 coming up..... So I am looking for shout out from all you musicians.

 

As Director of Bands at Eustis Middle School, Mr. Ricke is responsible for a variety of musical ensembles. He directs the Mustang Steel Panology Steel Drum ensemble, two Beginner Concert Bands, Intermediate Concert Band, Advanced Concert Band, the combined 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade Marching Mustangs, Mustang Jazz II, and the award winning Eustis Mustang Thundering Herd Jazz Ensemble. Mr. Ricke assists students with Music Performance Assessment preparation for solo/ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and concert band as well as State, District, and County Honor Band preparation.

http://eustismiddleband.com/our-director

Band Banquet

Our Band Banquet is on May 22nd!

Tickets are on sale now.

Tickets are $25 each.

This event is held at Lake Receptions.

http://www.lakereceptions.com/

This includes a great meal, slideshow of the yearly events and awards.

This is a special evening for your musician. 
They have worked very hard this year. 

Practicing, preforming and competing. 

We hope to see you there!

Any donations are appreciated and help the foundation for the MCSC program. Helping us reach out to many local children. Showing them that with hard work they could achieve such dreams and at the same time learning is easier and more fun. For More Information Please Visit:

https://www.fundraise.com/eustis-middle-school-band-program-and-community-partnership/eustis-middle-school-band-program-and-community-partnership 

donate

Eustis Middle School Band Program and Community Partnership

Our students are positive role models in the comunity and we are working to develop a program called The Mustang Caring For School Community (MCSC). The program is designed to create a caring school environment characterized by kind and supportive relationships and collaboration among students from the Mustang Band, staff, and parents. The MCSC model is consistent with research-based practices for increasing student achievement as well as the theoretical and empirical literature supporting the benefits of a caring classroom community in meeting students' needs for emotional and physical safety, supportive relationships, autonomy, and sense of competence.
By creating a caring school community, our program seeks to promote pro-social values, increase academic motivation and achievement, and prevent drug use, violence, and delinquency. MCSC has four components designed to be implemented over the course of the school year:

(1) Meeting the community Throughout the year the Eustis Mustang Middle School Band competes in many fairs, festivals and shows. After each performance the members of the band gives other students a question and answer session. During this time our students explain all the benefits they receive during their time with the band program. The members of the band each explain how the band has helped them become better students, friends, and how the confidence just helps them be a better human being overall.

(2) Class Meeting Lessons This provide students in the Mustang Band with a forum to spend time with local elementary school students in a classroom climate. During the time spent in the classroom our students will share their experiences and explain why the time they spend with the band is not only good for social awareness but more important how being involved with the arts can improve test results. Our students want to show the younger elementary students that learning notation in music reading is understanding fractions. With the Mustang Band sending members to the local elementary schools Mastering fractions is a problem for students of mathematics instruction. Understand and having facility with fractions is the key to understanding and being able to do higher mathematics. Understanding how to use and manipulate fractions is a consistent problem for English Language Learners. Using music and musical notation as tools has proven to raise mathematical understanding.

(3) Community Outreach This is an important tool that the members of The Mustang Band use now and will continue to build upon. During the school year the Eustis Middle School Mustang Band plays music around our community many times, for instance, our local Street Festivals, parades and elementary schools. But we want to take it a step further. Our Community Outreach Program will reach the children who are not always exposed to the fact that children at 10, 12, 14 years of age can actually play an instrument. We want to reach those children who did not know they had the option to join the band due to financial restraints. Our program will bring our Jazz Band and our Steel Drum Band to The Place twice per year. During this event the members of the band will reach out to children who are underprivileged and housed in bad areas. Letting them know about our instrumental donation program. These children are not aware that thanks to fund-raising efforts they could too join band because the entry fees and uniforms can in fact be donated. These are the children who need something inspirational so they may fulfill their lives in the best way possible. Many of these children may never know that they too could play a steel drum or saxophone.

(4) Real World Experience Once per year we will invite the top thirty students from the elementary schools that are in our jurisdiction. The top thirty meaning the thirty students that have the most poor attendance and or grades. We will invite them to a free event hosted by the Mustang Band in their band room. The students will get a chance to see in person the Eustis Mustang Steel Drum Band and The Eustis Mustang Jazz Ensemble. After the concert the students from the surrounding schools will be able to interact with the instruments, the students and the director. The students will be able to ask any question and as they feel more comfortable in this situation learning and attending becomes a want. After this event we the booster committee talks about the very possibility that a child who was not trying hard can with commitment try something fun and interesting. Then the committee will distribute information about our instrument donation program that would not be known for not having this Real World Experience.

We all know that integration of the arts with academics makes it easier for students to improve their grades. The Mustang Caring For School Community (MCSC) wants to reach as many students as possible. If we can reach more children our future world will be an even better place.

Ads Are On sale

Our Spring Concert and Banquet Sponsor Ads Are On Sale!!!! 

We would greatly appreciate it if you would become an EMS Music Education Partner. As an EMS Music Education Partner your partnership will be recognized in the following way: 

Level Blue : Amount $100.00 - Name recognition in the winter and spring concert programs.

Level Gold : $250.00 - Business card ad in the winter and spring concert programs.

A recognition plaque from the EMS band.

Level Mustang : $500.00 Gold level plus a link to web site on EMS Mustang Band web page.

Level Director : $1000.00 Mustang level plus your business/name on the EMS Mustang Band trailer.

Level Maestro : Amount over $1,000.00 Director level plus the satisfaction of helping children in the arts.

Please consider the possibility of printing an ad or coupon with your name and phone number. This is a way for you to get new clients using the same discounts that you may print in the newspaper or direct mail advertisements. The bonus to doing it this way is the end of the year and the tax breaks such a donation brings.

As a respected business in our community you know that Music Education builds the skills that businesses value and need.

We know that students of music bring creativity to product design and marketing.

• Study of music helps students to think and work across traditional disciplines. They learn to integrate knowledge and to “think outside the box.”
• A music education teaches students how to work together.
• A music education builds an understanding of diversity and the multi-cultural dimensions of our work.
• A music education contributes to areas that are important to the future of all Floridians.
• Consequently in a global world, studying music is participating in a global behavior conducted through universally accepted practices.
• And what musicians lack in business experience, they make up for in creativity.
• Math and science are the big talking and testing points in education these days, but human resource experts believe to truly succeed in today’s global economy, tomorrow’s workers benefit most from studying and participating in the arts.

I ask you to consider helping the children of today because they become the shoppers and workers of tomorrow.

Your donation could be in the form of a coupon in the concert programs or gift certificates that can be won or auctioned at the concert or a cash donation. Please got to..........

 http://eustismiddleband.com/support

We need Gifts for our Gift Basket Giveaways!

Each concert we have a 

Gift Basket Giveaway and 50/50 Cash Drawing.

 With our budget being very tight this year 

I am sending out an early notice. 

If you happen to be in town and you see a neat donation on sale,

PLEASE pick it up and send it in to the 

Band Room with your child.

We have volunteers that put the items in the baskets 

and then we sell $1.00 raffle tickets.

We normally will raise $500-$700 extra dollars on this giveaway!

Winter Concert 2012

Our Annual Spring Concert 

is on May 14 at The First Baptist Church in Eustis, Florida.

Giveaways are due about a week prior to concert.  

Thanks so much!!! 

Support Us With A Click!

Please click Here To Support Us! We are the Eustis Middle School Mustang Band. We are writing to you today in regards to the band program here in Eustis Florida. The Eustis Middle School Mustang Band is a program that is completely self funded. Many school districts across the country are facing financial hardship. School boards are faced with difficult decisions of what programs to cut and how to stretch the tax dollars to accommodate tight budgets. Increasing class sizes, pay cuts, and less working days take a toll on teacher salaries as they receive more pressure to improve students' performance. Among the programs hit hardest by budgetary cuts are those that are related to music education.

The Eustis Band Pogram is under the director Mr. Ricke, with his 33 years experience which 19 are here at this middle school. It is continuing to grow and has been highly successful over the last decade in local, state, and national competitions and festivals. This band is increasingly being invited to perform at these and a variety of other types of events. Every successful band program needs money. The more successful, the more money needed for continued success.

We know that students of music bring creativity to product design and marketing:
Study of music helps students to think and work across traditional disciplines. They learn to integrate knowledge and to “think outside the box.”
A music education teaches students how to work together.
A music education builds an understanding of diversity and the multi-cultural dimensions of our work.
A music education contributes to areas that are important to the future of all Floridians.
Consequently in a global world, studying music is participating in a global behavior conducted through universally accepted practices.
And what musicians lack in business experience, they make up for in creativity.
Math and science are the big talking and testing points in education these days, but human resource experts believe to truly succeed in today’s global economy, tomorrow’s workers benefit most from studying and participating in the arts.

In order to participate in a band program the children are required to purchase an instrument, buy a uniform, provide many entry fees, paying accompanists, and paying transportation and other expenses for trips and the parents bear the burden of most of that cost for.

We also have many underprivileged children here that require donated instruments and partial or full financial help on entry fees to such events as State competitions and the big parade at Universal Studios at the end of the year. The award award winning, first place Steel Drum program is almost completely paid out of the band's raised monies.

The Eustis Middle School Mustang Band appreciates the opportunity for a grant such as this. We are a small town school with big city aspirations. The cost for even operating the band is about $15,000 and we work hard to raise that each year. A grant from State Farm would the foundation for the new MCSC program improvements. Helping us reach out to many local children. Showing them that with hard work they could achieve such dreams and at the same time learning is easier and more fun. 

Like Us with this community grant effort here https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=375765809196131&set=o.193932800618843&type=1&theater

Eustis Mustang Jazz Ensemble

The Eustis Middle School Jazz Ensemble has been in existence since 1997 as a part of the EMS Band programs. The band consists of seventh and eighth grade band students selected through an audition process. These students also participate in the advanced concert band and marching band. The jazz ensemble has the traditional instrumentation of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and rhythm section. This group rehearses daily with emphasis on jazz styles, articulations, improvisation, rhythms, terminology, and listening skills. This group plays a variety of big band styles like swing, Latin, and jazz rock.
In 2004 the ensemble attended the Smoky Mountain Music Festival in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, receiving straight Superior ratings and first place in the Middle School Jazz Ensemble category.
In 2005 this group attended the Fiesta-val Invitational Music Festival in Williamsburg, VA receiving straight Superior ratings, Outstanding Achievement Awards for the saxophone, brass, and rhythm sections, Outstanding Soloist award, the First Place Jazz Ensemble award, and the Champion Jazz Ensemble award.
In 2006 the group attended the Fiesta-val Music Festival in Myrtle Beach SC where they received a Superior rating and First Place for their division. The Eustis Middle Mustang Jazz Ensemble also played for over 1000 Fiesta-val musician participants at the invitation of John Savage, National Director of Fiesta-val Music Festivals. This was a first for the festival.
In 2007 the Eustis Middle School Mustang Jazz Band competed at the Lakeside Jazz Festival in Port Orange, Florida and received a Superior rating as well as the Most Outstanding Middle School Band Award.
The Jazz Band participated in the Dixie Music Classic Music Festival at Virginia Beach in May of 2007.  The jazz band was ranked first in their division and received straight superior ratings.
The EMS Jazz Ensemble traveled to the Fiesta-val Music Festival in Washington DC in 2008. They received straight Superior ratings and First Place in the Middle School Jazz Ensemble Division, Jazz Champions, Outstanding saxophone section, Outstanding Brass section, Outstanding trumpet, tenor saxophone, and trombone soloist.
The Jazz Band participated in the Dixie Music Classic Music Festival at Atlanta in May of 2009.  The jazz band was ranked first in their division and received straight superior ratings. Three soloists received Festival Honor Awards of Distinction.
These distinctive awards add to the awards received by the Eustis Middle School Band program each year which include straight Superior ratings for both the Jazz Band and Concert Band at the Florida Bandmasters District 19 Music Performance Assessment for the last nine years.
The band has been invited to perform for many different organizations and events throughout the past years including the Lake County Education Foundation, the Teacher of the Year Banquet, Jazz in Ferran Park, Kiwanis, Universal Studios, Washington’s Birthday Parade, Eustis Art Festival, Orlando Magic, L.C. Swing Band, the Eustis Rotary as well as numerous other organizations. The band performs throughout the Golden Triangle area approximately twenty times a year.

 http://eustismiddleband.com/jazz-ensemble

Eustis Middle School Is Attending The District 19 MS Jazz Honor Band Festival

 

On May 25 & 26

Eustis Middle School

Is Attending The

District 19 MS Jazz Honor Band Festival

South Lake High School

 GOOD LUCK MUSTANG JAZZ ENSEMBLE!

HAVE FUN AND MAKE US PROUD!

We Need Our Banquet Committee

http://eustismiddleband.com/

Calling upon all Eustis Middle School Band Parents! 

We are needing to put together our Band Banquet Committee. I know the Jazz Parents are exhausted after the Jazz Review. There was so much to be done for that event!

!!!!  Which Was Awesome  !!!!

The Banquet Committee will be formed so we may organize and decorated the banquet hall. This is not going to be something that requires too much time or effort... especially if we can get about a dozen of us together. Remember this is our last event of the year as well as last fundraiser.

If you will have time prior to the event on May 22, 2013......

Please email Our Booster President at cherrice@cherislilstore.net

About the Eustis Middle Band

http://eustismiddleband.com 

 The Eustis Middle School Band Program provides students with an instrumental music education of the highest quality. Who can join? Anyone can join the band! No musical experience is necessary. What do you need? An instrument, a book, and a desire to learn how to play an instrument What are the instruments? Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Trumpet, French horn, Trombone, Baritone, and Tuba. Those interested in saxophone must start on clarinet. Those interested in percussion must start on any instrument. Sax and percussion will be picked from the top performers at the end of the first quarter. 

Concert Band At EMS the band program consists of Concert Band at three levels. 

• The Beginner Band consists of mostly sixth grade students with those seventh and eighth graders in their first year of band. 

• The Intermediate Band includes seventh and eight grade students in their second year of practice. 
• The Advanced Band is quality musicians in eighth and seventh grade able to demonstrate the highest proficiency on their selected instrument. The Concert Bands meet daily during the school day. 

• The Advanced Band participates in the annual District 19 Florida Bandmasters Association Music Performance Assessment in which they are consistently rated superior. Students have the opportunity to participate in local parades, public concerts, community events, and exciting field trips. Students can also compete at district solo and ensemble music performance assessments and for positions in State, District, and County Honor Bands. 
• Marching Mustang Band The Marching Mustang Band is a combined three level Marching Band consisting of all members of the band program. The Marching Mustangs perform at several local parades and Universal Studios Orlando annually. 
• Steel Drum Ensemble The Steel Drum Ensemble consists of five different groups of steel drums and a rhythm section. The pounded out playing surface, or pan, of each drums contain notes that have literally been pounded thin to sound a specific pitch. All drums except the basses can play two full octaves. This ensemble is by audition and rehearses Monday mornings from 8:00-8:55 and every second Monday from 4:00-6:00pm. 
• Mustang Jazz Ensemble The Eustis Mustang Jazz Ensemble, an award winning ensemble, is an advanced group playing throughout the county and state. The Jazz Ensemble meets daily during the school day. From 2004 through 2010 the ensemble has been invited to Music festivals in Gatlinburg, Williamsburg, Myrtle Beach, Virginia Beach, Washington DC, and Atlanta. For all these competitions the EMS Jazz Ensemble was ranked first in their division and received straight superior ratings as well as numerous soloist awards and receiving Festival Honor Awards of Distinction. These distinctive awards are added to the State and District awards received by the Eustis Middle School Band program each year, which include straight Superior ratings for both the Jazz Band and Concert Band at the Florida Bandmasters District 19 Music Performance Assessment for the last twelve years.