STEP

By request of a parent:

Last Saturday afternoon our Senior STEP Orchestra attended a workshop with the conductor in residence of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. It was a very demanding session but our students rose brilliantly to the challenge! It was certainly a great experience and we owe thanks to the NL Music Teachers Assoc who organized the workshop and extended the invitation to Kellie.

Labels: news, people

You're invited to attend STEP's general meeting, scheduled to take place on Monday, April 30th, 7 to 8:30pm, in the sanctuary of St. David's Presbyterian Church on Elizabeth Avenue.

Topics on the agenda include Chair's Address, Artistic Director's Report, and financial report from Valerie Howe, our out-going Treasurer. In addition, a presentation of the survey results will be made. Refreshments will be provided, and there will be a Q&A and social session after the meeting for you to provide feedbacks.

Please make every effort to attend this meeting as the board has been undertaking some exciting projects that we'd like to tell you about, and with the upcoming anniversary it's important for our members to be informed! Kindly RSVP to confirm your attendance.

Labels: administration, announcements, news

This good news is sent by request of Janet Hewson, congratulations guys!

Three of our STEP members are with the St. Bonaventure's College Wind Ensemble who have just taken first place in the All American Music Festival in Orlando, Florida! As well they received the highest marks awarded to a band this season (that's 3 or 4 festivals).

Congratulations to Timothy Brennan (trumpet), Valerie Hewson (clarinet) and Rhiannon Tracey (clarinet).

Here's their official Orlando picture.

Labels: Community Events, news, people

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, March's newsletter is now available for viewing!

A few articles of interest include a hello from our Artistic Director, Evelyn Osborne; the journey across worlds and cultures for Christina Smith, and some Body Mapping from Jennifer Johnson! It'll be a very interesting read I'm sure. Also, a new column for practicing tips has been established and it is wide open to parent contribution for future issues, i.e. contributors will keep this column going. So keep a pencil and some paper nearby as you read through the newsletter, and scratch down some ideas for us.

Don't forget to send in any suggestions you may have for newsletter topics, and keep an eye out for upcoming contests and events!

Labels: documents, news, people, requests

On behalf of Evelyn, our Artistic Director:

Next year is the 25^th anniversary of STEP! I can't believe that I was here at the beginning playing away on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! And I still play it almost everyday!!! What a beautiful piece of music to live life by!

We're hoping to plan many events for the upcoming Anniversary year 2006/2007, not the least of which will be the return of an alumnus, Mark Fewer, now an internationally acclaimed violinist. He will be playing with the NSO in November and has kindly agreed to be a part of events for us. Please check out his bio at the Vancouver Symphony where another one of our alumni also is a member, Jennie Press.

There are also many other exciting offers and opportunities for events for our students in the upcoming anniversary year.

To make these events happen and our year special WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW! The time for organizing and brainstorming of events is nigh; please volunteer now and we can make a great year of events. We need lots of people to make this happen so that a few aren't overworked!

If you're interested in volunteering for anniversary events, please let us know; we need general volunteers as well as a few people to help set up a committee to oversee the preparations and successful launching of events.

Show your STEP spirit and please email stepanniversary@yahoo.ca to indicate your interest. Also please send along any ideas you have!

Sincerely,
Evelyn Osborne, Artistic Director.

Please show your support and get involved with the anniversary planning, it will be a fantastic year for us all, and even more perfect with your enthusiasm and help. :)

Labels: administration, announcements, news, requests

Let's give a big round of applause for the STEP Fiddlers and STEP Senior Orchestra! Both groups competed in the Group Rose Bowl events last night, and thank-you to Christina Smith and Kellie Walsh for their excellent leadership in helping our two ensembles achieve marks of 90% in their preliminaries! Kellie Walsh, our Orchestra Director, is also the director of the Rose Bowl winning St. Bonaventure College Girls' Choir. The group received a 92 in their class earlier this week, and a couple of our students also participate in this group's activities! Other STEP ensembles also received amazing marks in the Festival, with the Intermediate Orchestra scoring 88%, Junior Orchestra scoring 88% and Émile Benoît Fiddle Class a 90%!

Again, we're interested in publishing individual achievements in the Festival, so if you'd like to send in your results by Monday, March 12th, we'll make sure you're recognized in our next newsletter, coming very soon.

Thanks again everyone! Students, for your talent and passion; parents, for your dedication and patience; and teachers, for your leadership and devotion to your craft. Congratulations, you've once again done STEP proud.

Labels: announcements, Community Events, news, requests

Congratulations to the STEP Fiddlers and the STEP Senior Orchestra for earning places in the Kiwanis Rose Bowl Competition! The concert is tomorrow night (Thursday March 7th) at the Arts and Culture Centre, so please come out and applaud our hard-working young musicians. Many thanks to Kellie and Christina for their leadership, and GOOD LUCK to all!

We are very interested in hearing about how the rest of our students did in the Kiwanis. We truly have a very talented community of young and gifted musicians, and it would for be great for everyone to share the news! If you've taken part, please send in your name, instrument (not just strings!) and placement, and we'll acknowledge everyone's accomplishments in this year's Festival in our next newsletter, which is coming very soon.

Great job everybody, hope you all had fun during the Festival!

Labels: announcements, Community Events, concerts, news, people, requests

There have been some updates to the website: as updates are done, they'll be listed here, but not go out in e-mail.

• Added: STEP Teachers' Studio Policy, required reading for parents and teachers alike: http://www.nfld.com/~step/step_teachers_studio_policy.htm .
• Added: Words to "Allegretto" in Book 1 - all about the three bears: http://www.nfld.com/~step/words.htm . Fun!

Both of these have links to them on the Reference for Members page.

Labels: administration, documents, news

The December issue of STEP newsletter is now ready for viewing online!

Labels: announcements, documents, news, people