May Events & Announcements
PABC Garage Sale
Awards Concert
State Large Group Festival
Jazz Concert
Wind Symphony Elementary Tour
Band Department Instruments & Inventory
Commencement – May 23, 2024
2024-25 Calendar
2024-2025 Concert Bands
J-Hawk Marching Band Leadership Team & Crew Members
Marching Band Music Rehearsals in June
The 4th of July Parade
All-State & Honor Band
PABC Garage Sale – THANK YOU!
Thank you to Kari McLaren and Rosemary Stice for organizing this year’s Performing Arts Booster Club Garage Sale! Our families and community raised over $3120 for the Band, Vocal, and Drama Departments. We are extremely thankful for everyone’s generosity and support. Kari’s words describe why the event was successful: “I would like to emphasize how happy we were with the volunteer efforts and our amazing donations! We had incredible help this year and fantastic donations! I feel like we’re getting into a great groove with this event!”
Awards Concert
Monday, April 29 – 7:00 PM — Student Call Time: 6:20 PM
We look forward to seeing band families at our final home concert band performance of the season. The concert will feature Wind Ensemble, Wind Symphony, Percussion Ensemble, and the beloved Senior Video. Ticket information can be found at jhawk.com
Live Stream: http://www.j-hawks.com/live
State Large Group Festival
Saturday, May 4th – Dallas Center Grimes High School
Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony will perform at the Iowa High School State Large Group Festival to be held at Dallas Center Grimes High School on Saturday, May 4th. Details can be found here: LargeGroup Itinerary 2024.
Jazz Concert
On Tuesday, May 7th, the high school jazz bands and middle school jazz bands present the last concert of the year. The concert will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the high school PAC. Our guest artist is trombonist, composer, and educator, Jackson Churchill. Ticket information can be found at jhawk.com Live Stream: http://www.j-hawks.com/live
Wind Symphony Elementary Tour
On Wednesday, May 15th, the Urbandale Wind Symphony will tour elementary schools throughout UCSD in order to perform and demonstrate instruments for next year’s 5th grade class. The Wind Symphony will feature soloists to introduce each instrument and perform a short concert at each school. We are excited to perform and encourage band enrollment within UCSD!
Band Department Instruments & Inventory
All Band Department instruments need to be turned in for our annual inventory.
Everyone: turn in your Band Department instrument Thursday May 16th after 1st period.
This includes any and all school owned instruments, drums, drum stands and carriers, etc. Parents, thanks for your help in reminding students to check-in their instruments. If you have an instrument at home, please make arrangements to bring it to school.
Instruments will be available for pick up at the end of the day on Friday May 17th.
Commencement – May 23, 2024
Commencement Band will consist of next year’s Wind Symphony members. Concert attire will be concert black. The band will play from the floor of the Knapp Center in full view of a very large audience. The students’ usual professionalism in performance, appearance, and actions will be proudly on display. An itinerary for the evening can be found here: Commencement Itinerary
***2024-25 Calendar – NEW***
The Band’s complete calendar for the 2024-25 school year is posted: 2024 -25 Calendar of Events. Thanks for adding these dates to your calendar. Students planning to take the ACT in the coming year should plan ahead to avoid performance conflicts. ACT Test Dates are listed in the Band Calendar along with known conflicts. As a reminder, you can subscribe to the J-Hawk Band Calendar electronically using this link:
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/i7d3csg6oincr3dnp1gqklh97k%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics
2024-2025 Concert Bands
We are happy to announce that the UHS Band Department will have three concert bands next year. Enrollment is back up not only from our incoming freshmen class but UHS students returning to Band. The truth is that the pandemic did a number on our program and music programs around the world. Participating in Band via Zoom was no fun at all and I understand why a student would elect to drop. With that in our past, the program is growing and we welcome the opportunity to meet every student’s musical needs. Here is the 2024 2025 Concert Band Roster
J-Hawk Marching Band Leadership Team & Crew Members
We are excited to announce our 2024 Leadership Team & Crew Members for the 2024 Marching Band Season.
Marching Band Music Rehearsals in June
We know that students have lives outside of Band but we also know that some students would like extra rehearsal time on our show music. This year, we are offering Optional but Encouraged music rehearsals on the following dates:
Monday June 17th: Woodwinds & Brass ONLY 6:00pm – 8:00pm:
Tuesday June 18th: Percussion ONLY 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Tuesday June 25th: Percussion ONLY 6:00pm – 8:00pm
The 4th of July Parade
The community has long enjoyed the UHS Band’s participation in the Independence Day Parade. Please mark your calendars so band students will be available to provide this great service to our community on Thursday, July 4th. Students will be involved from approximately 8:00 a.m. to Noon. We hope to see you along the route cheering on the band as they perform for you and the whole community of Urbandale! For rehearsal details, please read the Event Calendar
All-State & Honor Band
For students considering Instrumental All-State auditions next fall, here are the honest keys to success. Remember, if you plan to audition for SCIBA Honor Band, you must also audition for All-State:
- Students study with a private teacher on their instrument starting ASAP and throughout the summer.
- Play on a professional quality instrument
- Practice Daily
- Scale and solo preparations.
- Build technique: tone quality, range, endurance, finger dexterity, and melodic interpretation
- Aim for the 100-day club; practicing for 100 consecutive days – then 125, etc.
- Focus on goals, overcome obstacles.