April Events & Announcements
Band Placements
Drumline – Battery & Frontline Group Auditions
PABC Garage Sale
Awards Concert
Large Group Contest
All-State Jazz Band
Wind Symphony Elementary Tour
2024-2025 Calendar
All-State Band & SCIBA Honor Band Audition
Summer Lessons
Performing Arts Booster Club Meetings
Band Placements
Students in grades 8-11 are completing band placements for next year. These should be completed on or before Friday April 5th. Once completed, next year’s Three Concert Bands will be posted. Members of next year’s Wind Symphony will perform for commencement on May 23rd. A complete roster will be posted after band placements are complete.
Drumline – Battery & Frontline Group Auditions
*Everyone auditioning for Drumline must attend ALL group audition dates*
- Friday, April 12th @ 6-7:30 pm
(8th grade only from 6-6:30!) - Friday, April 19th @ 6-7:30 pm
(8th grade only from 6-6:30!)
Urbandale Drumline will consist of FOUR sections: bass drum, snare drum, tenors, and front ensemble. You may audition for any instrument of your choosing, but you may not be guaranteed a spot on your preferred instrument; however, our staff will certainly consider your desired choice. EVERYONE should prepare all exercises in the Urbandale Audition Packet 2024 for auditions. (Exception to this: students who WILL ONLY be doing front ensemble. All mallet exercises should be prepared.) BRING: Music (packet), earplugs, and a positive attitude! (you may also bring sticks or practice pads if you would like).
PABC Garage Sale – April 13th
8:00 AM – 2:00 PM
The Band Department is excited to team up with the Vocal and Drama Departments in order to host the UHS Performing Arts Garage Sale! The event will take place in the UHS commons from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. We need your help in three ways: volunteering, donations, and shopping.
VOLUNTEERING
We are in need of help with both setup on the evening of Friday, April 12, and with the sale itself on April 13. Please signup here
DONATIONS
We hope your spring cleaning will leave you with so many great things that you are giddy to donate to our sale! Please take a look at the following lists of items that we are more than happy to accept and a few items that we won’t be able to take off your hands. Thank you in advance for your donations! Please contact Kari McLaren at kjmclrn@gmail.com or 515-238-3482 with any questions regarding whether an item will be accepted.
Garage sale donations will be accepted on Friday, April 12, from 4:00-7:00 PM at the back entrance to the UHS Commons. (Come through the parking lot by the football field.) UHS Performing Arts students will be there to unload and graciously accept your donations.
You can also reach out to Kari to arrange for pickup of large items. This will be available on Friday, April 12. You must be present when we pick up items. Arrangements for item pickup must be made by Wednesday, April 10.
Please consider donating the following items:
- Clothing- All Sizes
- Urbandale Spirit Wear
- Prom/ Special Occasion Dresses
- Jewelry
- Shoes
- Purses and bags
- Small Appliances
- Home Decor
- Furniture
- Future “Dorm Room” Furniture
- Storage Items
- Sports Equipment
- Books
- Movies
- Video Games
- Board Games
- Toys
- Bikes
We cannot accept the following items:
- Electronics (TV, Computers, Gaming Systems, Large Appliances, Phones and phone accessories) as we cannot guarantee the working condition of these items to our shoppers.
- VCR tapes
- Clothing that is stained, discolored, and/or shows signs of excessive wear and tear
- Mattresses
- Infant Car Seats and Baby Furniture
- Pianos
- Large Office desks
- Bed Frames and Headboards
- Furniture with excessive damage or wear*
- Large Entertainment Centers
- Tires and Car parts
- Chemicals
- Encyclopedias
- Building Material and Flooring
- Firearms/explosives
Unpurchased items will be donated to the Many Hands Thrift Market after the sale.
SHOPPING
Come shop the sale on Saturday, April 13, from 8:00 AM-2:00 PM! This fundraiser helps to raise money for new instruments, instrument repair, clinicians, and many other experiences for our students.
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. Seniors! Our Awards Concert on Monday April 29 will feature the Senior Photo/Baby Photo video. Send your name, senior photo, and baby photo to Alli Ternes by Monday April 15 to be included. PAC concerts can be live-streamed: http://www.j-hawks.com/live
State Large Group Festival
Saturday, May 4th – Ankeny/Ankeny Centennial
Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony will perform at the Iowa High School State Large Group Festival to be held at Ankeny/Ankeny Centennial High School on Saturday, May 4. More information will be communicated in the May Newsletter.
All-State Jazz Band – Results
Congratulations to Hudson Lybarger for being accepted into the 4A Iowa All-State Jazz Band for the fourth year in a row! Only 20 students from across Iowa are selected for the 4A band. In addition, Asa Leonard-Newton was selected as an alternate trumpet. Selection occurs through a competitive recorded audition process. Students submit a recording of a challenging jazz etude and an improvised solo. We also want to congratulate Mia Tessier for completing the audition process, which fosters tremendous musical growth. The All-State Jazz Band will perform on Thursday May 9th at the Iowa Bandmasters Association Conference at the Downtown Marriott. The performance is free and open to the public.
Wind Symphony Elementary Tour
On 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!
Dates for Summer 2024-25
The Band Calendar for 2024-25 is posted 2024 -25 Calendar of Events This includes the 4th of July Parade and Band Camp. 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 Next year’s dates have been added to the electronic calendar. Details will be added soon.
The 4th of July Parade
The community has long enjoyed the UHS Band students’ 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!
All-State Band and SCIBA Honor Band audition
We always want to set students up for success. Starting next year, students interested in auditioning for SCIBA Honor Band must also audition for All-State and attend the weekly after-school prep sessions. Students that are the most prepared have the strongest chance of a favorable outcome. If a student is choosing to audition for All-State Vocal, the instrumental audition must be done with a director prior to October 26th.
Summer Lessons
Summer is a great time for students to get connected with the Metro’s best musicians for lessons. Many private instructors have started in-person lessons once again. Students (and their parents) who are interested in connecting with private teachers this summer should visit with any of the band staff for contact information of the best local pro’s on each instrument.
Performing Arts Booster Club Meetings
Any member of the UHS Performing Arts community with an interest in seeing our programs succeed is invited to attend meetings of the Performing Arts Booster Club. The next meeting is May 28. All of these meetings will be at 7:00 pm in the Media Center at UHS. You can also keep connected with the Performing Arts Booster Club via Facebook,