Music

Dear Parents/Guardians

We in St Canice’s N.S. are all justifiably very proud of our musicians and our music programme. We are proud of the many achievements of the children over the years and we know how much fun they have in playing music together.

However running a music programme of this size and nature costs a lot of money and requires funding on an ongoing basis! The registration fees and instrument hire fees are not enough to fund the programme.

The bi-annual Maytime Melodies concert is our main fundraiser and we rely heavily upon all monies raised by the concert to buy the many things required for the programme. For example, this year alone we have spent in excess of €2,000 on new music stands, replacing many of the older stands which were in a bad state of repair; we paid for a total overhaul of all instruments over the summer months, repairing and replacing them to ensure they were up to hire standards in September, we purchased new cellos as this area was growing, one cello costs about €450 and in the past couple of years we have had to replace a number of cellos, this year another focus of ours was to invest in new 1/8 size violins for Junior Infant students as many of the older ones were no longer fixable.

Traditionally, people involved in businesses locally have been given the opportunity to support the programme by advertising in the Maytime Melodies Programme.

Following a suggestion by some parents, it was decided to extend this facility to all parents/guardians of children involved in the programme who may wish to be associated with and support the programme by becoming “Friends of Maytime Melodies”.

The names of all “Friends” will be published in our Concert programme. If you would like to become a Maytime Melodies Friend, please submit a cheque for €20 made payable to St Canice’s Instrumental Music Programme by Friday 4th May 2018. Please ensure you put the cheque in a sealed envelope with your name and the name of your child on the outside. Cheques can be left in the music post box in front lobby in the school, situated on the wall beside Kay’s office.

All funds received will go directly towards our wonderful music programme and ensure that our children will continue to enjoy the benefits of the programme for many years to come!

Many thanks,
The Music Committee

The biennial Maytime Melodies concert is our main fundraiser and we rely heavily upon all monies raised by the concert to buy the many things required for the programme. This year we are hoping to use the monies raised to fund new flutes and percussion instruments as these area’s have grown immensely over the last 2 years. If you can help out in any way by buying a concert ticket, becoming a “Friend of Maytime Melodies” or donating a raffle prize, we would be extremely grateful.

Friends of Maytime Melodies
Traditionally, people involved in businesses locally have been given the opportunity to support the programme by advertising in the Maytime Melodies Programme. Following a suggestion by some parents, it was decided to extend this facility to all parents/guardians of children involved in the programme who may wish to be associated with and support the programme by becoming “Friends of Maytime Melodies”. The names of all “Friends” will be published in our Concert programme. If you would like to become a Maytime Melodies Friend, please submit a cheque for €20 made payable to St Canice’s Instrumental Music Programme by Monday 30th April 2018. These can be left into the green post box (music box) outside Kay’s office and shall be collected regularly.

Raffle Prizes
Donations of raffle prizes would be extremely welcome! If you would like to donate a raffle prize, please contact Shirley 085-1252233 or Ruth 087-9010764 and we shall arrange to have them ready for the concerts with you.

Concert Tickets
Tickets for the concerts are now on sale and may only be purchased from the Watergate Theatre booking office or online here.  Tickets cannot be purchased from the school or from music committee members, and all queries, ticket returns etc should be directed to the Watergate Theatre. Tickets for the concerts tend to sell very quickly so you are advised to purchase your tickets early. Tickets are priced at €13 for adults and €7 for children. If you are in doubt which night your child is performing, please ask your child’s music teacher who will advise you.

Health & Safety
The Watergate Theatre has informed us that due to Health & Safety Inspections they will not accommodate any parents or children standing in the auditorium during the concerts. The concerts are a ticket only event and to avoid any unpleasantness they have asked that parents do not arrive without a ticket, as they will not be admitted. Please take note of this when purchasing tickets, if your child is performing on a night but you wish for them to stay to hear the other students perform, before or after their performance, then you shall need to purchase a ticket for them also. Please note that there is no where backstage for them to be minded so once they are finished performing they shall be returned to their parents – further detail on this to follow.

Rehearsing for Younger Children
A rehearsal will take place during school hours on the morning of Tuesday 22nd May between 9am – 1:30pm. A bus from the school has been organised to transport the children. We shall send out more detail on this closer to the date, i.e what groups need to bring their instruments to school that morning for rehearsal. If any parents are available to help on this morning can you please text Shirley on 0851252233 , all help would be greatly appreciated.

Running Order
The running order of the Maytime Melodies concerts is shown below. The length of the concert has been reduced in comparison to previous years and will therefore start at 7.30pm and finish around 9.15pm. All children involved in the music programme will perform in either one of the smaller groups or as part of the larger orchestra/jazz band/brass ensembles. We hope that the shorter concert time will enable parents and children to stay for the duration of the concert. This will provide the younger children in particular with an opportunity to see how they can progress up through the music programme.

Tuesday 22nd May 2018
1. Junior Infant Pre-Twinkle 1
2. Junior Infant Violins
3. 1st class String Ensemble
(Violins, Violas, Cellos & DB)
4. Percussion Groups – Junior Percussion, Senior Percussion, Orchestral Percussion & Jeremy’s Beginner Guitars.
5. Beginner Jazz Band
(Canice’s Cubs incl Tutti Flutti)
6. Junior Jazz Band
7. Junior Orchestra

Wednesday 23rd May 2018
1. Senior Infant Pre-Twinkle 2
2. Senior Infant Violins
3. Brass Ensemble (Pocket Trumpets, French Horns, Trombones & Trumpets)
4. Senior Infant Cellos
5. Recorder Ensemble (Year 1 & Year 2)
6. Groovy Guitars
7. Senior Jazz Band
8. Senior Orchestra

What to Wear
All children should wear their school uniform minus their jumper or cardigan (because of the heat backstage) with white knee length socks for girls and shoes if possible. No runners please! Also, if your child has a coat we would ask you to hold on to it in the auditorium.
The Senior & Junior Orchestras and Senior & Junior Jazz Bands children should wear their uniform along with the red music sweatshirt and white polo T-Shirt (again white knee length socks for girls). The music sweatshirts will be distributed before the event and will be taken back from the children at the Watergate Theatre after their performances on stage.

Drop Off Times
Below are the drop off times for the various groups. This year we have the largest number of children ever taking part in the Maytime Melodies concerts. The area backstage is very small and, for health and safety reasons, we would ask that where possible you only drop your child off at the allotted times below, and not any earlier.

No food or drinks permitted backstage, however, water will be provided for the children.
We are aware some children will be performing in a number of different acts and will therefore remain backstage until their next performance.

Pick Up Times
Below are also the pick-up times for the various groups. The Junior & Senior Infant Children (with the exception of the Senior Infant Cellos) can be collected from the coffee dock area upstairs in the Watergate Theatre after the Pre-Twinkle performance on both nights.

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Finally, the children have been working really hard to ensure that you enjoy our concerts and I’m sure that you will be immensely proud of them on the night. We appreciate the support that parents and families continue to show us and we look forward to two great nights of music making!