This category is for old articles that have been archived.
Featuring chamber groups from:
Concert Band
Symphonic Band
Wind Symphony
Percussion Ensemble
And performances from:
Jazz Lab
Jazz Ensemble
Join us tonight (December 17, 2020) at 7:00 pm at this LINK (https://youtu.be/2Cco9K0fAZg)
The link will stay open through the winter break.
Families can schedule conferences with teachers at https://www.myctime.com/clevelandhighschool/, and are encouraged to do so by 8:00 pm on Sunday. Click here for instructions.
After Sunday, you will need to reach out to the following staff members to schedule:
If your student is a 9th or 10th grader, you’ll email John Golden (jgolden@pps.net)
If your student is an 11th or 12th grader, you’ll email Sean Murray (smurray1@pps.net)
If your student or family needs interpretation services, you’ll email Margie Berrios-Brown (mberriosbrown@pps.net)
For any questions or inquiries during conferences you can email Clevelandinfo@pps.net.
Congratulations to the following Cleveland Band students who have been selected into 2021 All State ensembles:
OMEA High School All-State Jazz Band
Auden Koeneke – Alto Sax
OMEA High School All-State Symphony Orchestra
Henry Parker – Trombone
OMEA High School All-State Wind Ensemble
Eddie Storr Desmond – Clarinet
Liem Friel – Trombone
Lorenzo Jamesbarry – Trombone
Jack Lattimore – Percussion
We had 12 students submit excellent auditions, and are proud of all of you for putting forth that effort during these crazy times!!
There will be a sign up system with 10 minute slots. Due to limited slots, I would ask that parents sign up for a time only if there are concerns with student engagement and/or how to get caught up.
The only exception to this would be parents of freshman and students new to Cleveland HS. I have not been able to meet many of you, and this is an opportunity to do that.
I usually look forward to meeting all of the parents I can during conference week, but this is not a typical year. I hope parents of returning band students can understand that and will forego a meeting, if at all possible.
Private teacher links and other parent resources are in the resources page of the band website www.ClevelandBandsPDX.com
Thank you for your continued support of your student musician! I know this is not easy for anyone.
-Gary Riler
Students will upload tracks to Mr. Riler using a Google form on Canvas in the “Announcements” section, due on Wednesday, Oct. 21 by 11:59pm.
Despite the fact there is not going to be an All-State performance, students are encouraged to submit auditions for recognition of hard work and skill. The process of preparing for an audition is valuable no matter what the result is. It will still be a valuable achievement for a college application.
Do you shop at Amazon? Would you like to help Cleveland Bands? If you answered yes to the above, please consider setting your Amazon Smile charity to Friends of Cleveland Bands. A portion of each order you make via Amazon goes to support the band.
Desktop:
Follow this link to set your charity: https://smile.amazon.com/ch/84-2037819 and then remember to use https://smile.amazon.com/ for your future purchases.
Your screen should have amazonsmile logo on the top left and say Supporting: Friends of Cleveland Bands.
Mobile app:
Thanks! Every dollar helps our kids grow through the band program.
Last Thursday, Cleveland HS was honored by the National Federation of High Schools as the Performing Arts School of Excellence for 2020.
This annual award has been given 5 times. Cleveland HS is the first urban HS to win the award. Only one high school in the entire US receives this award each year.
The programs included in this award are:
The hard work and results that our performing arts students exhibit have become an expectation and at times can be taken for granted.
The banner is placed above the entrance to the Cleveland HS auditorium as a reminder of how SPECIAL these programs truly are!
The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has named Cleveland High School as the 2020 NFHS Performing Arts School of Excellence. CHS becomes the fifth annual winner of the award and the first recipient based in an urban setting.
CHS’s band, led by our own Gary Riler, has competed at the state festival and placed first or second in the PIL in each of the past five years.
The jazz band has been PIL runner-up each of the past four years and placed fifth at its respective 6A festival in 2017. The chamber music program has had ensembles record top-five state finishes in 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Red the full story here: https://www.osaa.org/today/article/1860/view
Welcome to the 2020–21 school year! Friends of Cleveland Bands (FCOB) is a parent-led, non-profit organization providing support for the CHS band program through volunteer service and financial assistance. To achieve this goal, we work closely with Band Director Gary Riler and many dedicated volunteers throughout the year.There are many ways you can participate, although like everything else in the world currently, how we operate and participate this year is already looking quite a bit different, and will continue to evolve as the pandemic and public health response to it dictate. In years past parent volunteers might bring baked goods to a band concert, help out at a specific event like the annual Play-a-Thon, or join the FOCB Board and help fund raise and plan current and future events.
We appreciate any and all participation from parents and supporters of our student musicians, and while the opportunities may look a bit different this year, there will no doubt be a need for parents to get involved. In fact it may be more valuable than ever, as we look for innovative ways to keep our kids playing music as “together” as possible this year, whether virtually, distanced in open-air places, or through pulling together individual performances to construct videos approximating a concert experience as best we can.
100% of the Cleveland High School Band program’s budget comes from fundraising. The CHS Bands receive zero funds from the school district. FOCB provides funds for sheet music, instrument purchase and maintenance, extra musical coaching and clinician support, event entry fees, transportation costs, and student scholarships. And this year there may be unique expenses in order to ensure our musicians all have the ability to participate in distance musical learning. FOCB funds help ensure that all students can participate in band regardless of financial status, and support a high quality musical experience for all.
Visit our page at https://www.clevelandbandspdx.com/friends-of-chs-band/ to learn more about our organization and how you can participate. Watch for more information soon about our exciting and largest fundraiser of the year: the Play-a-Thon! We have yet to determine a date for this year, or determine exactly how it will function to be safe and fun for everyone taking part, but we’ll be organizing it over the coming months.
We will have a zoom FOCB meet and greet very soon, stay tuned for more information. Please join us, meet the parent volunteers that make up FOCB. We’d love to meet as many band parents as possible, answer any questions you might have, and hear how you may like to participate in FOCB activities this year.
Joel Pomeroy
FOCB President
For most of you this is a welcome back, and for our freshman and newcomers this is a warm welcome to our program. This is an opportunity for me to share a few updates about the band classroom, but more importantly, point you to the group that makes our program work so smoothly! The Friends of Cleveland Bands (FOCB for short).
BAND WEBSITE: https://www.clevelandbandspdx.com
If you click on the “Get Involved” tab near the top of the page, you will find a drop down menu with more that you can explore.
There are performance dates and events on this calendar.
There is also a newsletter tab on the top menu of the website that will allow you to subscribe to the weekly newsletter (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED).
A more detailed performance calendar (list form) will be made available on the Resources page of the website in pdf form.
SYLLABUS AND HANDBOOK
Two weeks ago we began our “Standard Operating Procedure” module. (A new term that we use with CANVAS) You should have been asked by your student musician to sign a couple pages for the Syllabus and Band Handbook. They were then supposed to upload screenshots or scans of those pages into a google form. I would ask that you read through both of those documents, as your signature indicates that you have done that.
STUDENT TEACHER
We will have a student teacher in our midst this year. He is a teacher candidate from Portland State University. He graduated from Summit HS under the baton of Dan Judd, and is a trombonist. He is excited to begin work with me and our Cleveland students. He has introduced himself to all of the classes this week during our synchronous lessons (live Zoom classes). You will have the chance to meet him (via a video) during Back to School Night, as well. He will be with us all year!
VIRTUAL BAND?
I will conclude this lengthy welcome letter with a short thank you to all of you who are supporting your children through this unusual time. I hopeful that we can be in a room together before the school year is over in whatever form that may take. In the meantime, I will try to make this class as meaningful as possible. Many students have shared their frustration around not being able to be together, and how that is what makes this band so special. I 100% agree with them, and will try to continue to create opportunities to connect as we go forward. I look forward to meeting you all in one form or another.
Musically Yours,
Gary Riler
