POP Freire Newsletter 3.27.2020

Our Concert Video is Ready!

Dear Families – We are certainly missing all of our POP students, and are hopeful that you are staying healthy and safe during this isolation. We are working hard to make sure your students have plenty of things to practice at home, so look for updates in your email!

I’m SUPER excited to announce that our concert video is ready! Here’s the link. Sit down with your student and watch the concert together. Better yet, sit the whole family down and enjoy the concert together. It really was a wonderful session, and you are going to love this video. The kids were really disappointed to lose the whole celebratory aspect of the concert day, so maybe you can watch the concert together, then all have a celebratory treat – like ice cream or cookies, or whatever you have in your house right now! Be sure to celebrate you student and tell them all how wonderful they are!

Your TAs are recording for you!

In an effort to continue to provide you with resources for your students at home, our TAs are busy making videos for you to use while you practice from home. The videos are now live on our website – go to the POP Family page and scroll all the way to the bottom. You’ll find a link under Resources that says “click here.” Click it for access to our instructional videos. Your child is encouraged to do videos posted by their TAs AND, if they want, they can check out videos of other TAs and practice along withe them. We would love to have your feedback on how this process is going in your home, so please let me know.

Register for Summer Program!

At this point, we are uncertain what will be happening during the summer, but for now, we are planning on moving ahead. Please register your student for 2, 4, or 6 weeks of program. Remember that this will only cost you a $25 registration fee, and that’s all! The kids are REALLY going to need this by the time we get there. Here’s the link.

Please fill out this very short survey

Please take a minute to fill out this google poll and let me know if your student has an instrument and/or internet access at home. This will help me in determining what I need to send home for them.

No Program Scheduled until April 6 – But you can still be musical!

So many arts organizations are offering free access to their concerts and performances. Check out the links below to get some supplemental music in your house!

1. My kids introduced me to a REALLY FUN music making site called Chrome Music Lab. You can find it here.
2. CHALLENGE: Have your student create a piece of music using this platform and send me the link. I’ll share them with you next week!

Moving forward, if you have any questions, I’m certainly available to you. Feel free to email or call me. I hope you had a relaxing spring break! Please, everyone stay healthy – wash those hands!

~Anna.

POP Freire Newsletter 3.20.2020

“Back” from spring break!

Ok, everyone, I hope your students (and you!) had a restful break, and that you are figuring out our new kind of “normal.” As we transition back to learning, I want to give you some resources for helping your student to continue learning music while we are all in our separate places.

Please fill out this very short survey

Please take a minute to fill out this google poll and let me know if your student has an instrument and/or internet access at home. This will help me in determining what I need to send home for them.

Register for Summer Program!

At this point, we are uncertain what will be happening during the summer, but for now, we are planning on moving ahead. Please register your student for 2, 4, or 6 weeks of program. Remember that this will only cost you a $25 registration fee, and that’s all! The kids are REALLY going to need this by the time we get there. Here’s the link.

Spring Concert video coming up!

Mr. Vince is hard at work with our Development office compiling the videos from our very last minute recording session just over a week ago (can you believe it?!). As soon as that video is ready to go, I will share it with you, so be looking for an email on that. Please keep in mind that this was a very last minute set-up and some of the footage doesn’t get the entire ensemble into the picture. If you can’t see your student, ask them to help you hear them.

Your TAs are recording for you!

In an effort to continue to provide you with resources for your students at home, our TAs are busy making videos for you to use while you practice from home. We are still working on getting the videos up and live for you, but I’ll let you know when to check out the resources page of our website for links to our practice videos. These little mini teaching sessions are meant to help your child tackle some of the basics of their instrument. Your student will be able to do things like practice scales with Ms. Anna or intervals with Mr. St Clair.

No Program Scheduled until April 6 – But you can still be musical!

So many arts organizations are offering free access to their concerts and performances. Check out the links below to get some supplemental music in your house!

1. The Berlin Opera is offering a free viewing of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen from their home page through March 24, so put it on your weekend to-do list! Click here to access it, and scroll down – it’s the second one listed. The opera is about an hour. If you or your student tune in, let me know what you thought!
2. Take a tour of the Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Click here for a virtual experience that is sure to delight you and your student. (This one is not musical, but my 10 year-old son took the tour, and really enjoyed it!)
3. Have your student write an original composition for his/her instrument. Our last session was all about composers who wrote music for our kids specifically. See if your student is interested in writing a piece. We can provide a platform for them to perform the pieces when we come back! Here’s a link to some free music notation software.

Moving forward, if you have any questions, I’m certainly available to you. Feel free to email or call me. I hope you had a relaxing spring break! Please, everyone stay healthy – wash those hands!

~Anna.

POP Freire Newsletter 3.13.2020

Dear POP Freire Families,

First of all, thank you for your flexibility in this uncertain time. Also, your students are to be commended for an excellent video performance they gave yesterday during program. After I announced that the concert was cancelled, there were many angry faces staring back at me. Admittedly, I was glad to see that they had taken such ownership of their identity as musicians that they WERE so upset! However, they brought their A-game in a serious way and managed to pull off a really great video performance. Links and MP3s will be coming out soon!

Secondly, welcome to our new format for newsletters! From now on, you will get all of your information from me here. Please take the time to check out the newly-live parent portal on the website. There are some great resources here – including a place to pay fees with a credit card (can I get an amen?). We will be using this site for all our future newsletters and communication about upcoming events. But don’t worry – I’ll still send you a link every week!

Recording Session a Success – Just Barely!

My plan for this week rapidly deteriorated from concert to recording session to no program. However, thanks to Mr. Devin – we have one photo, and thanks to Mr. Mike, who ran from the POP office to FCMS with video recording equipment at the last second, we have a video forthcoming! Check out this photo from our recording session on Thursday. I know I keep saying this, but your students were incredible this session. They took immense pride in their performance and showed a whole lot of musical maturity. We are working on getting the raw video/audio from our recording session ready for you, and I will send it out as soon as I can.

No Program Scheduled until April 6 – But you can still be musical!

By now you have received the email from Ms. Jess, our program director about suspending all programming until April. 6. While we are going to miss this instructional time with your students, we don’t want to leave you with no tools for encouraging them musically. Here are three things you can do in the coming week to encourage their musical-mindedness.

1. Encourage your students to practice as they feel they can during the break. They may get bored of other things, and this might break things up for them.
2. Have them watch an online concert. Here’s a link to a really good one by the Philadelphia Orchestra to an EMPTY hall on March 12. The performance is stunning.
3. Have your student write an original composition for his/her instrument. Our last session was all about composers who wrote music for our kids specifically. See if your student is interested in writing a piece. We can provide a platform for them to perform the pieces when we come back! Here’s a link to some free music notation software.

Moving forward, if you have any questions, I’m certainly available to you. Feel free to email or call me. I hope you have a wonderful spring break!

~Anna.