Virginia Beach Pre-Trip Info: Luggage and Medication Drop-Off

Luggage drop-off will take place on Wednesday evening between 6pm and 8pm. During those hours, the nurse will be on-site to accept medications and consult with parents with questions, instructions or concerns.
Luggage will be inspected and tagged. It will be locked in the chorus room over night for departure on Thursday morning.
Band instruments will tagged and stored in the band room for departure Thursday morning.

Graduation Info for Band!

Graduation will be held at the DCU center this year. That means we are all going (save for the graduates) to play at the ceremony.

Here is the schedule for the upcoming festivities...

• Wednesday June 4th- Graduation rehearsal in the gym 8:30am
• Thursday June 5th- Graduation rehearsal at DCU Center in the morning
• Band students will load the busses at 8am to go to DCU
• Thursday June 5th - Graduation Ceremony at DCU Center
• Band students will load the busses at GHS at 4:30pm
• Ceremony will run from 6-7:30pm(or so)
• Busses will return the band students to GHS after the ceremony

Concert attire for the ceremony is black and white!

Any student who is not returning to GHS on the bus must bring a note stating that fact.

Music for Graduation will be posted on the site.

It will include...

• Pomp and Circumstance
• Star Spangled Banner 
• Alma Mater
• Stars and Stripes Forever

Remind 101: Your alert center at Virginia Beach

Students planning to attend the Virginia Beach trip are strongly encouraged to sign up for the Remind 101 text service. We will be using text alerts to keep you informed throughout the trip. If you are bringing a phone with you on the trip, please sign-on for Remind 101 right now!

Remind 101

Grafton High School Music: Virginia Beach Parent Meeting Tuesday April 29th 7...

Grafton High School Music: Virginia Beach Parent Meeting Tuesday April 29th 7...: The final informational meeting for the Virginia Beach music trip will take place on Tuesday April 29th at 7pm. The meeting will be held in ...

Spring Music Events at GHS

Here are the dates for the remaining music events for GHS Band Students:

• May 8-11 Virginia Beach Trip
• May 15 Spring Concert 7pm
• May 26 Memorial Day Parade 8:30-noon
• June 5 Graduation (+DCU Center) More details to come...

Music for Memorial Day is posted in the links section of the blog.

Music for Graduation is starting to go up. You can find the Alma Mater already posted.

What Kurt Vonnegut wrote to a high school in 2006

The author, Kurt Vonnegut, (along with a number of other authors) was invited to this school in 2006. He was the only one to respond to the invitation. What I love about this letter is that he doesn't speak of education in terms of grades or tests. He speaks of the intrinsic reward of creating art, any art.

"Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:

I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don't make public appearances any more because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.

What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.

Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you're Count Dracula.

Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don't do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?

Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals [sic]. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow."

His final two paragraphs speak to the question I like to ask, "If you learn something and no one is there to test you, does it count?" It sounds like Kurt Vonnegut knew the answer.

Virginia Beach Parent Meeting Tuesday April 29th 7pm

The final informational meeting for the Virginia Beach music trip will take place on Tuesday April 29th at 7pm. The meeting will be held in the band room at GHS.
During this meeting we will go over the final itinerary, trip protocol, medical information, and answer any questions or concerns from parents/ guardians.
If you have a music student going on the trip, please plan on attending this meeting.
Doug Bennett from Bennett Student Travel will be in attendance at the meeting to help answer any questions or address any concerns. Our school nurse, Ceil Thurber also plans to be in attendance to answer any medical questions or address any concerns. Mrs. Thurber will be with us on the trip to Virginia Beach.

Lion's Club All-State Band: Congratulations to Sam and Bailey!

Congratulations to Bailey Conkey '17 and Samantha Jacobson '16 for being selected to perform with the Lion's Club All-State Band.

Each year, a handful of GHS band students receive nominations for the Lion's All-State Band. 

Sam on trombone and Bailey on tenor sax will be making their first appearance with the Lion's Band in May.

Thank you to the Grafton Lion's and the GHS Music boosters for sponsoring our two talented musicians.