Sunday, December 16, 2007

Winter Concert 2007

I am very proud of everyone's performance on the recent concert. The level of performance was the best that I have heard in my three years here at Mather. I admire your dedication, focus and commitment. I am most pleased by the turnout of students. We had over 95 percent attendance by our Mather Musicians.

I am also happy to hear from folks in the crowd that our students were generally a good audience. As you know, it is very important for us to support our colleagues by not only attending their performances, but also by listening while they play.

We have two more performances this year. Now that you have some experience performing in a large group, I am looking forward to your hard work and hearing even more improvement when we return from winter break!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Mariachi Club

Hey Everyone

Why not try the Mariachi Club? We meet in room 301 on Wednesdays after school. No experience necessary, but we're looking for guitarists, violinists, violists, bassists, vocalists, keyboard players and trumpeters.

Have fun and learn, sing and play some Mariachi style music.

Monday, September 10, 2007

What do you think of orchestra so far?

So beginners? What do you think of orchestra so far? I know we barely can make a note on our instruments, but... any comments. Good or bad!


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All City Performing Ensembles

Here is a great opportunity for our Mather High School Musicians and Dancers.

The Chicago Public Schools have all city performing ensembles. There is a High School Band, Orchestra, Chorus and Dance Ensemble.

In the performing groups, each student will get to play in the ensemble and receive a private lesson on their instrument every week!!!

The All-City Choir will rehearse every Tuesday from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Building downtown.
The All-City Band will rehearse every Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Merit School of Music (very near downtown).
The All-City Orchestra will rehearse every Saturday from 9:00-12:00 at Jones College Prep in the South Loop
The All-City Dance Ensemble will rehearse every Saturday from 9:00-12:00 at Gallery 37 downtown.

This is an awesome opportunity for you. You get to meet students from all across the city, have fun, perform together and... its all free!!

Auditions are coming up at the end of September.


Come to see Mr. Smith if you are interested in learning more about this opportunity.

Free Music Downtown

Hey All-

Why not check out some great music downtown? Saturday October 13th at Symphony Center.

Symphony Center is on Michigan Avenue directly across the street from the Art Institute.

There will be all sorts of free stuff going on. Branford Marsalis, Ella Jenkins, Latin Jazz and more.

Click here for more info.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Welcome to the Mather Music Blog

Hey Everyone

This is the new Mather Music Department Blog!

We'll use this blog to communicate with each other throughout the year. Hopefully we can keep it current and useful to all. Subscribe now! If you're looking at this from school, some of the youtube stuff won't work, but I'm trying to move everything over to TeacherTube!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

What does Mr. Smith mean when he tells us to subscribe to the blog.

Well...



Many of you know this already, but the cool new technology on the internet has to do with RSS feeds. This is what that orange icon to the left is all about.

First, you need to sign up with a news aggrigator or reader. Don't worry, its free. These can be things like my yahoo or igoogle. I use igoogle. Then, every time you see a website with this icon (they are all over) you can either click the icon or copy the address from the top of the page and post it in your reader.

Once you do that, every time there is something new on the site or blog or whatever, it will be automatically sent to you! You don't have to go around checking a million sites to see if there is anything new out there.

If you subscribe to this blog, every time there is a new post, it will be sent to you. If you subscribe to the wiki (www.mathermusic.pbwiki.com) everytime there is something there you will get it. Get it?

Thursday, July 12, 2007

So you're in Beginning Orchestra...

Welcome to Beginning Orchestra-

So you've never played an instument. Maybe you took clarinet for one year in 5th grade. Maybe you signed up for guitar and got put in orchestra. Maybe your counselor stuck you in orchestra to meet your music requirement.

Don't worry.

I will teach you how to play and instrument, and we will HAVE FUN doing it. It doesn't matter if you have any experience at all!. All I ask is that you give me a good effort during class and I promise you will have the hang of it in no time. Learning an instrument takes time, but we'll see each other every day and work at it.

Everyone in the class will perform! Yes that's right. I hope to have three concerts this year. Our class will perform as a group on stage.

There will be lots of other opportunities. Last year, we played for the teachers at the Holiday Breakfast, we took a trip down to the Chicago Hilton and played for the CPS awards dinner, played at Shurz High School and more.

The first thing that we are going to do is choose instruments. I will show you the violin, viola cello and bass. Each instrument has its advantages and disadvantages. Some of you will be drawn to the sound of a particular instrument, while others will have to work a while for the sound to grow on you.

I am looking forward to getting to know you and hearing your comments and reactions on this blog. Let me know what you think about things. I will be posting different subjects for us to talk about.


Mr. Smith

Mather Chamber Group Plays Brandenburg

D scale backing track for beginning orchestra

Mather Orchestra CPS Orchestra Contest 2012

CPS Band and Orchestra Contest 2012

Romanza Rumba

Mather Orchestra at Solo and Ensemble Contest

Pictures from 2012 Solo and Ensemble Contest

Winter 2012 Pics

Mr. Berg's Guitars

Mather Band 2012 Winter Concert

Mather Quintet 2011

Winter Concert 2011

Mather Trio Performs at Symphony Center

Same piece at the Spring Concert

Send an email to Mr. Smith

Check out the Mather Trio and the Advanced Orchestra in the Spring Concert 2010

Click Here

Here's the beginning orchestra from the Spring Concert

Click Here

New Videos from the Mather Guitars

Click here

Watch all of the clips from our Winter Concert

Here

MatherMusic YouTube channel

Pics from 2010

Check out Mather Quintet playing at Orchestra Hall

Pictures from 2008

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