December Concert Info

December Concert Info:

Hello Parents and Students,

Here is all of the information needed in regard to our upcoming concerts in December. Both are sure to be fantastic community events so please invite friends and family to come and hear the Grant choirs. The Westminster Presbyterian concert will feature all four choirs as well as a guest performance from Lane Middle School. Grantasia! is an all school extravaganza featuring Choir, Band, Dance, Guitar, Film, and Visual Arts. Have a great Holiday Season - hope to see you at the shows!

Westminster Presbyterian:

Date: Wednesday, December 9th

Location: Westminster Presbyterian, 1642 NE Hancock St

Call Time: 4:30pm

Concert: 7:00pm

Admission: Free to public with suggested $5 donation per person

Other Info: The call time is 4:30 because that will be the only time we will have for a dress

     rehearsal. Students will be released at 5:45 for a dinner break. There are many

     restaurants and eating options just blocks away on Broadway. Or, students are

     encouraged to bring food with them. Students will be responsible for collecting their

     concert attire at school and bringing it to and from the concert. The program should

     last no more than an hour and a half.

Grantasia!:

Dates: Monday, December 14th - all day in school field trip. Report to Choir room at 8:15.

Tuesday, December 15th - Dress Rehearsal. 3:30pm to 6:30pm in auditorium.

Thursday, December 17th - Performance. 5:30pm call time.

Concert Info:   6:00pm Art Gallery/Informal Performances

7:00pm Concert

Admission: $10 per person. Tickets sold at the door and two weeks prior to the show in the  

      bookkeeper's office.

Other Info: Grantasia! is the largest collaboration between all of the visual and performing arts

      programs at Grant. It historically attracts a full house so be sure to purchase tickets   

      in advance and arrive early. The runtime for the show is approximately two hours.

Thank you for your support of the Grant Performing Arts! If you have any questions  or would like to know how you can help by volunteering, please feel free to contact John Eisemann at jeisemann@pps.net. Have a great Holiday Season!

Fall Concert Schedule/Updates

It's hard to believe it but the Fall concert is just over a week away. With 9 days to go there are a ton of moving pieces that need to fall into place and a lot of details to go over. Below is the calendar for each choir, uniform updates, and volunteer opportunities. As always, if anyone has questions please feel free to contact me at anytime - jeisemann@pps.net

Calendar:
WE = Women's Ensemble
ME = Men's Ensemble
RB = Royal Blues
AC = A Cappella

Please note the changes to the dress rehearsal time and the extra AC/RB rehearsal on 10/13.

10/7: WE, RB - regular class
10/8: ME, AC - regular class
10/9: NO SCHOOL - practice your music!
10/10: Weekend - listen/practice to your music.
10/11: Weekend - PRACTICE!
10/12: WE, RB - regular class, risers move to auditorium
10/13: ME, AC - regular class meet in auditorium. AC/RB extra rehearsal 6pm-8pm
10/14: PSAT Day - no regular classes. 12:30pm - 3:30pm Dress Rehearsal
10/15: ME, AC - regular class, meet in auditorium. 6pm Call, 7pm Concert!
10/16: Begin Grantasia Rep!

Concert Dress:
Men's Ensemble - Our bow ties and cummerbunds have arrived! You will not be wearing robes at the concert, instead you'll have all black from the waist down and a white collared shirt. The shirt does not need to be a tuxedo shirt, just a plain white button up. If finding a shirt is an issue please let me know and I'll do my best to outfit your student from the costume room. Bow ties and cummerbunds will be provided at call time.

All Choirs - Concert Dress is all black from the waist down with no skin showing. Dress pants/slacks/skirt/socks/tights/shoes are required. Please, no high heels and no open toed shoes. Robes will be provided at call time. A Cappella/Women's Ensemble - please DO NOT wear a collared shirt, they will stick out above the robe.

Concert Night:
The concert is technically free to all staff, students, parents, family members and the community. We will ask for a suggested donation of $5 per person at the door. Your contributions of $5 or more at concerts make up more than three quarters of the budget that funds the choir program throughout the year.

Call Time/Volunteers:
Call time for students is 6pm in the choir room, in dress. The concert begins at 7pm and should conclude by 8:30pm. If you'd like to volunteer to hand out programs and collect donations during the concert please let me know. Volunteers should plan on arriving by 6:15 to set up a table in center hall. If you'd like to volunteer please contact Mr. Eisemann.

Thank you so much students and families for making the vocal music community here as vibrant and awesome as it is! See you at the show!

A Cappella - Day 2

Check out this video of A Cappella singing Tshotsholoza at the end of class after their second year. Definitely a solid start to what is going to be a great year! Have a great Labor Day Weekend!

Welcome to 2015-16!

Hello and welcome to the 2015-16 GHS Choir season. Here you should be able to find information about upcoming concerts, rehearsals and choir related events. Course Syllabi and a preliminary calendar is going home with students on Monday and Tuesday. You can also follow this LINK to a Google Doc version you can print from home. I've also included my welcome letter beneath. It's shaping up to be a great year so far. The calendar to the left of this post will have all current dates/times and you should be able to link it to whatever calendar system you use. As always, please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.

Hope everyone had a great summer! I look forward to meeting many of you at back to school night.

- John Eisemann

Dear Grant Choir Students & Parents,

Welcome to the 2015-16 Grant Choir Season! I’m very excited to be back at school after a great summer and can’t wait to start making music with all of you. This will be my fourth year at Grant as the Director of Choral Activities which means this year’s seniors I have been their only instructor. Thank you to all of you for your growth, dedication and leadership in the coming year. We have a great year ahead of us and and a lot of really great music to sing.

The Women’s Ensemble has nearly doubled in size and the Men’s Ensemble is growing even larger every day. Both A Cappella and Royal Blues have very strong numbers and a wealth of talent within them. This year will provide a variety of exciting opportunities for all of the vocal ensembles. The Royal Blues are planning on returning to Ashland in the spring for performances at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Men’s and Women’s Ensemble may be performing in a district non-auditioned choir festival as well as traveling to nearby middle schools for outreach performances. The A Cappella Choir, at over 85 singers this year, is slated to sing a benefit concert at Westminster Presbyterian in place of a Grotto performance this year, and potentially host an All PIL Choral Celebration under the baton of a regionally acclaimed director. And don’t worry, Grantasia! is on again for this December 17th and it’s going to be even bigger and better than last year.

The performing arts department would like to welcome a fifth member to our cohort this year, Branic Howard, who has been hired to take over the Audio Engineering program as well as start a beginning guitar ensemble. Both programs look promising from the start and we are all thrilled to be diversifying and expanding our offerings to the Grant student body. Please welcome Branic to the community when you can, he’ll be helping us with our live sound reinforcement at all of the major productions.

I’d like to thank each and every one of you in advance for all of the wonderful support, generosity, and dedication all of you have for the choral program and the performing arts at Grant as a whole. I know it’s going to be a great year and that is significantly because of your involvement. As always, there will be numerous ways for you to get involved throughout the year. If you’d like to volunteer for concerts or chaperone trips such as George Fox University Symposium or to the OSAA State Choir Championship please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. You can always also keep your eyes peeled for one of my Donor’s Choose projects and pass them along to friends and family if you can.

On the back side of this letter there is a list of all of the currently known choir dates for this year. As the year goes on the calendar will fill in a little more and I’ll do my best to keep you updated. I have two students assigned as official bloggers so that my choir blog, grantchoir.blogspot.com, will be much more informative and up to date. If you ever have any questions or concerns for me please don’t hesitate to ask. You can contact me via email jeisemann@pps.net, phone (503) 916-5160 ex 75734, or stop by the choir room at anytime (room 232). I hope everyone had a great summer and is looking forward the year as much as I am. See you at Back to School Night or the Fall Concert!

All my best -

John Eisemann

Thespian Competition Music

Thespians! Here are the .WAV files for your songs. Please download them and be prepared to present them in via iPod or CD at your competition. Good luck! Click HERE