North Pole Band

Greetings, families!

My name is Dr. Michael McConnell, and I am the band director at North Pole High School. I was excited to meet the 2023-2024 edition of the NPHS Wind Ensemble last Friday, and I can already tell that it’s going to be a fantastic year for the band!

This week the band will begin preparing for our first football game performance, which takes place at North Pole High School this Friday, August 25th at 7:00 PM. Performance itineraries will be sent out by Tuesday afternoon. I will hand them out to students and email them home on the same day.

This week we will also begin working on our concert program for the first NPHS Band Concert, which takes place in NPHS’s Oehring Auditorium on Tuesday, October 17th at 7:00 PM. Please mark your calendars. It’s going to be a great concert!

In addition to preparing for these early season performances, our students will also be given All-State audition excerpts in class tomorrow. This year’s All-State auditions are due by Wednesday, September 20th. All students will be asked to prepare their all-state audition excerpts through weekly Google Classroom videos. Submitting an audition for the contest is optional (although highly encouraged).

Your students will be bringing home a few different forms this week. If you intend to rent an instrument from the high school this year, there is an Instrument Loan Agreement that must be signed before it can be checked out. Instrument Loan Agreement forms were passed out last Friday in class. There is a $15 fee per semester to rent a band instrument from the high school. These fees can be paid by cash, check, or by applying the fee to your student’s account in PowerSchool.

This week I will be sending home two more flyers. The first is a Band Supply List: a list of the essential items that every high school band students should own, which are not provided by the school. The next is a private lesson enrollment form. Please look out for these forms. Your feedback is extremely valuable to helping us get off to a great start this year!

If you have a moment, please take a look at our new North Pole Bands website at www.northpolebands.org. The website is still very much under construction. Here you will find important information pertaining to the band, including all concert dates for the 2023-2024 academic year. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes,

Dr. Michael McConnell
Director of Bands
North Pole High School
michael.mcconnell@k12northstar.org
www.northpolebands.org (new and under construction)