Current Schedule

We had another excellent week of work and preparations and an outstanding Friday and Saturday at the State Solo & Ensemble Contest at CWU. The Symphonic Band, Marching Band, and Color Guard continue to prepare for their upcoming performances and are making great progress, while the Addams Family Pit Orchestra had a busy Tech-Week in preparing for their 6 BIG performances of the musical coming-up THIS WEEK!

The highlight of the week was the terrific performances by our Sumner HS Band Program students in the Washington State Solo-Ensemble Contest held at Central Washington University, with the Ensembles going on Friday and the Solos on Saturday. The students involved come from all over the state and are “the best of the best” in a number of different categories. All of the entrants were judged as the best in their different Regional Contests held earlier in the year (our students participated in the regional Solo-Ensemble Contest in early February) as a qualifier for the State Contest. These students and groups not only received a I rating but were judged as the best in their Region, which is quite an accomplishment, especially in our very competitive Valley Region.

On Friday morning, the Sumner HS Sax Quartet performed, with Emerson Blumenstein, Mitchell Goff, Nyiah Hartley, and Aiden Hatcher receiving an overall I rating from the 3 adjudicators. Once all of the morning events finished and after the totaling-up of scores, the top 3 ensembles in each category were awarded a trophy for their achievement, and our quartet earned the 3rd-PLACE TROPHY! Congratulations to all of them for their success!

Saturday brought 3 more State Solo Contest performances:

• Aiden Hatcher led things off with an overall II rating in his Clarinet Solo
• Makayl Snachez also performed his Timpani Solo and received an overall II rating
• Aiden Hatcher performed at the State Contest for his 3rd performance over the 2 days (he also performed in the State Solo Contest last year) with his Tenor Sax Solo and when the scores were announced he received an overall I score and the 2nd PLACE AWARD (top-3 places in the solo category earn a special medal for their achievement, as you can see from the attached photo of Aiden at CWU Saturday)

All of these students did a great job and not only represented themselves very well, but were great representatives of our Band Program, our School and our District. We are very proud of their efforts and everyone will get a chance to see and hear excerpts of their award-winning performances at the Spring Sumner HS Spring Collage/Marching Band Concert on Thursday June 5th in the Sumner PAC.

We move on to another week of busy activities, with this week shifting over to the Addams Family Musical and 6 performances by the 21 students in the Musical Pit Orchestra (all of the performances will be in the Sumner PAC):

• Wednesday April 30th Opening Night - 7:00PM
• Thursday May 1st - 7:00PM
• Friday May 2nd - 7:00PM
• Saturday May 3rd - 2:00PM and 7:00PM
• Sunday May 4th - 2:00PM

These students (and the entire cast and crew) have worked incredibly hard on some very challenging music and I hope they’ll be looking at sellout audiences during the 5-day run of the show. I hope that you’ll attend and support them (the poster is attached)

May is going to be one of our busiest months of the school-year, as we continue to work on culminating performances by all of our groups as well as starting to look ahead to 2025-26. Here’s a list of some important dates to remember in May 2025:

• The initial 2025-26 Sumner HS Band Program Student and Parent Meeting coming-up on TUESDAY MAY 6TH AT 7:00PM in the Sumner HS Band Room. We will talk about next year’s Sumner HS Band Program and also give information on the ‘25-26 Jazz Ensemble and Color Guard Tryouts
• We return to Wednesday afternoon Marching Band & Color Guard rehearsals on May 7th and 14th as we prepare for the Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival Parade on SATURDAY MAY 17TH
• We’ll perform at Stafford Suites “Senior Prom” with both of our Jazz Ensembles the evening of FRIDAY MAY 9TH
• Both Jazz groups will also be performing at the CWU John Moawad Jazz Festival in Ellensburg at CWU SATURDAY MAY 10TH
• 2025-26 Sumner HS Jazz Ensemble Tryouts will be held in 10-minute intervals after-school on MONDAY MAY 12TH, TUESDAY MAY 13TH, THURSDAY MAY 15TH, AND FRIDAY MAY 16TH (the tryout information will be given at the Tuesday May 6th Student and Parent Meeting)
• 2025-26 Sumner HS Drum Major Tryouts are starting in May - the dates are:
• TUESDAY MAY 13TH
• THURSDAY MAY 15TH
• TUESDAY MAY 20TH
• TUESDAY MAY 27TH
• THURSDAY MAY 29TH
  Times will be from 2:45-3:30PM each day and will be in the Band Room. The new 2025-26 Sumner HS Drum Majors will be announced at the MONDAY JUNE 9TH Awards Night Dinner at the Phase 1 Commons
• 2025-26 Sumner HS Drumline Tryouts will be on TUESDAY MAY 20TH at 6:00PM with information also given out at the MONDAY MAY 6TH Student & Parent Meeting
• The Music in May Honor Band and Orchestra will involve 10 of our Band Program students THURSDAY MAY 22ND-SATURDAY MAY 24TH at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR

There will be other events as well coming-up, but these are the main dates to remember and make sure if you have any concerns or conflicts please let us know ASAP. Take care of yourself health-wise and make sure you’re ready-to-go every day. So, here we go with our upcoming 2-week Sumner HS Band Program schedule:

Schedule for THIS WEEK: