Falcon News

National History Day Awards


	May 14	Moe's night - 7th grade
	May 14, 26, 21, 24	ePep (ePersonal Education Planner) - 8th grade
	May 14-18	7th grade permission slips due
	May 15	Sudler Cup/Spring Band Concert - 7:00 SFC Performing Arts Bldg. (see below)
	May 15-16	Algebra EOC testing
	May 17	PTA Fun Day

Fort Clarke Band to Celebrate National Award with Concert

symphonic_band

     The Fort Clarke Middle School Band will celebrate winning a prestigious national award by doing just what it did to earn the award in the first place - make great music.
     The band will be performing a special free concert later this month at the Santa Fe College Fine Arts Hall to mark the winning of the Sudler Cup. The Cup is sponsored by the John Philip Sousa Foundation, a non-profit organization that seeks to promote international understanding through band music.
     The Cup is awarded to middle school bands with a long history of excellence. Ft. Clarke is the only Florida band to win the award in the last 25 years. Only four bands nationwide are receiving the Cup this year.
     This award is a tribute to all the students who have passed through the Ft. Clarke band program over the last 14 years,” said W. Everett McConn, the band’s director. “Their hard work and dedication is the reason this band consistently achieves excellence.”
     The Ft. Clark Band was invited to apply for the award after earning top honors at the Grand National Adjudicators Invitational Middle School Band Festival in 2011. The application included judges’ sheets, band programs, festival results and other documentation of seven years of outstanding performance. The band also had to submit three years’ worth of repertoire lists and a recording from the last two years.
     The monumental task of pulling all the material together was done by band parents Kelly Langston and Gabriela Hebin. McConn says their support and that of hundreds of parents throughout the years has been critical to the band’s success.
     We could not do what we do without the support, year in and year out, of our parents,” he said. “They are willing to participate in their child’s education by providing instruments, transportation, uniforms, time and support in many other ways as well.”
     The band’s upcoming Sudler Cup Presentation Concert at Santa Fe College will include selections from three percussion ensembles and performances by the beginning, concert and symphonic bands. It will be held on Tuesday, May 15 and is set to begin at 7 p.m.