Just a Few Notes

7th Grade and US Chorus to travel to SCISA Choral Clinic

Mr. Berry — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 17:51:47 +0000

Members of our 7th grade and upper school chorus will be traveling to the University of South Carolina on Thursday, October 20th for the SCISA Choral Clinic. They will have the chance to sing with other SCISA students from across the state in a large middle and upper school choir and work with a collegiate level conductor. What a great opportunity for our choral students!

HHCA Jazz Combo to Perform @ Marriott / Jazz Corner

Mr. Berry — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:58:58 +0000

Later this fall on November 17th and 19th, select jazz students will be performing at the Marriott Oceanfront Resort and Jazz Corner on Hilton Head Island for two fundraisers. These two fundraisers benefit the non-profit Volunteers in Medicine and Junior Jazz Foundation. The JJF has been instrumental in providing our music program with additional funds and sponsoring the summer Hilton Head Jazz Camp, directed by Mr. Berry. More information will be given as they dates approach, but stop and listen to some wonderful jazz right before Thanksgiving from our talented HHCA students.

US Praise Team Ready for Retreat

Mr. Berry — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:07:00 +0000

Our dedicated upper school praise team is preparing this week to assist in leading three days of awesome worship at the upper school retreat, held at the White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro, SC. Along with praise team members Mary Meghan Burke, Brennan Clark, Michael Green, Caleb Lewis and Rachel Wade, guest worship leaders Eric Abney and Forrest Bowen (from Lowcountry Community Church) will be assisting us in some terrific worship. Guest appearances may also be made by alumni Sergio Rojas and Drew Lewis. Look for some great new tunes to emerge from this three day retreat along with powerful testimony from our speaker Sam Bhatt. It should be a wonderful three days of worship and praise!

PEP Band Tonight – GO EAGLES!

Mr. Berry — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:57:09 +0000

We are already at our first home football game tonight (Friday, August 19th) and I’m excited to have our pep band and drum line get our team and fans pumped up! For this first game, I would just like to have all 6th-12th grade band members play for this first home game.

As usual, we will have a 5:30pm call for the football game in the band room with pizza and soda offered. Please pre-pay for your slices by 3pm today. The costs are the following:

$4 – 2 slices + drink

$5 – 3 slices + drink

Any additional slices are $1 extra

I’m excited to support our Varsity football Eagles! Get pumped with the our Eagles Fight Song below:
Eagles Fight Song 2011 by hhcamusic
Lyrics:

Hail! To the soaring Eagles

Hail! To the conqu’ring heroes

Hail! Hail! To Blue and Gold

We’ve got the victory!

Hail! To the soaring Eagles

Hail! To the conqu’ring heroes

Hail! Hail! Academy

The champs of ole S.C.!!

Drum beat…. Go Eagles!!

H—H—C—A!!!

H-H-C-A!!

Gooooooo EAGLES!!!!

HHCA Jazz Students in the Packet

Mr. Berry — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 14:09:01 +0000

This summer, I had the privilege of working with some of our fine jazz students, community volunteers and the Junior Jazz Foundation with the first ever Hilton Head Jazz Camp 2011. This week-long camp met for 3 hours a day and worked on jazz improvisation, technique and learning some of the great standards. We were featured with the article below in the Island Packet:

The jazz ensemble split in two to work on the arrangement for Herbie Hancock’s jazz standard “Cantaloupe Island.” It’s a complex arrangement, but toward the end of rehearsal, the rhythm section was close to having its funky beat down. Not bad for middle schoolers.

Last week was jazz camp at Hilton Head Christian Academy. About a dozen students brought their instruments to the school each morning to learn and play jazz, even getting to practice with some local jazz legends.

The week served as a pivotal moment for the academy’s young jazz program, as well as The Jazz Corner’s Junior Jazz Foundation that sponsored the camp.

” I love the idea of a summer jazz camp on the island,” said Bob Masteller, owner of The Jazz Corner on Hilton Head and a founder of Junior Jazz. “I think there’ll be a base of interest among students. We find that more and more they just aren’t exposed to jazz. Not all take to it, but a lot of them do.”

Junior Jazz was started five years ago to foster a love for the music in local schools. The foundation has hosted workshops, donated instruments and funded student trips to jazz camps elsewhere. Masteller had thought a camp could work on Hilton Head. But it wasn’t until Hilton Head Christian’s music director, James Berry, got involved that it became a reality.

Welcome Back!

Mr. Berry — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:19:57 +0000

Welcome back to HHCA for the 2011-12 school year and another terrific year in the music department! This is our official HHCA Music Blog, which will contain the most up-to-date information about everything going on the music department. Students may upload their practicing or playing tests by clicking the ‘Send us Your Sounds’ button on the right side, or view this blog by ensemble to find out what is going on specific to your child. Subscribe to the RSS feed of this blog to stay the most up-to-date on everything HHCA Music.

Our performance calendar will also be included on the right side of this blog as well for your reference. I always love returning to school in the fall to work with our students. They are such a joy to have in class and watching them grow musically over the years is one of the many blessings of being their music teacher from year to year. I am the most prompt at returning any communication through e-mail, but call or e-mail anytime for any questions that you may have. Let’s work together to make this the best year ever in the HHCA Music Department!

- Mr. James Berry, Music Director

jberry@hhca.org