Dear HCHS band and orchestra students,
Welcome to a new school year!
I am excited to get to make music with you this year. I hope you are enjoying these beautiful summer days.
Here are some opportunities and important information. Let me know if you have any questions.
1. Help Needed: We are looking for student volunteers for a folder-filling party on Thursday, Aug. 14 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. We would love to have you join us. There will be ice cream and a chance to get a sneak peak at what we are playing this year. Reply to this email if you can join us for all or part of the time.
2. Retreat: We are looking forward to Friday, October 10 (evening) and Saturday, October 11 (morning) at Camp Geneva for our band/orchestra retreat. Plug this into your calendars. It is a fun time for good food and hanging out--you won't want to miss it! We can be flexible so that we can include kids who have other activities and practices going on those days.
3. Spring Break: It is a Florida trip year! We will hold a parent information meeting about the Florida trip on Thursday, September 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the HCHS auditorium. This will be a great chance to find out more about our trip to perform on a concert stage at Disney World. We hope to see you there!
Below is information that was sent out in the spring:
The Florida trip is for our concert band, concert orchestra, symphonic band, and symphonic orchestra. We will hang out in the parks, perform on the Disney World concert stage, and take part in a fun workshop.
We are planning on departing Holland on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, and wrapping up our trip with a worship service on Sunday, April 5, 2026. Our return trip will arrive back in Holland on Monday, April 6, 2026. Some families travel to Florida and have their children stay with them at the end of the trip rather than ride the charter bus back to Holland, Mich. We have lots more info to come and the trip is fun. It isn't required, but thought it might be nice to pencil in the date on your calendars.
Two additional notes for the 2026 Florida trip:
-Holland Christian's official spring break begins on Friday, April 3. Students will be excused for the 1st and 2nd of April.
-Since this is also Holy Week we will be observing Good Friday with a time of worship Friday evening as a band and orchestra and also celebrating Easter with an Orlando congregation. Families are welcome to join us. If parents would like to pick up their children before church on Sunday and attend another church that is also a possibility.
4. Honors Music Classes: 10th-12th grade students are eligible for this year to have participation in symphonic band or symphonic orchestra become a credit for Honors Symphonic Band or Honors Orchestra. This would show up as an honors course on your transcript and be counted as an honors course for your grade point average. You would continue to be a member of the same class that you signed up for, but would have the opportunity to engage music more deeply and have it show up on your transcript. Many of you were already participating in the things that would make you eligible for honors distinction. Check out the information here on how to make this happen.
5. Band/Orchestra Blog: Throughout the year I will post important band and orchestra information for this school year at this location: http://vandenbergnotes.blogspot.com/. It would be a good idea to bookmark this page. I will always send you an email when I update the blog with new information. I posted all of the information from this email on the blog.
6. Calendar: On the right side of my blog page is a link to the band and orchestra calendar if you want a sneak peak of instrumental music events for this year. Just click on the View the Band and Orchestra Calendar button. Did you know you can subscribe to this calendar and events will show up in your google calendar? We will also have a listing of events for each of the individual groups ready for you in the next couple weeks. https://hollandchristian.org/arts/band-orchestra/
7. Instruments: It wouldn't hurt to get your instrument out in the next couple weeks to make sure the instrument still works and to get yourself back in shape for music making.
I am looking forward to seeing you!
Mr. VB
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 | Scott Vanden Berg | Director of Instrumental Music Holland Christian High School 950 Ottawa Ave, Holland, MI 49423 school: 616.820.2805 cell: 616.212.8867
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