Category Archives: Leadership Notes

Music Director, Scott Souza

CONCERT BAND
This first-level wind band draws experienced music students, primarily freshmen who studied at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate, Stanley Middle or other middle schools, but also older students who will benefit from the experience.

SYMPHONIC BAND
The advanced symphonic band includes winds, brass and percussion instrumentalists, primarily sophomores, juniors and seniors, although incoming freshmen may audition in the spring.  This band plays high school and college level repertoire.

ORCHESTRA
Campolindo’s string orchestra includes freshmen through seniors and performs high school and college level repertoire.  Some repertoire, such as Beethoven’s symphonies, are performed with brass, wind and percussion musicians drawn from the symphonic band.

JAZZ BAND
Entrance to Jazz Band is by audition only.  In addition to concerts and competitions, the jazz band also performs at the annual Jazz Dinner Dance. For this year’s Jazz Dinner Dance information, click the Concert Dates tab.

MUSIC THEORY
This advanced placement course is open to any sophomore, junior or senior interested in music.  It includes basic music theory and composing.

CONCERTS, MUSICALS, TOURS
Campolindo’s musicians perform at Campolindo’s Performing Arts Center (CPAC) for all concerts and in the orchestra pit for the spring musical.

AUDITIONING for incoming freshmen students
Depending on the individual skill level, an 8th grade band student may want to join the Symphonic and Jazz Band right away. In that case, contact Mr. Johnson for an audition. Auditions are held in the spring and by appointment only.

THE CAMPOLINDO MUSIC BOOSTERS is the parent organization responsible for supporting Campo’s Instrumental Music program.  Membership dues and donations are used to help enrich the instrumental music program.  For more information, click the About Us tab.

Every year, I marvel at Mr. Johnson’s ability to put together such a great program in such a short period of time. Our Campolindo Instrument Music Program continues to thrive and grow, thanks to all of you, Music Boosters and MEF supporters. The time and support you give the program are what keeps Campo’s tradition of music alive, especially now. We are grateful to those Instrumental Music families who have already donated and encourage those families who have not yet done so to please donate through the Campo Web Store. We are hoping for 100% participation.

By Johnny Johnson, Music Director

We’re playing! After lots of tech set up and troubleshooting, everyone is now up and running in our online music platforms: SmartMusic and MusicFirst. We’re so grateful to AUHSD for paying for a district-wide subscription to the MusicFirst platform for all eight vocal and instrumental music programs as well as a premium subscription to SmartMusic for every instrumental music student in the district.

MusicFirst is a rich online environment that we’ve just begun to explore, with ready-made lessons in technique development, instrument care and maintenance, basic music theory, basic composition, ear training, sight reading, and improvisation.

The SmartMusic platform allows us all to play “together” (each student playing at home along with an accompaniment recording) and with their premium subscription, students can freely roam the site for solo repertoire and chamber music selections as well as exercises at all levels of difficulty.

For now, Symphonic Band and Concert Band have concentrated our efforts on these two platforms, while the Orchestra has begun on the other end of the spectrum with a recording project for the full group. Eventually, we will all have worked in each of the areas of focus in this distance learning environment: technique development, a solo project, a chamber music project, and a large group recording project. Whew! That’s ambitious. But better to strive and not quite make it than to slide into complacency and disconnection.

A special-shout out to the students on our Instrumental Music Council for really stepping up to plan new activities this year. We’re going to let them tell you about a few of them.

New Student-Run Website
By Amrita Malhotra, Co-Vice President (Band)

We’ve been developing a new Campo Instrumental Music website which can be accessed by both music students and parents. On the site, there are important updates about the program, resources for every instrument, a place for students to share music and form chamber groups with each other, information about Campo music service clubs and local youth bands/orchestras, and more. There is also a page for our music tutors who will soon be giving lessons to elementary/middle schoolers (see more below). The link to the website is campoinstrumentalmusic.org.

Campo Students to Offer Tutoring to Younger Musicians
By Julianna Meneses, Co-President (Orchestra)

Through Zoom and/or Google Hangouts, we would like to provide free music lessons to elementary and middle school music students in the Lamorinda area. We have a group of volunteers who are happy to teach and eager to share the gift of music. You can meet each one of them on our website at campoinstrumentalmusic.org. At the very bottom of the page, there’s an easy form to fill out and sign up for a lesson.

New Buddy System
By Connor Johnson, Co-President (Band)

We’ve begun to pioneer a new buddy system between our new music students and experienced veterans. During Covid we know it’s hard for kids to get that social contact with their colleagues within our music program, so starting this year, each freshman and new student will be paired up with an older buddy as a sort of mentor for Campo music. These buddies won’t necessarily be coordinated by instrument, as the goal of the buddy system is more to familiarize the younger buddies with the mechanics of music at Campo. Each younger buddy will fill out a short survey bio, in which the upperclassmen will be able to pick their buddy from. However, this will not be anything that is required to happen during school, because there are many more upperclassmen than new students. This will be our first big step towards building a better community within our program during distance learning.

The Campolindo Orchestra has been accepted as a participant in the Chicago International Music Festival run by World Projects – one of four high schools and two universities accepted into the festival. More information here. The dates of the festival are March 24-28, 2016, just about a year away. Many steps must be taken between now and then but we are proceeding with our eyes on the prize! Our first benchmark will be a Letter of Intent and a deposit from each student. The likely due date will be June 1. Look for that to be distributed soon.

More from Mr. Johnson          Invitation Letter from Chicago Int’l Music Festival

** View the Performance Review Calendar Page here.

Check out the new menu tab Community Events. These events can be used for Performance Reviews.