Band Awards Night
Director's Award - Bernie McNamee, Marisa Shultz, Alex Cain
Satchmo Award - Daniel Raifsnider
Outstanding Musician in Wind Ensemble - All band members
Outstanding Musician in Concert Band - All band members
Outstanding Musician in Jazz Band - All band members

Congratulations to everyone on a fantastic year!

Music in the Parks
This year the CMS Music Department attended Music in the Parks held at Hershey Park, PA. Our Wind Ensemble placed 1st with a superior rating and received the Best Overall Junior High/Middle School Concert Band Award. Our Jazz Band placed 1st with a superior rating and received the Best Overall Junior High/Middle School Jazz Band Award. Chun Mun Loke also won the Best Accompanist Award.

Our Orchestra placed 1st with a superior rating and received the Best Overall Junior/Middle School Orchestra Award. Our Choir placed 3rd with an excellent rating. All of these groups had outstanding performances and worked very hard for this event.

Congratulations to the CMS Music Department on outstanding performances by our Choir, Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, and Jazz Band. Thanks to all our parents that chaperoned this ALL day event!

State Middle School Band Festival
CONGRATULATIONS TO MR. SMITH AND OUR CMS WIND ENSEMBLE!!! Our Wind Ensemble received overall superior ratings (I) for our stage performance and sight reading from all 4 judges. The judges felt that our Wind Ensemble plays well and is musically mature, shows good discipline, and played a very challenging program.

Middle School Band Adjudication
Our Concert Band performed at the 2009 Howard County Middle School Band Adjudication held at River Hill High School. The judges provided comments on tone, intonation, technique, balance, interpretation, and musical effect. In general the judges felt it was a great program and excellent performance - "Keep up the good work!" and "it was my pleasure to hear you perform." Congratulations Concert Band on a fine performance!

Midwest Clinic
Our Wind Ensemble has accepted an invitation to perform at the 63rd Midwest Clinic in Chicago Illinois. Being invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic is recognition of CMS's musical excellence throughout the educational and professional world. CMS will be the first Howard County band and the first Maryland middle school to perform at this event in its history.

Congratulations Mr. Smith and the Wind Ensemble on reaching such a high achievement!!!

The District XIII Middle School Band Assessment
Our Wind Ensemble received an overall Superior rating. They received the highest rating (I) from all three judges for the stage performance and received a "I" for sight reading. The performance was outstanding and enjoyed by everyone in attendance.

CONGRATULATIONS WIND ENSEMBLE and Mr. Smith! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF YOUR ACHIEVEMENT!

Maryland Jazz Conference
Our Jazz Band attended the 2009 Maryland Jazz Conference held at Towson University. The Conference featured the Maryland All State Jazz Band and performance clinics for participating school jazz bands and combos.

Our clinician Mr. Jim McFalls is on the faculty of the Jazz & Commercial Music Studies Division at Towson University. He is also the head faculty of the annual Mason/Dixon Summer Jazz Camp at Gettysburg College and is currently serving as President of the MD Unit of IAJE. As well as guest conducting county, district, and all-state level jazz ensembles throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, Mr. McFalls also appears at high schools and colleges nationwide as a Buffet Crampon/Antoine Courtios performer and clinician.

The Jazz Band spent an hour with Mr. McFalls where they received instruction on the music they are playing. Mr. McFalls even performed B Flat Blues with the group, which you can be heard under "Listen to Us". Thank you Mr. McFalls for your feedback and time.

Honors Band
Congratulations to Alex Cain, Julia Hiep, Kristen Li, Adam Miller, Youliang Pan, and Steven Wolf for being selected to the first ever Howard County Honors Band.

The Washington Archdiocesan Music Teacher's Council Band Festival
Congratulations to the Wind Ensemble who received superior ratings (I's) from all the three judges on the adjudicated performance and a superior rating (I) in sight reading. Of the 16 performances, CMS is one of only two middle schools at the festival, all other performances were from high school bands.

Maryland Junior All State Band
Congratulations to Bernie McNamee for being selected to the Maryland Junior All State Band!

CMS Jazz Band Members

Alto Saxes: David Suggs, James Donker
Tenor Saxes: Dominic Costabile, Jack Dannelly
Baritone Sax: Brandon Dial
Trumpets: David Wang, Alex Cain, Kevin Xu, Everest Liu, Joseph Lee, Matt Gross
Trombones: Steven Wolf, Nathan Raifsnider, Julia Hiep, Eric Greenlee, David London, Bernie McNamee, Patrick McNamee
French Horn: Joey Haavik
Piano: Noah Scholl, Chun-Mun Loke (Alternate)
Guitar: Karan Sinha, Daniel Raifsnider,
Joseph Hiep (Alternate)
Bass: Shrawan Sinah, Sameena Bajwa (Alternate)
Drums: Eliott Yozwiak, Adam Miller, Taariq Mohammed

Howard County GT Band Members
Sameena Bajwa, Joey Haavik, Erica Kocher, Allyson Luo, Bernie McNamee, Patrick McNamee, Noah Scholl, Elliott Yozwiak, Brian Zhu, and alternates Julia Hiep, Kristen Li, Youliang Pan, and Steven Wolf.

Last Modified June 1, 2009