Happy New Year!

Welcome back to school! We hope everyone had a restful and fun holiday break! Here’s the breakdown for January – we have some BIG unexpected news!

January 23rd will be the BAND DAY at BHS! The BYBO usually performs at this event – SO WEE NEED TO GET WORKING ON ONE PIECE for each ensemble so we can be as prepared as possible to play on 1/23!!! Here’s our schedule for January…

• Wed. January 8th – full rehearsal 6-8:30 PM
• Wed. January 15th – sectionals (please see the calendar for details!)
• Wed. January 22nd – full rehearsal BAND will rehearse 5:45 – 7:00 PM; STRINGS will rehearse 7-8:15 PM!
• Thur. January 23rd – BAND DAY – please see your school band director for permission forms! All students from grades 7 & 8 are attending, BUT all BYBO students will be attending – no matter WHAT grade you are in!
• Wed. January 29th – sectionals (please see the calendar for details!)

 

BYBO T-Shirts!

There is an online form which I requested everyone fill out last month, but only 18 people responded so far! Please complete the online size form for your FREE 2025 BYBO T-Shirt. We do not want to have to guess student sizes. All BYBO students will receive a t-shirt which we will also wear for our performances!

 

December Schedule

We are back on Wednesday evenings and December should prove to be an exciting month! We have a rehearsal, a sectional, and TWO concerts!

• Wednesday 12/4 – Rehearsal – report 5:50 PM
• Monday 12/9 – NJCU Concert featuring Lakecia Benjamin! Please report to MCS no later than 5:45 PM!
• Wednesday 12/11 – BHS Winter Concert! Concert starts at 6:30 PM – all students report to BHS and should be picked up by parents from BHS!
• Wednesday 12/18 – NO SECTIONALS! UPDATE 12/13!!! We will NOT be meeting on Wednesday 12/18! Please make sure you are up to date. We are cancelling this meeting due to numerous school winter concerts and an issue with Midtown’s concert for 12/19 – all equipment is on stage and we will not be able to access the stage on the evening of 12/18.

BYBO Calendar & Student Resources

All parents and students should be aware of our Calendar page and widget on our homepage. Please refer to this schedule each month for updates! We also have a Student Practice Resources page with links to shared Google Drive folders that have extra parts of our repertoire and PRACTICE VIDEOS. Each instrument has its own video that can be slowed down and used for practice purposes. You’ll hear your part and the other parts of the ensemble as you play! See Mr. Puchinsky or Ms. Barrett for the password.

BYBO Permission Forms

We sent home BYBO Permission and Media Release forms several weeks ago. Please sign them and return them ASAP.  You can download the permission forms from the links below!

BYBO Media Release

BYBO Permission

E-Mails & Our Blog!

We just sent an email to all members’ parents & guardians to remind them about our Tuesday sectionals this week (October 29th), and to complete the BYBO permission and media release forms. We also ask ALL members – parents, guardians, and students, to subscribe to our blog! We will not always send email reminders! All members should be subscribed to the blog so they can receive emails from our blog as we post our monthly updates and weekly announcements.

Sectionals

We will be starting sectionals every other week starting the last week of October. SECTIONALS allow us to work with individuals and small groups to help them learn the skills necessary to perform our repertoire. In sectionals we teach parts and focus on instrument sections. At rehearsals we work on putting the different ensemble sections together.

Please check the calendar online to see what nights we will rehearse and what nights we will have sectionals. On sectional nights students will only have to attend one 45 minute session as follows:

• 6:00-6:45 PM Brass & Woodwinds
• 6:45-7:30 PM Strings
• 7:30-8:15 PM Percussion

November Schedule

Starting the last week of October and all of November we will be meeting on Tuesday evenings. Here is the schedule for November:

• Tuesday October 29th – Sectionals
• Week of November 4-8 NO MEETING – Schools will be closed for the fall break!
• Tuesday November 12th – Sectionals
• Tuesday November 19th – Rehearsal
• Tuesday November 26th – Sectionals – Happy Thanksgiving!

BYBO Permission Forms

We sent home BYBO Permission and Media Release forms last week. Please sign them and return them ASAP. There was a mistake on the first copies we sent out that talked about a BYBO Schoology page – we stopped using Schoology in order to better accommodate students who are not in Bayonne public schools and now use this blog instead. The forms have been updated to reflect these changes. If you signed and returned the old forms – no worries! Just make sure you subscribe to this blog!

You can download the permission forms from the links below!

BYBO Media Release

BYBO Permission