Issue 40 MDM Newsletter

BY MICHAELA O'DONNELL ISSUE NO. 41 | JULY 2022 As we all make the transition into the summer months, many of our younger students will be off from school and enjoying the free time before the next school year begins in the fall. For this monthâ€™s newsletter, we will be taking a look back at some of MDMâ€™s biggest highlights and achievements over the past school year as an end-of-school recap! THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF MODERN DAY MUSIC SCHOOL This past year was a whirlwind of activity, and we are so excited to share some more big changes in the months to come. September September and the start of the new school year brought a flood of enrollments. We saw both new and returning students starting up lessons as everyone came back from their summer adventures. Our coaches were so excited to hear all the fun summer stories and also share their own! September also brought us another new addition: our administrative assistant, Erin! Erin has been an absolutely invaluable member of our MDM office team ever since she started in September, and we are so happy to have her. Weâ€™re sure that our students are as well! MDM: A Year In Review Another highlight from September was our Virtual Showcase. We had so many submissions for this most recent showcase that we had to split it in to three separate age groups! We saw students as young as 5 all the way through to our adults sharing the hard work they have been putting in to lessons. Weâ€™re excited to return to our in person showcases again soon! October October started off on an exciting note with our fall Rock School 101 Band Show. The show is always a huge success every session, but this one really pushed the expectation to a new level! All of our student bands and the Musical Theater vocal groups did a fantastic job with their sets, and brought their families and friends along for an entertaining ride. We also saw some huge milestones among our students, specifically for MDMâ€™s own Moriah Formica and her incredible band PLUSH! PLUSH released their self titled album in late October, and rocked the charts right away. Make sure to go take a listen! MDM had an exciting coach update in October as well: a coach wedding! We are always happy to see our coaches continuously growing over the course of their time at MDM, and love being a part of these major life milestones. Congrats to Tony and Marissa! October also saw another exciting moment that we could never forget: Halloween! We love participating in festive holidays with our MDM theme weeks, and our Halloween Spirit Week is definitely a fan favorite. Our students did not disappoint with their creative costumes, and our staff was excited to participate right along with them. It took lessons to a whole new level of fun! MDM: A YEAR IN REVIEW CONT... November As an exciting update to our Songwriting Workshop group program, our coach, Maria, debuted the very first Songwriting Showcase as a way to culminate the Level 2 class that ran this fall. The final Songwriting Showcase was a huge hit and we were excited to hear the original creations from our MDM students! November also brought us another student milestone with the release of Madison VanDenburg's new Christmas single "The Light of Christmasâ€. Her single really blew us away, just in time for the holidays! Go give it a listen and make sure to add it to your playlists next holiday season! November was also, as always, a time of thanks and reflection as we celebrated two important holidays: Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for all of our MDM students and families, and especially the veterans who helped make this all possible. We couldnâ€™t do what we do without all of you! December December was a culmination of an already busy fall, and the excitement continued almost every day. A major December highlight for the MDM staff was our staff holiday party! This was the first holiday party weâ€™ve had post-COVID and it was great to get back to it after such a long wait. Our holiday parties are such a fun way to show our staff how much we appreciate them, and this year was no exception! We also had the recording and mixing sessions for our Rock School 101 - Studio and Musical Theater Vocal Group - Studio programs happening throughout December. Our student bands and vocal groups really rose to the occasion with their preparedness and professionalism during each recording session. Their hard work is evident in the final products! December also brought us the excitement of the holiday season, and a sparkle of holiday spirit showed up in everything from our lobby decorations to the holiday song choices in lessons. We even had some holiday performances from both coaches and students. One performance that really stood out was piano coach, Deb, and MDMâ€™s Moriah Formica performing in Northway Churchâ€™s Christmas special! They did not disappoint with the passion and joy that they shared. You can see videos of their performances on our social media pages to share in the experience! January What a way to start the new year! This January was definitely an exciting one, and we welcomed in so many new students. January actually had the highest number of enrollments per month - almost double what we would normally see in a month! Our schedules filled up so fast that we even ended up announcing an exciting update: opening a whole new day of lessons! Opening up on Fridays had been a possibility for some time, but January saw that possibility become a reality as our enrollments soared. We are now open for private lessons 6 out of 7 days a week! February Although February was a short month, it was still packed with just as much activity. February welcomed in Black History Month and Valentineâ€™s Day, as well as a much needed school break for many. Although MDM was still open for lessons during February break, we were happy to participate in another fun MDM theme week as a way to welcome in the week of rest and relaxation. There is no better way to embrace vacation than with Pajama Week! Our studentsâ€™ awesome PJs made for a very fun week of lessons. We also saw a number of snow days and ended up switching to Zoom lessons from home for a few days in February! March March was another exciting month filled with so many student accomplishments! We saw quite a few of our piano students using their lesson time to do some final preparations for NYSSMA before participating in the festival. They all did so well on their solo evaluations, including Lucas who scored a 27/28 on his Level 4 performance! In March we also saw the release of â€œExit Woundsâ€ by Shea Dewan & Lucas and the Savages on all streaming platforms. This song was recorded and worked on during our Rock School 101 - Studio program, and we were so happy to be a part of this exciting moment for these MDM students. We love to see our students putting their original music out in to the world! On a similar note, March also brought the next Rock School 101 Band Show to culminate our winter session. We were blown away like always, and had a great turnout at the show! One audience member in particular, David, soon became our newest member of the MDM office team! Stay tuned next month for a closer look at the awesome journey that brought David to MDMâ€¦ April April started off right away with another awesome student accomplishment. Our drum and piano student, Lucas, played snare in the Capital Region Wind Ensembleâ€™s concert entitled â€œThe Bells of Revolution!â€ We are so proud of the hard work that got him there, and his performance with the ensemble proved exactly why he was invited to join them. Great job Lucas! April also welcomed in another much needed break for our school age students. This school year was definitely a doozy for many of our students, and they made sure to capitalize on all the free time and relaxation over break! As the month came to a close, we also saw another MDM milestone: our 11 year anniversary! On April 28th, 2001, MDM opened its doors for the first time, and we havenâ€™t stopped since. Thank you all for being a part of the past 11 years! May The month of May was filled with milestones, including a number of college graduations for both students and coaches. Our voice, piano and songwriting coach, Maria, was one of them! Mariaâ€™s Senior Playback was also held at the beginning of the month and it was wonderful to hear everything she has been working on! May also welcomed in another student accomplishment with Schenectady Light Opera Company's production of â€œViolet.â€ Our voice student, Rylie, was cast in the role of Young Violet, and she did a fantastic job in the show! Awesome job Rylie! Many of our voice students also participated in NYSSMA during the month of May, and continued to show us just how hard they all work. We saw so many amazing scores, including Ava-Jay who scored a 95/100 on Level 5, Brenda who scored a 96/100 on Level 6, and Sophia who scored a perfect score! Awesome job everyone! Another exciting update to the MDM office team came in May as we welcomed in our newest administrative assistant, Allyssa! They have already had a massive impact on MDM in the short time they have been here, and we are so grateful to have them as a part of the team. Make sure to say hi next time you see them in the office! CONT... MDM: A YEAR IN REVIEW June As the school year came to a close, June made it a point to be the busiest month of all! With graduations and graduation parties filling the days for our high school seniors, the month seemed to fly by. We had so many students actively participating in their graduation ceremonies, and one of our voice students, Thomas, sang the National Anthem at his TecSmart graduation! He really nailed it with only a short window of time to practice, and we are so proud. Great job Thomas! June also welcomed in audition after audition for summer camps and productions, and it seemed like we had more students than ever before auditioning for something this summer! While some are still waiting on a decision, many have already received some exciting news including Lucas, who was selected to play percussion for the Pit Orchestra for Proctor's Broadway Camp this summer! What an accomplishment! To finish off the year on a happy note, June ended with another MDM Pajama Week. Everyone at MDM welcomed our PJ Week with open arms, especially our staff! We also welcomed another fantastic Rock School 101 Band Show at the end of the month to lead us in to summer with a bang. Great job to all of our MDM students who performed this past weekend! You really nailed it! We canâ€™t wait to see what the next school year brings, but for now will be taking full advantage of the summer to relax and have some fun. We even have some exciting changes of our own to prepare for, and are looking forward to sharing them with all the MDM students and families very soon! Check back next month for a sneak peek at one of our exciting new announcementsâ€¦ Michaela's Corner JUly CALENDAR 1 - Ben Solo Gig, Spa City Tap and Barrel, 6:30-9:30pm 2 - MDM CLOSED for Independence Day Weekend 2 - DJ (vinyl only) 60â€™s Soul, Reggae & Garage/Punk (David), Pint Sized in Saratoga, 8pm-12am, 21+ 4 - Independence Day (MDM CLOSED) 6 - Under the Den (Ben) with Keep Flying and friends, Empire Underground, 6:30pm 8 - Under the Den (Ben), Jay St. Pub, 10pm-1am 9 - Under the Den (Ben), Gem Fest in Glens Falls 9 - First Day of MDM Summer Group Programs! (Saturday Bands and Songwriting Workshop) 10 - First Day of MDM Summer Group Programs! (Sunday Bands and Musical Theater) 11 - Open Mic Night, Caffe Lena, 6:30-10pm 15 - Under the Den (Ben), Saratoga City Tavern, 8pm-12am 16 - Ben Solo Gig, Spa City Tap and Barrel, 6:30-9:30pm 18 - Open Mic Night, Caffe Lena, 6:30-10pm 22 - Under the Den (Ben), SingleCut North 6-9pm 25 - Open Mic Night, Caffe Lena, 6:30-10pm 29 - Under The Den (Ben), Bound By Fate Brewing, 7-9pm Thank you all for your continued support of everything we do at MDM! Iâ€™m excited to be handing the reigns over to David, MDMâ€™s new Manager! This will be the last â€˜Mickâ€™s Cornerâ€™ so keep an eye out for the new â€˜Davidâ€™s Cornerâ€™ in our August newsletter! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR OUR NEW STUDENTS in june! Elise H Val M Genny S Carlene C Paige C Jonathan L Liam G Sami V Brody F Michelle B Ally B Ellie G Sebastian K Mila W Peter L Isabella V Easton G Amelia V Audrey M Maria F Undine V Cooper N Liam D Logan N Josh C Joris L Lorenzo P Zoey R Tatum H Vivkta K Maryam E Emilia B Brooke D John P Robbie O Summer L Samantha Z FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA!