CN Band Newsletter 01.21.2026

Clovis North Band
Jan 21
4 min read

From the Director’s Desk

Good Afternoon,

I had a great weekend in Sacramento at our California All-State Music Educators Conference. I was first able to celebrate our amazing choir director, Mrs. Heather Bishop as she received the California Choir Directors Association Director of the Year award. Then I got to watch two Clovis North alumni, Jack Lawrence and Jordan DeLatorre, sound amazing performing with the Fresno State Jazz Ensemble in concert. This was followed up with what might be the best high school jazz band concert I have ever heard by the CAJ High School All-State Jazz Band. We were fortunate to have Nathan Hazelrigg and Gus Alley perform in that group. They both sounded great and got some good audience response during their solos with the group.

Saturday evening was a treat. I listened to the All-State Wind Orchestra, where our very own Hunter Hatfield became the number one Alto Saxophone in the state as the principal player in that band. He was the highlight of the concert, having an extended solo in one of the pieces. It really stood out as a high level of musicianship and artistry was displayed. Also got to hear Andy Fisher perform in the Symphony Orchestra on bass.

Sunday was a treat as I was able to hear Elanor Huntley perform with the All State Concert Band with a dear friend, Ms. Angela Woo, as the guest conductor, followed by Luke Noordmas and Alex Fisher performing with the All State Symphonic band, before I had to hightail it back to Fresno to beat the fog home. It was a great weekend catching up with colleagues, learning some new things about music education, and celebrating some of our fantastic Broncos doing some amazing things on their instruments!

SJVCGPR Show #1 is this weekend!

It’s hard to believe that the winter pageantry season has arrived once again. Please join us this Saturday as we kick off the first show of the season at Clovis West High School. Information and schedules can be found at either sjvcgpr.org or wgasc.org

Crab Feed

Crab feed is in the preparation stages. This fantastic event will be held on Saturday, March 14. Be on the lookout for ticket information and ways to volunteer and help out for this fundraiser.

Be on the lookout for the ability to purchase tickets and share with friends and colleagues the ability to attend this great night of shellfish and support of our band program. It is a really fun night for the friends of the band and our community of people 21 and over.

Pledge Forms

Pledge forms for the spring activities need to be completed no later than Friday, Jan. 31. They will be counted as a signed document homework assignment. Here are links to each activity.

Clovis North Open Winter Guard
https://www.clovisnorthband.org/cn-open-guard-2026-donation
Clovis North Junior Varsity Winter Guard
https://www.clovisnorthband.org/cn-jv-winter-guard-2026-donation
Clovis North Winter Percussion
https://www.clovisnorthband.org/cn-winter-percussion-2026-donation

Wind Ensemble

The first recording assignment of Four Scottish Dances was due last Friday. It was great to listen to everyone’s submissions and see where we are currently at comprehensively. There will be no retakes for these, but students should review the comments that are made on their submissions and focus their practice based on the comments. Each submission must demonstrate each member's “BEST” performance of the excerpt so appropriate comments can be made. This Friday Movment 2 of Four Scottish Dances is due. It is ok if you turn your work in early.

Video Recording assignments with due dates are posted on Cuttime as well as in the Wind Ensemble Google Classroom. To join the Google Classroom, please use the code: uozv6hia

Our next concert will be on Wednesday, January 28. This is our area band articulation concert with the Granite Ridge Symphonic Band and our CN Area 6th grade band students.

Jazz Band

The CN Jazz Band continues to focus on their most challenging charts for our upcoming festivals. The Dixieland band will have an upcoming performance or two soon. The Jazz band is preparing for their first festival in Tulare beginning of February

Little Broncos

We are happy to be rebooting our elementary color guard, LITTLE BROCOS. Please see the flyer and share it with any Clovis North Area Elementary student you may feel is interested.

We have our FIRST meeting this evening at 6 pm in the dance room.

US ARMY FIELD BAND CONCERT

We are very fortunate to have the US Army Field Band from Washington DC stop in Fresno and play a concert in our concert hall on Saturday February 21 in the Concert Hall. Please see the information to procure tickets. It will be required for Wind Ensemble students to attend this event. Tickets are free. This is one of the premier wind bands in the United States. You won’t want to miss this.

Reserve a spot

Chocolate Bar Candy Sales

Will begin in just a few weeks. There has been an increase in the cost of the candy bar. They were now $2.00 per bar, with each box containing 50 candy bars instead of 60. We can raise a ton of funds for the band as well as our indoor programs with this fundraiser.