Final balance are now past due! The trip cost is $450 and checks can be paid in check, money order, or cash. All check are made to 'NSHS'. Please take care of this ASAP!

Congratulations to the 60 NSHS Band members who earned 1st division 'Superior' ratings on their solos this past Saturday at the UIL Solo Contest held at Liberty HS in Frisco! We are extremely proud of all participating students and especially those that earned the highest possible scores from the solo judges! Congratulations on another outstanding achievement for the NSHS Band!

Congratulations to Brett Wyatt and Amanda Bateman for their placement in the Texas All-State Band during auditions held on Saturday, Jan. 9 at Abilene Christian University. This is Brett's 3rd consecutive year to be selected and the 2nd consecutive year for Amanda! Additionally, Brett placed 1st out of the 24 tenor trombones auditioning at the AREA tryout! Both students will travel to the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio Feb. 10 - 13 to perform with the Texas All-State Band! This places them among to top 2% of high school musicians in the state of Texas in what is widely regarded as the top All-State group in the United States! Way to go to both Amanda and Brett!

NSHS Jazz Band trumpeter Scott Schmidt placed 4th out of 93 auditioning trumpets from across Texas to gain a berth in the Texas All-State Jazz Ensemble! This is the 3rd year in a row that NSHS has placed a student in this prestigious group! Scott will be performing with the band at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio on Saturday, Feb. 13. This is an incredible honor for Scott and for the NSHS Band Program! Congratulations Scott!

In an exciting and historic week for the NSHS Band Program, the Trojan Marching Band advanced to Finals and placed 6th overall at the Texas State Marching Contest in San Antonio! This is the 2nd trip to the TSMBC for the Trojan Band (2000) and their first ever advancement to Finals and being recognized as one of the top marching bands in the State of Texas!

This was a team effort on the part of the Trojan Band family as over 100 parents, as well as Mr. McDaniel, Executive Director of Fine Arts for the CFBISD, and Mr. Pouncy, Principal of NSHS all traveled to support the Trojan Band during their Alamo Dome performance. The Trojan Band was also greeted by several hundred students, staff members, and family, including the Trojan football team, cheerleaders, and Troyanns, upon their return to NSHS. What an incredible event and lifetime memory for these students who have worked so hard!

A BIG 'Thank You!' from all the students and staff of the NSHS Trojan Band to all those that supported us during this incredible season!

The NSHS Band continued its tradition of academic excellence by having by having 4 students recently named in the National Merit Scholarship Program. These students are recognized on the basis of their PSAT score given in October of their junior year. The National Merit Program recognizes only the top 34,000 test takers out of over 1.5 million tests that were given in 2008. The NSHS Band recognized students are:

Victor Lopez...National Merit Semifinalist

Jennifer Long...National Merit Commended

Katy Oostenbrug...National Merit Commended

Christiana Delarue...National Merit Hispanic Scholar

Congratulations to these outstanding senior members of the NSHS Band and to Newman Smith HS for once again having the most National Merit students in the CFBISD!

The NSHS Band is now on Twitter! This is a great way to keep up with what's going on in band and an instant way to get news and updates from Mr. C.

Set up your mobile phone as follows:

Go to www.twitter.com and set up a free account.

Once you are logged in, click on "Take Twitter with you - Set up your mobile phone" in the box on the right side of the screen.

Follow the instructions to set up your phone. Make sure you enter your phone number preceeded by a + and 1 (ex. +19729685327).

Once your phone is set up, go to www.twitter.com/smithband

Click the box that says "Follow"

Click on the box that says "Following - Device Updates Off" and change the selection to "on"

And you are all set! From now on you will receive Text Message Notifications from the NSHS Band. If you want to stop receiving messages from the band, simply reply to any message with OFF.

Note: Be sure to check with your cell provider to make sure text messages are covered in your phone's service plan!