​Congratulations to the Cherokee Jazz Band for being one of only two schools awarded a Gold rating at the NJAJE State Jazz Preliminaries. Cherokee hosted the event on Wednesday, March 6th in the school's Performing Arts Center.

The Chiefs also won Outstanding Trumpet section. And, senior Bryana Crockett won the soloist award for percussion. 

This event was one of a series of five jazz preliminary competitions, or "prelims", held at various schools around New Jersey. Throughout the five prelims, 60 to 70 schools audition for the opportunity to be one of the top nine scoring bands that go on to a final round held later this spring.  

In this final round, the top three bands from each division are given the honor to perform at the New Jersey State Jazz Ensemble Gala, which is sponsored by the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education (NJAJE).  This is a non-competitive concert with special awards for soloists and sections.

 Prelim results will be released some time the week of March 11th. 
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​Thanks to Vinny Goffin for the recording of their performance.

On Saturday, January 19th and Saturday, February 23rd on the campus of The University of Pennsylvania, four musicians from the Cherokee High School Band will be respectfully performing as members of the 2019 Extravaganza Honor Band and 2019 Palestra Honor Band.  All freshmen, the performers include Brooke Shapiro on saxophone, April Warchol on trumpet, Lauren Hartpence on piccolo, and John Sanie on clarinet.

Under the baton of maestro Dr. Kushol Gupta, these student musicians will perform exceptional band repertoire, along with other outstanding honor band musicians from the Greater Philadelphia Region.  

​The student musicians were nominated by their Director of Bands - conductor, D. Michael Lynch.  

​Twenty-one Cherokee High School instrumental music students auditioned for the 72nd Annual All South Jersey Region III Band & Orchestra auditions on Saturday, December 8th, 2018.  Cherokee’s Band Director, Mr. D. Michael Lynch participated in the audition process as manager of the Wind Ensemble.  The auditions took place at Absegami High School in Galloway, NJ.

The audition process starts long before the actual audition day.  Students, their directors, and their private instructors began studying the audition requirements for his/her specific instrument several months ahead of time.  The students spent countless hours learning, practicing, and perfecting each aspect of the audition. 

Each student is required to perform all twelve major scales and/or selected percussive rudiments, a chromatic scale, two selected solo excerpts, and a challenging short piece that will be sight-read on the day of the audition.  In preparation of the audition, the students met with their directors and participated in mock auditions.  These mock auditions gave each student the opportunity to workout nerves by performing for their peers, and also an opportunity to share tactics, strategies, and past experiences with each auditioning participant.
                 
The Directors and music parents are very proud of each auditioning student.  Although not every student is accepted into a performing honors ensemble, the experienced gained through the audition process is guaranteed to provide heightened skills in musicianship and invaluable life lessons.  

Audition results are:

If you get yourself one coupon book, get a copy of the Food Book of South Jersey, now on sale through the Band Boosters. 

As its name suggests, the coupons will help you save cash on dozens and dozens of restaurants and grocery stores. But unlike many coupon books, these are all stores and establishments in our area, such as Braddock's Tavern, Franco's, ShopRite, Murphy's Market, Philly Pretzel Factory and more.

And at only $10, this book will quickly pay for itself as you use it. For example, the first set of coupons on page 1 will save you $10 just by doing your normal grocery shopping:


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Boom.

Get yourself a copy at any of the upcoming band events, including the December concerts or Band Booster meetings. Check the Calendar page for dates and times. Or, just email Kim Goffin at kgoffin@hotmail.com. ​

​The Cherokee Band Boosters will be hosting a holiday entertainment event at the Marlton Barnes & Noble store that will include holiday-themed chamber music performed by Cherokee Band students, refreshments, and more. Santa will be there too, to hear what kids would like for Christmas and to capture some great pictures. 🎅

Cherokee students will also be in the house wrapping presents for donations. If you're they type who doesn't care for the gift wrapping part of the holidays because you either don't have time to wrap everything, or you're simply not a skilled wrapper, bring your merch to B&N and let us handle that for you!  

In addition to the event's entertainment, all purchases can easily benefit the Cherokee Bands. All you have to do is tell the cashier that you'd like your purchase to go to the Cherokee Bands, or just show a copy of the flyer below when checking out and a percentage of your purchases will benefit the Bands. 

Educators receive a 20% discount, plus they'll receive credit for purchases made during the event.  

If you're not able to make it in person, you can still support the Bands by shopping at bn.com/bookfairs between Dec. 9th and 14th. Just enter Bookfair ID 12399952 at checkout. 

​The holiday shopping rush is just around the corner. This year, your usual holiday purchases can not only make a friend or loved one happy, but can support the Band Boosters too!

Just do your usual holiday shopping on Amazon through Amazon Smile. It’s the convenience of shopping on Amazon combined with the convenience of donating to the Bands, at no added cost to you, at all!

Just log into your Amazon or Amazon Prime account through smile.amazon.com, choose Cherokee Band Boosters as your charity when sign up for Amazon Smile with these simple instructions, and Amazon will donate a portion of your purchases to us. 

It’s really as easy as that.

Just be sure that you’re logged into smile.amazon.com by the time you check out, or the purchase gets processed as a non-donation purchase. To be sure, make sure the logo in the upper left of the window looks like this:​





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​And, you can still use your Amazon Prime membership through Amazon Prime Smile. It's a bit trickier to be sure you logged into both Smile and Prime.

​One way to do it is to log into your Amazon Prime account, then do a search for Amazon Smile in the white search bar.  Your search results will have an Amazon Smile box at the top. Just click the "Shop Now" link and you'll be taken to an Amazon Smile Prime page in your account. 

The logo in the upper left will look like this:

Giving Tuesday is a global fundraising event taking place annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the U.S.. Originally created as a response to commercialization and consumerism in the post-Thanksgiving season - thus purposefully held after Black Friday and Cyber Monday -  the call of Giving Tuesday is for us to take into consideration all the good in our lives and to give back accordingly in the name of holiday spirit. 

This year we ask you to direct your giving to The Cherokee Band Boosters to help us support our children in their music education pursuits throughout the year. The Band Boosters is a 503(c) charitable organization and is officially registered with the Giving Tuesday organization. 
 
Donating is super easy! Just click the button below to be taken to a secure PayPal form. You can decide whether to use your PayPal account, or your credit or debit card.  When your donation is complete you'll get a receipt to print out for your tax records. 

So whether it’s for the tax deduction or simply for the good feeling that we receive when backing a good cause like our children's education, your donations to the Cherokee Band Boosters will go a long way in supporting the hard work and dedication of the students in all of the Cherokee Bands.

​Click below to make your donation through PayPal: