Just some pictures of Cody and Kayla that we took at a local arboretum.
John P. Needham
October 12, 2019
7:30AM
Spring, TX
Viewing entries tagged
Klein Oak HS
Klein Oak Drum Line, October 10, 2019, Spring, TX
John P. Needham
Spring, TX
October 11, 2019
So, yeah. I’ve been pretty much missing around here lately. That’s plainly obvious.
We’ve been busy with the kids, and marching band season. Plus, inertia. Entropy. Okay, laziness.
We’re mostly through the marching season: the Klein Oak Band has played all the football games so far, and there are a few more left before the playoffs, but generally the band does not march for playoff games. They’ve played in one marching contest so fat, and have another one tonight (Area UIL) and another contest Saturday (UIL again, assuming the band qualifies tonight). Then the big one in San Antonio: BOA (Bands of America).
As most know so far from Facebook, Twitter, and IG, we have two sons in Klein Oak Band: one, John Bailey, is a Drum Major, the other, Cody, is on Bass Drum 3. So here are a few images from the season so far.
Well, I think that catches us up, for now. I’ll try to do better, maintaining this website. No promises, except to promise to try.
John P. Needham
October 23, 2018
Spring, TX
I can't believe I neglected to post this. Apologies to Bailey for the delay. But...Bailey played in te Klein Oak HS Concerto Competition earlier this month. Below is his performance (a 6:47 video).
I guess by now it won't surprise anyone to learn: we thought Bailey did great, we're very proud of his growth this year. He really has developed this skill in an amazing way.
Anyway, here is the video - the hilarious part is when he introduced himself as "John Needham" which is generally how he is known at school, even though we still call him Bailey here at home:
Uploaded by John Needham on 2018-05-05.
John P. Needham
May 23, 2017
Spring, TX
C'mon, you knew this was coming, right? After all the still pictures from this weekend's Texas State Mariachi Festival, you knew there would be some videos of the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, right? I didn't take these videos, but another person did, and gave me permission to post them to You Tube.
KOHS Mariachi Band was the first school from the whole Klein school district to qualify for the state mariachi festival. While a lot of schools were playing new, modern takes on mariachi music, with lots of stagecraft, KOHS Mariachi Band just played traditional mariachi music with little fanfare. It was a really well-received performance, to be sure. Take a look at how the crowd responded. They opened with Guadalajara:
Guadalajara, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.
The next song they performed was El Rey. This is where the audience really started to respond.
El Rey, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.
The band closed their set with No Me Se Rajar, which inspired the audience even more.
No Me Se Rajar, performed by the Klein Oak High School Mariachi Band, February 23, 2018 at the Texas State High School Mariachi Festival in Edinburgh, TX.
This was a genuinely extraordinary experience for these talented and hard-working young musicians. They walked off the stage with their feet barely touching the ground.
And we parents were all profoundly proud of these kids.
John P. Needham
February 27, 2018
Spring, TX
I've been away from this blog for far, far, too long. Apologies for that little hiatus!
Last weekend Cody went to Homecoming at his high-school. Here are a few images.
I shared this over the weekend, but for the sake of posterity: Bailey played trumpet in the Texas Region 9 band auditions on Saturday. He advanced. Definitely worth noting that the top-two trumpeters in Region 9 are from the same school as Bailey. We've said all along that the kids here are getting an exceptional education, especially a fine arts education, at Klein Oak. This is further evidence of that. Mr. Clearwater and his team? Really outstanding.
Region Band Audition Results
For Klein Oak (HS) band, Bailey had to record the three etudes that were used to judge the auditions. Since he had to do that anyway, I figured it would be worth it to preserve them on You Tube. So, below, here are the three etudes, as performed by Bailey. He did great.