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October 2025 Newsletter
Membership Meeting Minutes Thank you to everyone who attended the Membership meeting on Sept. 15th. Click to read the meeting minutes. If you haven’t done so, please take a moment to update your membership information, even if nothing has changed. This will help us to efficiently keep track of our membership. School district membership fees were due September 15th. We will accept late payments. Event Registration It’s time to register for all events! 2026 Solo and Ensemble Contest will be held on February 21 at South Middle School in Arlington Heights. Festival will be held on March 6 and 7 at Hawthorn MS North. This year’s Art Hildebrand Music Invitational will take place at Edgewood and Northwood Middle Schools during the school day on March 11 and 12. Registration information and forms can be found under Solo and Ensemble Contest, Festival, and the Art Hildebrand Music Invitational. If your check and Participation Invoice will not arrive by December 1st, please EMAIL a copy of the participation invoice and check request to [email protected] by December 1st. Please be sure to read the Rules and Bylaws carefully to see what has been updated and feel free to email us with questions. Also, we have updated a couple of rubrics and created a new one! These can be found on the Rubrics and Requirements section of the website. The S&E/Festival Registration, Rules and Bylaws, and meeting minutes sections of the website are password protected. If you are new to NIMCon or have forgotten the password, please reach out to Carolyn Awe - [email protected]. S&E Contest electronic accompaniment reminder Our first year of electronic accompaniment (Make Music or similar) as an option to an accompanist was successful! Please remember that the family or director is responsible to make sure the accompaniment can be heard by the judge through the speaker/phone/etc. Updated host rotation Please check out the updated Host Rotation schedule to see when your school is scheduled next to host either Solo and Ensemble Contest or Music Festival. We are looking for AHMI hosts for the future. The membership voted to extend one free entry to the AHMI host school in lieu of a host stipend. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting in 2027 or beyond! |
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August 2025 Newsletter
Fill out membership forms! The NIMCon board of directors is excited to announce that we are beginning the eleventh year of NIMCon! Membership applications are currently being accepted for the 2025-2026 school year. Dues are $125 PER SCHOOL DISTRICT. School district membership Dues checks and the membership invoice should be mailed to Jessica Rosales, NIMCon Treasurer, by September 15th. It is important that EVERY director in your school district register each year if they plan to participate. Please fill out the membership form. We are excited to hear from you! Membership Meeting The annual membership meeting will take place on Monday, September 15th at Lake Zurich MS North in Hawthorn Woods. Lou Malnati’s pizza dinner will be served at 6:15 PM. Dinner includes salad, pizza (cheese, spinach, pepperoni, sausage), beverage and dessert. Gluten-free pizza will be available. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. Please RSVP for dinner and/or the meeting. Agenda items will include event information, budget, Rules and By-law updates, and election of Board of Directors. The slate for the Board of Directors includes Ellen Singer-President, Elise Matusek-Vice President, Larry Goltz-Secretary, Jessica Rosales- Treasurer, Carolyn Awe- Digital Technologist, Jim Garbrecht-Co-Judge Hirer, Chris Monzel- Co-Judge Hirer. As always, nominations from the floor will be accepted at the meeting for all board positions. General Information Solo and Ensemble Contest will be Feb. 21st at South MS and Festival will be held March 6-7th at Hawthorn MS North. AHMI will be held March 11-12th at Edgewood and Northwood Jr High schools. Please check the website (www.nimcon.org) for event site information as well as the Rules and Procedures for all events and rubrics. A reminder that groups may attend Festival for “comments only” or for ratings. If you haven’t attended Festival recently, please consider coming for “comments only” to take advantage of our wonderful clinicians! We are looking forward to a successful year! If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] |
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April 2025 Newsletter
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February 2025 Newsletter
Solo & Ensemble Contest Solo & Ensemble Contest is on February 22 at Lake Zurich MS North. Thank you to Chris Monzel, Elisabeth Meyer, Ry Muehling and Jessica Rosales for hosting. You should have received the schedule already. If you have not, please contact Jessica Rosales: [email protected]. We are looking forward to a successful event! Below are a handful of reminders about the big day.
Winds & Strings will play a scale in the key of the solo being played. The scale should be up and down and at least one octave. Tempo and note length are at the soloist’s discretion. Beginning students may play the scale in split octaves, that is, a beginning clarinet player may play CDEFGA (drop the octave) BCB (back up the octave AGFEDC. Similar accommodations may be made for other instruments. Percussionists (mallet players) will play a scale, the same as above in Winds & Strings. Percussionists (snare drum) will play snare drum rudiments. Students should prepare all designated rudiments based on their years of experience. Percussionists (drum set) will play drum set patterns. Students should prepare all designated patterns based on their years of experience. Instrumental Ensembles & Vocal Solos and Ensembles do not need to play / sing scales.
Music Festival This year’s Music Festival for concert band, orchestra and choir takes place on March 7th and 8th at Woodland Middle School. WMS staff look forward to hosting you for the 10th Festival! You should have already received the schedule for Music Festival. If you have not, please contact Elise Matusek at [email protected]. Thank you to our hosts at Woodland MS- Elise Matusek, Carolyn Awe and Eileen Andrews. |
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October 2024 NewsletterMembership Meeting Minutes Thank you to everyone who attended the Membership meeting on September 16th. Click to read the meeting minutes If you haven’t done so, please take a moment to update your membership information, even if nothing has changed. This will help us to efficiently keep track of our membership. School district membership fees were due September 15th. We will accept late payments. The invoice and member registration can be found here: Membership Invoice Membership Registration Event Registration It’s time to register for all events! Once you have registered, be sure to keep a list for yourself so you have a copy. Registration information and forms can be found under Solo and Ensemble Registration, Festival Registration, and AHMI. Print out the Participation invoice and send it with your check (or copy of your check request) to [email protected]. Checks should be mailed to Jessica Rosales, NIMCon Treasurer. Please be considerate of the Dec. 1st deadline and set an earlier deadline for your students to sign up with you for Solo and Ensemble Contest. We will not accept late entries. Please be sure to read the Rules and Bylaws carefully to see what has been updated and feel free to email us with questions. New rules to note: Solo and Ensemble Contest rule #12 regarding electronic accompaniments and #15 regarding accompanists. Art Hildebrand Music Invitational This year’s Invitational will take place at Edgewood Middle School during the school day on March 12 and 13. The cost is $100 per group and includes a clinic and comments by a respected director/judge. More information can be found here. Please fill out the Participation Invoice to register. Updated host rotation Please check out the updated Host Rotation schedule to see when your school is scheduled next to host either Solo and Ensemble Contest or Music Festival. |
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August 2024 Newsletter
Join Now!
The NIMCon board of directors is excited to announce that we are beginning the tenth year of NIMCon! Membership applications are currently being accepted for the 2024-2025 school year. Click here to join and become an active member. Dues are $125 PER SCHOOL DISTRICT. Dues checks should be mailed to Jessica Rosales, NIMCon Treasurer, by September 15th. It is important that EVERY director in your school district register each year if they plan to participate. Please fill out the membership form. We are excited to hear from you! Membership Meeting The annual membership meeting will take place on Monday, September 16th at Lake Zurich MS North in Hawthorn Woods. Lou Malnati’s pizza dinner will be served at 6:15 PM. Dinner includes, salad, pizza (cheese, spinach, pepperoni, sausage), beverage and dessert. Gluten-free pizza will be available. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. Please RSVP for dinner and/or the meeting. Agenda items will include contest information, budget, by-law updates, and election of Board of Directors. The slate for the Board of Directors includes: Ellen Singer-President, Elise Matusek-Vice President, Margaret Delligatti-Secretary, Jessica Rosales- Treasurer, Carolyn Awe- Webmaster, Jim Garbrecht-Co-Judge Hirer, Chris Monzel- Co-Judge Hirer. As always, nominations from the floor will be accepted at the meeting for all board positions. General Information Solo and Ensemble Contest will be held on Feb. 22, 2025 at West Oak MS and Festival will be held on March 7-8, 2025 at Woodland MS. The Art Hildebrand Music Invitational (AHMI) will be held on March 12-13. We currently have one host and are looking to expand to a second site. Please let us know if you are interested in hosting for either one or two days in March 2025 and/or March 2026 (dates TBD). Groups may attend Festival for ratings or for Comments Only. The CO option is a good choice for groups new to NIMCon or less experienced groups and all groups receive a clinic. Please check the website (www.nimcon.org) for event information as well as the Rules and Procedures for all events and rubrics. We are looking forward to a successful year! If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] |
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April 2024 Newsletter
Thank You! The board of directors would like to thank all of the members of NIMCon for your active participation this year and for continuing to help make NIMCon the best organization it can be! Thank you to all of the contest hosts – Hawthorn MS North, Lake Zurich MS North, and Matthews MS – for enabling us to have a successful contest season. Your hard work is appreciated! Please email your feedback for this year’s events to: [email protected]. 2025 Events Scheduled
Spring Board Meeting The Board of Directors is meeting on Monday, June 10th. We will be discussing ideas for next year and reviewing your feedback from this year’s events. If you have any other comments that you would like us to discuss at our meeting, please let us know by Friday, May 30th ([email protected]). These ideas will help generate an agenda for the general Membership meeting in September. |
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October 2023 Newsletter
Membership Meeting Thank you to everyone who attended the Membership meeting on Sept 18th. If you haven’t done so, please take a moment to update your membership information, even if nothing has changed. This will help us to efficiently keep track of our membership. School district membership fees were due September 15th. We will accept late payments. Here are the invoice and member registration forms. Event Registration It’s time to register for all events! Please be sure to read the Rules and Bylaws carefully and feel free to email us with questions. Please note that all fees have been updated after the Membership meeting. Once you have registered, be sure to keep a list for yourself so you have a copy. Registration information and forms can be found under Solo and Ensemble Contest, Festival, and AHMI. Print out the Participation Invoice and send it with your check (or copy of your check request) to [email protected]. Checks should be mailed to Jessica Rosales, NIMCon Treasurer. Please be considerate of the Dec. 1st deadline and set an earlier deadline for your students to sign up with you for Solo and Ensemble Contest. We will not accept late entries. Art Hildebrand Music Invitational This year’s Invitational will take place at Lake Zurich Middle School South during the school day on March 13 and 14. The cost is $100 per group and includes a clinic and comments by a respected director/judge. More information can be found here Updated host rotation Please check out the updated Host Rotation schedule to see when your school is scheduled next to host either Solo and Ensemble Contest or Music Festival |
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August/September 2023
Newsletter Join Now! Membership applications are currently being accepted for the 2023-2024 school year. It is important that EVERY director in your school district register each year if they plan to participate. Click here to join and become an active member. Dues are now $125 PER SCHOOL DISTRICT. Dues checks along with the membership invoice should be mailed to Jessica Rosales, NIMCon Treasurer, by September 15th. We are excited to hear from you! Membership Meeting The annual membership meeting will take place on Monday, September 18 at Lake Zurich MS North in Hawthorn Woods. Lou Malnati’s pizza dinner will be served at 6:15 PM. Dinner includes, salad, pizza (cheese, spinach, pepperoni, sausage), beverage and dessert. Gluten-free pizza will be available. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. Please click here to RSVP for dinner and/or the meeting. Agenda items will include contest information, budget, by-law updates, and election of Board of Directors. The slate for the Board of Directors includes: Ellen Singer-President, Elise Matusek-Vice President, Margaret Delligatti-Secretary, Jessica Rosales- Treasurer, Carolyn Awe- Webmaster, Jim Garbrecht-Judge Hirer, Steve Stenzel-Judge Hirer. As always, nominations from the floor will be accepted at the meeting for all board positions. General Information Solo and Ensemble Contest will be Feb. 24, 2024 and Festival will be held on March 8-9, 2024. AHMI will be held on March 13-14. Please check the website (www.nimcon.org) for event site information as well as the Rules and Bylaws for all events and rubrics. Speaking of the website, a BIG thank you to Carolyn Awe who has migrated our website to a new platform. Things will look a little bit different, but all the information you need is there. Hopefully, it will be easier to find the information you need. We are looking forward to a successful year! If you have any questions, please email us at [email protected] |
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May 2023
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October 2022 |
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