Welcome

Important Dates and Times!

Mon, 8/17 (7-8 pm): Virtual orchestra parent booster board meeting (details below)
Tue, 8/18: Welcome back to school!
Fri, 9/4 (8:45 am): TEA Performance (details below)
Wed, 9/16 (6:30 pm): Fall orchestra concert at Austin High PAC
9/25-9/27: Orchestra trip to Dallas/Fort Worth (details below)
Sat, 10/24: Monster Concert at Austin High
1/14-1/18: Orchestra Spring Trip to Los Angeles (details below)

Helpful Links and Info

• Private Lessons
• Scholarships
• Corporate Sponsors
• Fees, Instruments, and Uniform Requirements

Register for Cut Time

If you have not yet registered with Cut Time, please use the following link to enter your personal information:
https://app.gocuttime.com/sr/TWEUL87R

The Austin High Orchestra Boosters use Cut Time to send weekly newsletters and share important program information. This year, Mrs. Heidi Gysan, Austin High Orchestra Booster Secretary, will send the weekly newsletter through Cut Time.

Booster Board Meeting

Our first virtual booster board meeting of the year is Monday, August 17th, at 7:00 pm. All are welcome to attend the meeting. Please see the Cuttime newsletter for the link.

Orchestra Fundraiser

Due to ongoing school construction, our annual Monster Concert fundraiser will be on a much smaller scale this year. To continue supporting our students and the orchestra program, we are partnering with Schoolfundr for our 2026 Fall Fundraiser. If your student attended Orchestra Camp, they should have already met with the Schoolfundr representative and created their personal fundraising page.

The most important next step is adding email contacts. Our goal is for each student to add 20 email addresses of friends, family, neighbors, and others who may be willing to support the Austin High Orchestra.

Your student probably doesn’t have 20 email addresses themselves—and that’s where parents and guardians come in! Please sit down with your student for a few minutes and help them add contacts. Twenty is the goal, but if you can’t get to 20, that’s okay—add 15 or even 10. We are asking every student to make an effort to add at least 10–15 contacts.

Schoolfundr is an automated email fundraising platform, so adding email contacts is what allows the system to do much of the work for us. Your student can also share their fundraiser through text and social media, but those options require them to manually share the link. Adding email contacts upfront is the easiest way to make sure their fundraiser reaches potential supporters.

Parents, we could really use your help with this step! Have your student log in to their Schoolfundr account, click the large blue “Upload Emails” button, and help them add the emails. If your student still needs to create an account, please see the attached information to get started.

Funds raised will help repair instruments, purchase strings and cases, provide travel scholarships and pre-concert meals, support activities, and enhance our orchestra program. This is the year we need to fundraise more than ever! Thank you for supporting our students and helping make this fundraiser a success. The more families who participate, the more we can provide for ALL of our orchestra students!

TEA Performance

Twenty varsity orchestra students will be selected to perform at the TEA meeting on Friday, September 4th. The performance starts at 8:45 am.  Students should be at the venue by 7:30 am. We need adult volunteer drivers to help transport students and instruments. A volunteer form will be sent later this week.

Orchestra Fall Trip to Dallas/Fort Worth

Save the date for the orchestra fall trip to Dallas/Fort Worth from September 25th through September 27th. Trip details will be shared as we finalize activities.

Los Angeles Spring Trip

Austin High Orchestra is going to Los Angeles!

Austin High Orchestra is headed to Los Angeles January 14–18, 2027! We hope our students are excited—and we hope some parents are ready to join us, too!

At this time, we are asking all interested families to join the trip waitlist. Joining the waitlist will help us determine student and parent/chaperone interest as we move forward with trip planning. You can also view the tentative trip itinerary at the bottom of the information page to get a sneak peek at everything we have planned!

How to Join the Waitlist:
Click “See Availability,” then “Join Waitlist,” and follow the directions from there. It will walk you through entering your contact information and selecting the appropriate package(s).

Joining the waitlist does not mean you are committing to the trip at this time. Right now, we want to get a strong sense of how many students and families are interested so we can continue moving forward with planning.

Here is the link for the waitlist:
https://note-abletravel.wetravel.com/trips/austin-high-school-orchestra-la-january-14-18-2027-note-able-travel-experiences-5124016063#about-this-trip

Private Lessons

The private lessons offered by the instructors on this page are some of the most affordable you can find, and the instructors are wonderful. Please consider signing your child up. It can make a big difference in their progress, and how much they enjoy the orchestra program because of the confidence they develop. Payment for private lessons are made directly by parents to the private teacher and not the Austin High Orchestra.

Video Tutorials to Help Students Prepare for Region Auditions

Here are the links to video tutorials that students should watch and use this summer to help them prepare for the Region Auditions.

Violin Tutorials:
https://ensembleblock.com/portal/tmea-2026-2027-orchestra-violinhttps://ensembleblock.com/portal/tmea-2026-2027-orchestra-violin

Viola Tutorials:
https://ensembleblock.com/portal/tmea-2026-2027-orchestra-viola

Cello Tutorials:
https://ensembleblock.com/portal/tmea-2026-2027-orchestra-cello

Bass Tutorials:
https://ensembleblock.com/portal/tmea-2026-2027-orchestra-string-bass

Adult Orchestra Volunteers

The orchestra relies on adult volunteers for different events throughout the year. If you are interested in volunteering or know you will be volunteering in the orchestra room and helping students, please submit an application on the AISD Voly site. Also check out our volunteer webpage for additional info.

Get Messages Using Remind

Please make sure that you and your student(s) sign up to get important messages and reminders. To sign up for Remind, compose a text message to the number 81010.

Camerata Orchestra: @a2aa82
Philharmonic & Recital Orchestras: @g4kcfc2
Chamber Orchestra: @hh2949
Orchestra Parents: @hak8gd

Thank You to Our Sponsors!

Our Platinum Sponsors

Our Gold Sponsors

And thank you to the many orchestra families who have given so generously.