Dunedin High

Real Bands Wear Kilts!

Dunedin High School is located in Dunedin, Florida, and was first opened in 1961. The school embraced the Scottish heritage of the city, and became widely known for having an outstanding performing arts program that incorporated the Scottish Arts. Today, this Pinellas County school proudly upholds the tradition of excellence established over 50 years ago. The Instrumental Music Department at DHS has expanded to include a jazz ensemble, percussion ensemble, and a concert orchestra in addition to the symphonic wind bands, pipe band, Highland dancers, and iconic Scottish Highlander Marching Band.

Every week is a productive week for our music department! This past weekend, we had two different events. 

 

Solo & Ensemble MPA #1

What is Solo & Ensemble? Students are able to work on their own pieces of music in groups (ensembles) or by themselves with a pianist (solos). The students play in front of an adjudicator that then give them a rating based on their performance. There are two separate dates for this, but we had 7 students brave enough to participate in this earlier one. The events that received Superiors will be able to participate in State S&E.

 

Solos:

 

Annie O'Brien, Flute: Superior

Sophia Valentino, Alto Saxophone: Superior

Elijah Lyles, Alto Saxophone: Excellent

 

Ensembles:

Annie O'Brien & Gavyn Santore; Flute Duet: Superior

Elijah Lyles, Jacob Szymanski, Damien Webb, Jordan Mcneil; Saxophone Quartet: Excellent

 

Suncoast Highland Games

On Saturday, the Pipe Band and one of our Highland Dancers participated in their 2nd Highland Games. It was their first year back, and we had a blast. The DHS Pipe Band received 2nd place in the Grade 4, and the DHMS received 2nd place in the grade 5! Attached is a photo of both Pipe Bands. 😊

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Ten of our DHS band students had a busy week participating in All County Band! The students audition for these ensembles in November, and get selected to participate in a group of other students of high caliber in Pinellas County. The students worked incredibly hard and incredibly long with a 4-7pm rehearsal on Wednesday, and 4-9pm rehearsals on Thursday and Friday. Not to mention, they took place at Seminole High School. 

 

The students played their concert at the Mahaffey Theatre at 2pm, and they sounded amazing. 

 

Thank you to all of you for supporting these students in everything that they do, especially in all of our music and arts programs:

 

Annalise O'Brien

Taylor Green

Gavyn Santore

Abigail Palmer

Sophia Valentino

Terra Parsons

Indira Yengera

Kade Duck

Brenner Casselman

Miles Freeman

 

       

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Ms. Alicea just wanted to share with all of you how AWESOME the past few days have been for the Pipe Band Program. This past Friday, January 12th, 2024, the High School AND Middle School Pipe band performed at the FMEA (Florida Music Educators’ Association) Conference. This event is a professional development conference for all the music teachers in Florida, plus many professionals outside of Florida. 100s of bands apply to perform in the mini concert series, and the DHS and DHMS Pipe Bands were only 1 of 6 to get accepted! We had the biggest crowd out of all of the mini concerts, and we were proud to represent DHS, the city of Dunedin, and Pinellas County.

The day after this performance, all the same students traveled to the Orlando Highland Games to be there by 8am. After a full day of solos and Pipe Band Competition, excited to announce that the DHS Pipe Band won 2^nd place in the Grade 4!!!!!!

Shout out to Ms. Mullholand for her students that made All State Chorus and also represented us well at the FMEA Conference!