Music for All UCF: Director Information

WELCOME and congratulations on your ensemble’s selection to this year’s Music for All UCF-Orlando Concert Band Invitational, presented by Excelcia Music Publishers. This page should serve as a central resource for you and our staff to exchange the most important information in preparation for a successful event on April 12. Please monitor this page AND your e-mail inbox for notice, both of new information that can be found here AND regarding details that we need you to submit. We’re looking forward to an incredible day of music and learning with you and your band community!

PLEASE take the time to familiarize yourself with all details and instructions in this packet and future communications to help ensure that all will run as smoothly and according to schedule as possible.

• Travel Planning
• Equipment Information
• Dr. Phillips Center Information
• Performance & Clinic Information
• Parents & Supporters Information
• The Rest of Your Day
• Schedule
• Information Submission

Travel Planning

ARRIVAL
You will want to direct your buses to the intersection of E Anderson St and S Rosalind Ave (see embedded map). Depending on your assigned performance venue (see schedule, below), you will either unload at the Anderson St entrance to the Dr. Phillips Center, just to the west of the intersection, or at the loading dock on the back (east) side of the DPPAC, just to the north of the intersection. Please have your buses approach your drop-off FROM that Anderson/Rosalind intersection.

Driving Directions from I-4, coming from the WEST
1. Take I-4 EAST to the South Street Exit (82B)
2. The exit curves to the right
3. Turn RIGHT onto South St
4. Turn RIGHT onto Orange Avenue
5. Turn LEFT onto Anderson St
6. Turn LEFT onto Rosalind Ave

Driving Directions from I-4, coming from the EAST
1. Take I-4 West to the Anderson Street Exit (82C)
2. Turn LEFT onto Anderson St
3. Turn LEFT onto S. Rosalind Ave

Driving Directions from the 408 East-West Expressway, from the WEST
1. Take 408 East to the Orange Avenue Exit (10C)
2. Turn LEFT onto SR527 (becomes Rosalind Ave, north of SR408)

Driving Directions from the 408 East-West Expressway, from the EAST
1. Take 408 West to the Rosalind Street Exit (11A)
2. Turn LEFT onto South St
3. Turn LEFT onto Orange Avenue
4. Turn LEFT onto Anderson St
5. Turn LEFT onto S. Rosalind Ave

BUS and OTHER PARKING
is still being negotiated with the DPPAC staff. Please continue to monitor this page and details will be updated once confirmed. Bus parking instructions will also be affirmed in the final information you’ll receive just prior to the event.

For GENERAL PARKING (private vehicles), we recommend using either the City Commons Parking Garageat the corner of South St and Boone Ave, or at the Orange County Administration Building Parking Garage(both pay-to-park) on Liberty St. Private cars will not be allowed in the loading dock or bus parking areas.

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Equipment

Please plan to use the percussion equipment that will be provided (see separate listing, below). Along with the program and setup diagram information that we are requesting from you, we will also be asking that you provide a list of percussion needs for your ensemble’s performance.

Your percussionists should plan to bring their own sticks & mallets, and from your list you will be informed of any unique instruments that we are unable to facilitate. Once again – beyond what we will be providing, please do not plan to bring any of your own large percussion equipment.

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Dr. Phillips Center

ENTERING THE DR. PHILLIPS CENTER (DPPAC)*
Please note that we will soon be contacting you asking for complete security lists, and while these will expedite building entry, everyone will still be required to go through a security checkpoint at building (loading dock) entry. To facilitate the smoothest possible entry, allowing our event to remain on schedule, we ask both that you advise patience from all in your party and that you see to the following:

1. PLAN FOR TRAFFIC. even with only typical I-4 & downtown traffic, please build additional time into your travel planning.
   
2. TRAVEL IN PERFORMANCE ATTIRE. There will be neither facilities nor time for changing.
   
3. BRING ONLY THE ITEMS YOU WILL ABSOLUTELY NEED TO BRING INTO THE DPPAC. Bags and cases will all be checked at the security checkpoint, so to help avoid backing the line up any more than necessary, please instruct students not to bring any extra bags or backpacks with them into the facility.
   
   *At least one Band Guide from the UCF Bands will meet your bus upon arrival and will escort you and your party from your first arrival all the way to your departure, following your performance and clinic.

HOMEROOMS & STORAGE
Your group will remain in the loading dock holding area until your entire party is through security. Once everyone is through security, your Band Guide will escort you to your assigned homeroom, where your students should leave cases and other belongings (unless leaving cases, etc. on your buses), and then to the entry point for your assigned performance center (either Steinmetz Hall or the Walt Disney Theatre). Only those items necessary for your performance & clinic (instruments, music folders, sticks & mallets, etc.) should be taken onstage.

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Performance & Clinic

STAGE ENTRANCE
UCF Bands staff will have the stage set up for your ensemble, based on the setup diagram that we are asking from you (see below). You may send your percussionists on stage a few minutes early to setup equipment to their liking, but our hope is that the diagram you submit will be as detailed as possible, including how you would like percussion instruments set.

• Each ensemble will have approximately 10 minutes for onstage warmup prior to performance (dependent on each group entering & exiting the stage in an orderly & efficient manner) and 30 minutes for performance, followed by a 20-minute clinic. NOTE: it is very important that we remain on schedule. There will be a timer onstage to communicate with each director. Groups that practice an extended warmup will have that extra time deducted from their performance time allotment. Ensembles may be stopped if they go beyond the end of their total performance time allotment.
• Ensembles assigned to the Feature Stage (Steinmetz Hall) will move immediately following their performance to the DeVos Family Room for their clinic session.
• Ensembles assigned to the Invited Stage Walt Disney Theatre) will move immediately following their performance to the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theatre for their clinic.
• Once again, please understand that to remain on time in what will be a tightly scheduled day, your combined allotted warmup & performance times must begin once your ensemble is situated onstage and that any delays on the part of an ensemble will eat into their performance time.

Your performance will be professionally recorded (audio & video). Media files will be shared with you digitally, as soon as possible, post-event. Educational critique from our panel of clinicians will also be shared with you. Immediately following your performance, we are pleased for you and your students to enjoy an individual clinic session with one of our esteemed clinician-educator panelists, including Featured Clinician, the legendary Alfred Watkins.

Following your performance and clinic, you and your students will be escorted back to your home room to collect cases and other belongings, or to the bus parking.

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Family & Supporters

As for prior festivals, we have been able to coordinate with the DPPAC staff to facilitate your supporters having access to attend your performance. To that end, please note the following:

• ALL non-performing personnel (anyone other than performing ensemble members and directors) should enter the building through the main lobby entrance.
• *NEW in 2023* Tickets will be required for family and other supporters (all non-performing personnel) for access to performing centers at all times, day and evening. Tickets can be obtained online in advance (preferred – see below) or on the day of, at the DPPAC main lobby ticket window.
• Tickets for all day-time invitational activities are $10.00 ea. Please check back here for a link for online ticket purchases (advance purchasing is encouraged). Each ticket is good for the entirety of the daytime invitational (8:00 AM – 4:00 PM).
• The evening UCF Bands Concert will be ticketed separately. Please check back here for a link for online ticket purchases.
• Members of each group’s performing personnel party (performing students, directors, staff directly involved in the ensemble’s performance) will be issued color-coded wrist bands upon arrival. Please keep these wrist bands on throughout the entirety of your stay (including the evening concert). They will serve as tickets for entrance to both the daytime festival and the evening concert.
• Regrettably, for security reasons, parents and other supporters cannot be allowed to attend the clinics in the DeVos Family Room.

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The Rest of Your Day

STORAGE (optional)
Following your performance & clinic, you and your students will be escorted back to your home room area and then you will have two options with regard to cases and other items for the remainder of the day:

1. You may return these items to your buses
2. Should you wish, you may store these items in the DPPAC in a pre-assigned space. PLEASE NOTE that if you would like to exercise this option, you will be asked in advance to provide an estimated “footprint” for the amount of space needed (see below) and once secured there, following your performance & clinic, you will not have access to these items until the end of that evening’s UCF Bands concert. Further information will be provided.
3. So that our participating bands can enjoy audience feedback in addition to what they receive from our clinicians, we encourage you all to consider including in your day’s plans attending & supporting the performance of at least one other band, if not multiple. We simply ask that you remain attentive to your own assigned arrival, warmup, performance & clinic times, so we can remain on schedule, and that you encourage your students to be the most respectful, supportive patrons possible.
4. Please remember that all members of your performing party should keep their wrist bands on throughout the entirety of your stay (including the evening concert). They will serve as tickets for entrance to both the daytime festival and the evening concert.
5. FOOD TRUCKS will be on site for lunch, parked in the plaza directly in front of the DPPAC. Details regarding exact times, trucks & menus will be posted here when available.

Once your equipment is dealt with, you and your students may go back into Steinmetz Hall or Walt Disney Theatre (performance centers) to watch other bands from the house seating. We simply ask that your students be a respectful audience for the ensembles on stage and that no food or drink of any kind be brought into either hall. PLEASE NOTE: if you choose to stay and watch other groups, your entire party must remain only in Steinmetz Hall or Walt Disney Theatre houses. We encourage you to visit our sponsors’ displays in the DPPAC lobby, but the lobby should not be used as a social or gathering space.

Should you choose not to watch other ensembles, there is certainly plenty to do in the Downtown Orlando area, at your pleasure. Please just understand that you should plan to be back to the DPPAC main entrance by 6:45-7:00 PM to enter the hall for the evening UCF Bands concert. Please be reminded that your group’s attendance at the evening UCF Bands concert in Steinmetz Hall is not optional. By accepting the invitation to participate in the Music for All UCF-Orlando Concert Band Invitational you also acknowledged this understanding.

You should hear separately from our School of Performing Arts Ticket Manager regarding any considerations or requirements specific to your group’s entry to the evening UCF Bands concert.

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Schedule

Details regarding schedules, homeroom assignments, warmup information, storage space assignments, and building & space diagrams, will be forthcoming. Please continue to monitor this site for that and other information updates.

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Information Submission

Using the dialogue boxes, below, please upload the requested information in the formats indicated as soon as you’re able. A submission deadline will be indicated once established, so please continue to monitor e-mail and this page for that and other information updates.

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