I taught in a school of 450 students (K-6) in the mid-1990s.  Most years I programmed several separate grade level concerts with grades paired together (Kindergarten alone for parents only, 1st/2nd, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th) in addition to 2 concerts by my 5th/6th grade chorus & Orff ensemble.  Most concerts were musicals (many from the Music K-8 publication) that lasted 20-30 minutes with the performing grades doing their show for the rest of the school and parents.  The Chorus/Orff Ensemble shows were generally 30 minute shows, though my last year we did a 4 part medley review 100-Years of Broadway to which I added 6 solo features -- that show was 45 minutes to an hour.

 

I did one all-school production when the school had a big push on Earth Day and recycling.  I used the Music K-8 Earth Day show which included numerous short speaking parts breaking up 6 songs.  The opening & closing songs all grades sang with the other 4 songs sung by the grade pairs above + the Kindergarten.  Again the show was 20-30 minutes long followed by a tree planting ceremony in the playground afterwards.  For that show, we used the full width of the gym as our stage with grade pairs sitting in clusters and then standing when it was their turn to sing -- this avoided taking time to move groups on and off the stage and made the show flow quickly.

 

My school always planned shows to be performed in the afternoon - generally the last hour of school - that avoided students coming in and out of class and being "out of sorts" and hard to get back into schoolwork after an assembly.  The show dates were on the calendar at the beginning of the school year so there were no surprises to teachers about assemblies.  I tried to select shows that corresponded with curriculum for the grades so that my productions were an extension of classroom learning (which classroom teachers LOVED).

 

Jennifer

I have done "elementary" concerts similar to what you are describing in the past (full school, multiple grades, a few songs per grade) and am currently involved with 5th-8th grade combined instrumental/vocal concerts involving all students in the school. Personally, I don't like concerts for even students as old as 5th grade to go too much longer than an hour. When I was involved in elementary concerts, we divided ours up so that only two to three grade levels would perform per concert, with multiple concerts throughout the school year. Each individual concert was around 40 minutes long. We paired up the younger groups who might have less material with older who would have more, to balance it out. It also meant that as a teacher, I was only dealing with a performance by a portion of my classes at a time, rather than every student in the school at once.

 

The amount of material you describe seems absolutely reasonable, but the actual length of the concert may or may not be - that could be what your colleague is referring to. Are your transitions quick and efficient, or is there a lot of time spent watching kids get on and off risers? Are classroom teachers or others helping you with the logistics portion (moving equipment, getting kids on and off, etc.?) My colleagues and I have been making changes over the last two years to make our concerts a much more manageble length of time (they were a bit long when I got here.) We have not cut the amount of music we are performing, but we have made lots of tweaks to our stage setup, method of coming on and off stage, concert order, etc. to really make things flow efficiently. Since we are also trying to establish expectations around student audience behavior, it helps to make the time a manageable amount.