CE news 11 Jan 26

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Well, we are off to another start. We've got our music, our tracks and our awesome team of Andre and Gabe to get us singing our hearts out. This should be a really fun session with the idea of a call in radio show! Something new and inventive for our audience. If you have thoughts about the call in for any of the songs, please write them down and submit to Andre. Be inventive!

This blog's intent is to give reminders, applause and helpful advice. If there is something specific you would like to see, please let me know.

Andre shared some of the ground rules with everyone last Wednesday. Please take them to heart so that we can have the best experience for everyone: the code of ethics was signed by all when we registered, so we have a reference. Andre is always open to comments or questions when you raise your hand. We love us some Andre and Gabe: they are the best!

This is the first blog of the year (session) for me, so there are a few items that will be old news for most, but good reminders for all.

We are all encouraged to bring water to each rehearsal: singing is hard work, and you will need it. Everyone should have a pencil to lightly mark their music with notes to themselves. Warm up your voice running scales or such in your car before you arrive; it makes it easier to get into the right frame of mind as well as warm up your voice. You and your voice are important to us all: please make every attempt to be at every rehearsal. Please see the website for the wellness policy. There will be other policies up there soon.

We will be reaching out soon to request section leaders for each section: this is the person who you go to if you have music questions, who will set up sectionals, and basically keeps the section in the know. The members area is the place to go for information: take a few minutes to check through all the tabs. You can also access all the music tracks and from there download them to your phone or computer. Sue has set up a file with instructions for this (to be uploaded right away!). If you have trouble, please reach out to Sue at suemcleodmail@gmail.com. Thanks Sue!

Choral Evolution has a good Facebook and Instagram presence (thanks, Joscelyn!) Please set us up in your feed. We also have a "behind the scenes" area that is only accessed by members: Backstage at Choral Evolution. If you would like access, please email Joscelyn at joscelyng@gmail.com.

Wednesday, we will be in Langford at the Masonic Centre. Location and maps are in the members area as well.

Westshore Masonic Centre 2832 Bryn Maur Road, Langford. We meet at 7pm (but it is always a good idea to get there a bit early so we can set up!)

Happy singing!

Sherry

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CE News 26 April 26

By Sherry Walters • April 27, 2026

Well, it's the last blog before the shows! How exciting that we will get to see all our hard work come together and that we can share with family, friends and hopefully the rest of our fan club! It is really important to make the dress rehearsal (in you concert attire of your blue CE shirt, black pants/maxi-skirt): so many updates happen at the dress rehearsal where we run through the show and fix things. Please wear comfortable shoes as we will be standing for most of the evening. Call for dress is at 6 pm at St Mary's on Metchosin Road--check the schedule for the updated location and Dress Rehearsal Map (thanks Adriana!). The times that everyone is expected to be at the venue for the shows are listed in the members area under the schedule as well. Stay healthy! We are almost there and really need everyone for the show. If you haven't sold the show to friends and family....let's get to it. Share with collogues, people at the coffee shop, long lost cousins, everyone. The show will be fantastic and you should be proud of it. Invite everyone you know. Tickets are on the website, at the dress reheasal (Jackie) and at the door. Lets fill those seats. We (the board) will talk a bit about the upcoming AGM on Tuesday. We'd like to have a BBQ and then sneak in a half hour for the AGM. And maybe some of the next session music will be available????Details will be coming. Sheila will be sharing when and where to turn in your music from this session. I don't have details yet about that, so stay tuned. Marj, our event planner, is working on a venue for after the show at the JdF. It is always a good time, so please consider attending. It gives us a chance to debrief the show as well as get to know one another better. Hope to see you there. We will be sending out a big THANK YOU email listing everyone who performed a job this session. It would never have happened without you. That is it for now....my brain is fried trying to keep all the concert ducks in a row for the tasks I have signed up for....see you Tuesday in Metchosin at 6.

CE News 19 April 2026

By Sherry Walters • April 19, 2026

Thank you for the great turn out on Saturday; it is incredibly important to be at the remaining rehearsals as now we nit pick the songs to make them just right. If you miss one, you miss a lot! We have 1 full rehearsal and then the dress rehearsal, then the SHOWS! Wow, it feels like it has crept up on us, but your production team has been on top of it making plans to make us look and sound good. There will be many jobs around the shows and an email will be sent to remind people what they signed up for. Thank you to everyone for pitching in and making this session a success. Two people brought friends to the "bring a friend night" so here's hoping they might like to join us in the fall! Please continue to review your music often, especially reviewing the trouble spots that Gordon pointed out yesterday. I know how hard you are working, but when one part doesn't sound right, the whole sounds bad. Keep working! You will get it and we will be reviewing next Wednesday....starting with Hotel California just as Gordon said. What a difference having the guitar playing with us! Thank you, Andre for filling that hole. We will also have percussion for the show and Gabe will lead his "band" with the expertise he has always had. A big thank you to everyone who brought goodies to share on our break: Kristin, Shawna, Earl and Jan...and I noticed a couple others sneak some food in there too, so thank you! If you haven't seen Facebook lately, I encourage you to check it out for Choral Evolution. Emily has done a great job promoting us and adding content to keep us active in everyone's threads. Thank you, Emily! An email has come detailing the walk before rehearsal on Wednesday. Please join if able and get to know your choir members. Marj is preparing soup for after the walk. Enjoy! The board meeting that was open to everyone was unfortunately attended only by the actual board. If there is a position you are interested in, please speak to the current board members: Diane, Sherry, Sally, Joscelyn, Adriana and Jackie. The board exists to ensure the choir governance is maintained. It is a necessary part and it would be great to have new blood! The board is planning to have a BBQ in June to celebrate our show, to have fun getting together again before next session, hopefully getting the new music and having a quick AGM. It will be a fun time, so plan on it for mid June. See you on Wednesday in Sooke!

Director Notes

Rehearsal Notes for March 18th, 2026

March 17, 2026

Warm up: 7:00 to 7:10 - 10 min - More Than Words hmmm ... if you wonder why I haven't worked on this song, it's because (I think - subjective I know) there's nothing to it. My hope would be that you sing it once every day with the rehearsal files and then we just sing it together on Wednesday. The more you look at me the tighter we will be. ... I will have it memorized by tomorrow. Let's just enjoy it together. 7:10 to 7:20 - (10 min) Fix the cascading 'Good Nights' in Emotion 7:20 to 7:35 - (15 min) Shine pick up to Bar 52 to Bar 78 7:35 to 7:55 - (10 min) Hotel California . just run bar 89 to the end ... did we remember anything of the work we did last week I wonder? then fix a few things and move on. 7:55 to 8:15 - (20 min) Somebody To Love 8:15 to 8:30 - (15 min) Break and Announcements 8:30 to 8:40 - (10 min) more work on Somebody to Love 8:40 to 9:00 - (20 min) Good Vibrations (bar 9 to 35) (bar 55 to 70) 9:00 to 9:15 - (15 min) Budapest with Soloist (we will work on the whole song) 9:30: Browns Social House Gordon LINK: Gordon Notes LINK: YouTube Playlist

Rehearsal Notes for March 11th, 2026

March 11, 2026

7:00 to 7:10 Rhythm Exercises (16ths 8ths and quarters) 7:10 to 7:30 - 20 min Hotel California - working from the back page and working our way forward. 7:30 to 7:50 - 20 min - Wanabe - by memory to bar 35. then open books work bars 35 to 51 7:50 to 8:10 - 20 min - Emotion - we will work on trying to get some pathos out of this poppy tune 8:10 to 8:25 - BREAK 8:25 to 8:45 - 20 min - Biblical with Soloist 8:45 to 9:05 - 20 min - Somebody to Love 9:05 to 9:15 - 10 min - Lovely Day Gordon LINK: Gordon Notes LINK: YouTube Playlist