CE News 12 April 26
A couple of newsworthy mentions:
- Long rehearsal/retreat has been changed to a time of 10 am to 2 pm. Date is still 18 April and it is still at the Sooke Community Hall, but in the upstairs hall, not the dining room. On this Wednesday, we will be requesting names of those to bring snacks: as we will now be over lunch time, we may need to have a few more.
- Everyone in the current choir is invited to the board meeting tomorrow at 7pm at Sally's house: 6407 Belvista Place, Sooke. We will be having a regular meeting and invite anyone interested in seeing what the "behind the scenes" looks like. Great idea to check us out if you want to be part of the next board.
- Bring a friend to choir is on Wednesday, 15 April, in Langford. We encourage everyone to bring someone that might be interested in joining us.
- Intended walk outing before rehearsal on Wednesday, 22 April in Sooke. Our wonderful socials director Marj, is planning a cup of soup after the walk and before rehearsal. More details to follow, but mark the date!
- Bottle drive: we didn't get plans finalized in time to have this happen this session, but maybe for next time! If you have bottles you want to cash in and donate to the choir, please do. If you want to bring them and have someone else do the work, bring them on Wednesday April 15th and I will take them off your hands. Because we missed out on some of the grants (Thank you Sally, Tara and Sherry for the submissions) we are running a bit thin for where the board wants to take the choir.
Our new format of seating for performing is different but growing on me! I hope it is the same for you. Having the altos sit next to the sopranos means we actually get to hear each other, and as so many of our songs share soprano/alto parts, it makes the blend easier. But I really miss the tenors! I'm sure our sound is improved for Gordon, (and the audience!) which is the most important.
Keep up the good work with sectionals, and perfect those sounds together, so that when we come together as a choir, our sound is better. Andre joining us on the guitar was fabulous last week. He is such a complement to the choir both artistically and as our AD. It is great that he is healed enough that he can join us. Did everyone get the first offering of a jingle to learn? I know Keiran and Linda were also working on one.
Several people were able to attend the Sing Your Joy concert last evening. I'm sure they will fill us in on how it went. We also had a fun time bowling yesterday. Scores were not bad, and we are certainly not ready for league play, but it was a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who attended.
You will also receive an email that advises our dress rehearsal and show times and the expectations of when to be there for each. It is usually 1 hour before the dress rehearsal and 2 hours before the show time so please be on the lookout for it.
Just so everyone is aware: Paula and Tara will not be joining us for the shows. Paula is recovering well, and Tara has conflicts with scheduling so has withdrawn. We are sad to see them not be part of the show after all the work they have done. Adriana will be returning after flying to say goodbye to her brother for the last time. Our hearts go out to them all.
This is getting very long, so I will sign off and see you one Wednesday, in Langford at 7. WITH A FRIEND!
News
We are getting close to the conclusion of all our hard work: it is exciting and a little scary! I know how much work you all have put in to the be the best that you can be, so I know we will have a fabulous show. Thank you all for your commitment to the choir and our music. Andre will be with us on Wednesday in Langford, so we can show him all that we have accomplished. How exciting! On Wednesday, April 15, the choir is hosting the "Bring a Friend to Choir" night at the Langford venue. Please reach out to someone who may be interested in seeing behind the scenes and might want to join us. It is a great opportunity to help someone learn what it is you do every Wednesday. They don't have to stay the entire rehearsal, but we would like to know who might be coming. If you have someone you are bringing, please drop a note to the choralevolution@gmail.com email. The invitation will go out on FB as well, so lets get a houseful of potential new singers! Attendance has been phenomenal now that the cold season is leaving us. The trick is to now stay healthy from now until the show. Washing your hands often is still the best way to prevent spreading those nasty germs. I'd also like to wish a speedy recovery to Paula! We hope you will be back singing with us soon! Know you are missed. The communication about the show shirts is in your email, including the cost. If the cost is insurmountable, please reach out to a board member. If you have a bit extra to give to support someone else, add that on to the amount submitted. Thanks everyone. Reminder that everyone is invited to the next board meeting. Take this as an opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes and perhaps you might want to be a part of it! Everyone in the choir is invited and you don't have to stay the whole time. Come join the fun. Rehearsal is in Langford this Wednesday, and the same for the 15th. See you there! Keep practicing!
Hey everyone. A big shout out to Marj for hosting a dessert meet before the last rehearsal. It was very appreciated and delicious! Thank you to everyone who was able to attend and get to know one another better. The next planned activity is a bowling event, which is I believe on Saturday 12 April. More info will be coming for that once details are nailed down. So....very interesting rehearsal from last week. With us moving all around the room and being next to those we don't normally sing next to. I love it when we shake it up a bit, so I'm hoping that everyone was able to learn something from the action. Good job on the solos for those that sang; it sounded good and can only get better! If you are reading this, you went through the website and may have seen some changes. The board (after a ton of research done by Adriana) has a Square device to be able to take payment on at the door or from choir members before rehearsal/on break for tickets. You might have seen a couple of new tabs: Advertisement and Tickets: The advertisement is for those who want advertise with us, the tickets is self explanatory. There is also a banner telling people that tickets are on sale as of 30 March (that is tomorrow!!!) Adriana has done a lot of work to get these up and running and will allow our patrons to purchase on the website rather than going through Eventbrite...so spread the word. Joscelyn is spearheading the search for advertising for the program. If you know someone who wants to advertise/support us, please let her know (joscelyng@gmail.com). If you know of someone who wants to invest in our choir, please let the board know. We have only a month before our show (4 rehearsals and the long rehearsal on 18 April) so it is time to sharpen our skills as we know the music, and must now perfect it. Read through the notes that you have taken during rehearsal, remember the loud and short bits, get those sectionals in, and keep practicing on your own. As a reminder, Wannabe and Lovely Day (I think!) are off book so please work to memorize them both. We spoke a little about the concert wear for this show, and some decisions were made by the board which will be communicated on Wednesday. We haven't talked about it much, but there will be a general meeting for Choral Evolution where we get to elect a new board. The current board invites you to join us for our next meeting on 13 April to see what is accomplished behind the scenes. We invite everyone in the choir to attend (you don't have to stay the whole time!). If you have interest in being part of the governing body, please attend or speak to one of the board about a position that interests you. A request for nominations for board positions will be shared soon. A big thank you to Sally, who has been joined by Tara, for applying for grants to help support our choir. Without these grants, the fees would be astronomical, so her/their work is instrumental in keeping our choir alive. We also spoke about a bottle drive to help support us, but it might not be able to be done before the show. If you have bottles kept for this purpose, cash them in and support the choir, or keep them aside as we will probably be able to accomplish more after the show is done. It may be that we can have the bottle drive....I just don't know the date. See you on Wednesday in Sooke at 7!
Director Notes
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
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