choral-evolution

Director Notes - Sept 18th 2026

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 19:19:55 GMT

Hello Choral Evolutioneers!

We are making steady progress reading through our Christmas tunes. Thank you all for keeping the chatter to a minimum during rehearsals. It saves so much time and energy for all of us.

The choir's sound is only as good as the singers making it. Please start exercising your voices regularly. Find a nice big space where you won't be disturbed and sing some of the parts you are working on at full voice. Imagine you are in a big hall, really sing out and enjoy the feeling of making a free and open sound. The halls we perform in are large and require a lot of sound to fill. We need each voice to contribute to our exciting live sound.

If you would like to try out for a spot in our little group, please prepare your part in "Rivah" , 9 bars starting at letter D.

Next week, Sept 23rd we will work on the following tunes:

Underneath the Three - let's dig into this one

Child of Wonder - We will read this acapella piece and start learning it

River - Sing through and clean up

Christmas Morning - Read through

Christmas Canon - If we have time

See you Wednesday in Langford,

André

Breathing is the rhythm of music – singing is tone on breath – practice the complete breath – be conscious of each breath

– then put breath on pitch – let the breath make the tone - release vocal tension, stiffness - trust the breath

Start your practice every day:

✓ Complete breath – Low – Med – High, then all together.

✓ This will Coordinate – innervate – strengthen your breathing

✓ Keep chest high – sigh to start tone – start relaxing right away

✓ Sing 5 notes down on oo, then oo – ah. Like a sigh

✓ Now you are ready to start singing

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. If you have trouble accessing them, please ask.

Reminders:

✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only.

✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal

✓ Mark your parts – score is a road map to beautiful music

✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it.

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. You will get an email explaining how to do

this.

CE News 13 Sept 2026

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:49:29 GMT

Hey everyone! We seem to be settling in well and it is evident that there has been some work at home on the music; thank you for that as it only makes us a better choir and makes rehearsal easier. When we work on the music at home, the rehearsal will be less overwhelming as you will know exactly where you are and what you should be singing. If you are able, please practice a bit every day with the tracks and music. I have a 45 minute commute so I downloaded to my phone and I can rehearse in my car. Yes, I probably get strange looks, but maybe that will encourage people to seek us out! Please see Andre's blog for what we will be focusing on Wednesday: those should be your need to work on pieces.

We will be in Langford for our next rehearsal. For those new to the venue, please see the Langford Map in the members area: 2838 Bryn Maur Rd . There is another group using the space so we cannot enter until 7pm. Reminder: there is underground parking that we can use (directly to the left of the building). The rehearsal space is on the second floor and there is an elevator for those that need it; stairs are to the left in the foyer. If you arrive before 7, please stay outside and take the opportunity to visit; we will get started as soon as we get upstairs. Please lend a hand setting up chairs so we can get started.

Now, I feel that I cannot let Andre's comments slide about my "boring blog"....the gauntlet has been thrown down! (ahaha) This area is meant for information for Choral Evolution members....so, what would you like to see in it? I can tailor it to the members needs, so any suggestion is welcome. Please share your thoughts to my personal email: labtech1963@gmail.com.

As advised earlier, this is a completely volunteer organisation, with the exception of our talent: AD and accompanist. As such, there will be many jobs that are required to be done, and if no one volunteers, the board staff have to take them on, weighing their workload down. In the upcoming weeks, a volunteer list will be at rehearsal and I encourage everyone to choose at least 1 task. Thank you for your willingness to help us succeed.

Make sure you start talking to people about our shows in December: Sooke, Dec 4 and Colwood, Dec 5. We also plan for the Sing-Along to happen, but need to arrange some details before dates are shared.

You may have noticed the "I Love My Choir" box on the table at rehearsal. This was an initiative from a few years back to allow members to toss in a couple of dollars to help the choir along. I save bottles and contribute the money to the box. If you have something to contribute, please do. We are also looking for someone to organize and initiate a Bottle Drive. If that is something you would like to do, please let us know.

Have a great week, remember to practice, and I'll see you on Wednesday in Langford.

Director Notes - Sept 10th 2026

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:38:32 GMT

Hello Choral Evolutioneers!

Our season is off to a fine start. Learning our parts and putting them together at rehearsal is always challenging at the beginning. As things progress, the fog clears and the true sound of Choral Evolution will come ringing through. We heard a few moments of clarity last night and the sound was exciting to those of us at the front. We are a fine group and I predict an excellent show will come of it.

Altos: We have a surplus of Altos and we need another couple of Sopranos. If you are comfortable singing to a D or E at the top of the staff...Consider joining the sopranos! We all went at least that high during the warm up last night for instance. If you are interested or tempted, please let me or someone on the board know. The Sopranos have lots of fun too and they often get the tune.

Next week, Sept 16th we will work on the following tunes:

Underneath the Three - let's read through it and get started.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) We should be able to finish reading this one

River - Letter D to the end

Happy New Year - Beginning to Bar 26

Like it’s Christmas - We should be able to finish reading this one

A Festive Christmas Trilogy (We will sing this to end most rehearsals, send us out the door happy)

See you Wednesday in Langford,

André

Breathing is the rhythm of music – singing is tone on breath – practice the complete breath – be conscious of each breath

– then put breath on pitch – let the breath help you release vocal tension, stiffness - learn to trust the breath

Start your practice every day:

✓ Complete breath – Low – Med – High, then all together.

✓ This will Coordinate – innervate – strengthen your breathing

✓ Keep chest high – sigh to start tone – start relaxing right away

✓ Sing 5 notes down on oo, then oo – ah. Like a sigh

✓ Now you are ready to start singing

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. If you have trouble accessing them, please ask.

Reminders:

✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only.

✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal

✓ Mark your parts – score is a road map to beautiful music

✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it.

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. You will get an email explaining how to do

this.

CE News 6 Sept 26

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 18:27:48 GMT

Welcome back to our returning members, and a huge welcome to our new singers! We had 10 new recruits on Wednesday which is an awesome turn out. Thank you to everyone for supporting new singers and sharing a wonderfully warm CE welcome.

Thank you to Andre for auditioning and getting us right back into the music. Thank you to Gabe for your awesomeness and skill at the keyboard!

CE strives to be a "family of singers" so please embrace that philosophy and enjoy singing with a group of like-minded people. We all have different versions of skills, so learn from each other; this is where the sectionals come in. If you hadn't realized yet, Choral Evolution is FUN!

If you have accessed the blog, you have gained access to the members area and have seen the calendar, Andre's blog and other pertinent information including the tracks. Sue has included instructions on how to download (Thanks, Sue). If you have issues with it, please contact her at suemcleodmail@gmail.com.

The members area password will be changed this week (after Wednesday) and everyone will be advised.

Your participation at rehearsals is integral to us singing as a unit, and in order to track that and ensure we are all able to keep up with the work, an attendance is taken each rehearsal. If you cannot attend due to sickness (please see the sickness policy) or for some other reason, please send an email to attendance.ca2023@gmail.com. There is also a link in the members area, but once you send an email to the address, your phone/computer will remember it.

Also to be updated in the members area is a list of current singers. It will share your name, email and phone number. If for some reason you do not want this shared, please advise. We use the list so that sections can contact their members for sectionals. You might ask "what is a sectional"? Sectionals are where a section gets together to review parts of the music, rehearse together and learn to know others in their section. We will be requesting a Section Lead of each section; that person organizes the group and sets up times/location to meet. It is one of the many volunteer jobs that this organization has. The Section Lead should have a good understanding of music and some organizational tools (although, the section lead can share that aspect with another member). Because we have lots to do and learn, starting sectionals early is very helpful. You can use the tracks if a piano is not available.

This is becoming too long, so I'm quitting while ahead. Information about other volunteer opportunities will be shared just after the break at rehearsals.

Be sure to download your music and start learning! It will only make us a better choir.

Sherry

Director Notes Template - Sept 2nd 2026

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 21:22:02 GMT

Hello Choral Evolutioneers!

Thank you for joining us Wednesday for our 1st rehearsal. So many new happy singers looking to add to our already amazing sound. We're going to have a wonderful time together getting our music learned and rehearsed and this show on the road.

Next week, Sept 9th we will work on the following tunes:

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) Choral Sheet Music | J.W. Pepper

River

Happy New Year

Like it’s Christmas

A Festive Christmas Trilogy (We will sing this to end most rehearsals, send us out the door happy)

Start your practice every day:

✓ Complete breath – Low – Med – High, then all together.

✓ This will Coordinate – innervate – strengthen your breathing

✓ Keep chest high – sigh to start tone – start relaxing right away

✓ Sing 5 notes down on oo, then oo – ah. Like a sigh

✓ Now you are ready to start singing

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. If you have trouble accessing them, please ask.

Breathing is the rhythm of music – singing is tone on breath – practice the complete breath – be conscious of each breath

– then put breath on pitch – let the breath help you release vocal tension, stiffness - learn to trust the breath

See you Wednesday in Sooke!

André

Reminders:

✓ We have Excellent New music, mark lightly with pencils only.

✓ Please bring a pencil to rehearsal

✓ Mark your parts – score is a road map to beautiful music

✓ In long passages, decide where you will breathe, mark it down and practice it.

✓ Practice – know your parts – use the practice tracks. You will get an email explaining how to do

this.

Welcome to the fall season, 2026

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 00:33:40 GMT

Hello CE singers,

We’re excited to welcome you back! Registration for our new session begins Wednesday, September 2 at 6:30 pm in the Sooke Community Hall dining room . Due to rising costs, we’ve had to increase the season fee slightly - the new fee for the season is $200 . If you pre-pay by e‑transfer to choralevolution@ gmail .com , you can pick up your music now. Many rehearsal tracks are ready so you can get a jump on learning the pieces.

This session is a playful departure from our usual fall fare … imagine pop‑forward Christmas favourites with a few contemporary choral gems tucked in. Expect a few familiar names to pop up (think a cheeky nod to ABBA, a bright Kelly Clarkson moment, a classic Mariah highlight, a wistful Amy Grant tune, and a festive Jonas Brothers vibe) plus a couple of surprises and contemporary choral pieces to keep things sparkling.

If you have a friend who might like to see what our choir is like, please invite them to the first rehearsal — they would be very welcome! Please consider pre-paying now to help the first night run smoothly; if you prefer not to pre-pay, a quick reply to this email to let us know you’ll attend would be greatly appreciated.

We would also like to welcome and thank our new board members, Emily Craddock and Michelle Wellwood! Thank you for joining us Michelle and Emily!

We look forward to singing with you on September 2 ^nd ,

Your Choral Evolution Board of Directors

Sherry Walters, president

Jackie Hansen, treasurer

Emily Craddock, secretary

Diane Edwards, past co-president

Michelle Wellwood, director

Sally Titchkosky, director