Education Corner
Thank you to those who participated in last month’s Grow From The Inside zoom meeting series. To watch the February 18, Jumpstart Your Motivation:
Re-Light The Spark, Click Here for the Educational Resources page to view the class video and the PowerPoint presentation (which contains links to the videos referenced during the Zoom.) Thank you, Sue Melvin, for delivering a timely presentation and leaving us with tools to kick our rears into gear....3...2...1!
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YWIH – IGNITE THE PASSION
Make sure you sign up for this next session.
Faculty: Melody Hine, 2018 SAI Rising Star Champion. Click here for Melody's bio and to register.
Date: Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 7:00pm - 8:30pm
Description: Alana Regular, Region 16 YWIH Coordinator, has created a fun and informational session that includes guest faculty Melody Hine. Join her to explore ways to bring the joy of barbershop to young women in your area, and foster their interest in our craft. This class will include marketing & mentorship ideas.
Audience: ALL members are encouraged to attend, including marketing, membership, and music leaders. We will also celebrate and share Region 16 members' own experiences as YWIH, so you don’t want to miss those flashback photos!
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Past Issues
Next deadline
March 31
members'
login info
USERNAME:
the word member
PASSWORD: R16sings
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A MILLION DREAMS
FOR THE WORLD WE'RE GONNA MAKE!
Faculty: Erin Howden, Master 700 Director, North Metro Chorus
Date: Saturday, 1 May 2021 - Save the date!
Description: These unprecedented times have sent us on an emotional roller coaster ride & the track continues to wind with unpredictability. What is next for us? Who holds the key? Where do we go from here? What does the future hold? What is going to happen to US? What is going to happen to ME?
Together we will unpack the power of perspective, intention, and the human spirit. Does the world happen to and for us or do we happen to and for the world?
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REFLECTIONS ON EDUCATION
As we round the bend of an entire year of not being together in person, let us reflect on what we have achieved and succeeded at via educational opportunities! Click here for the presentations, videos, and notes for all the classes listed below.
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2020 Vision & Beyond Membership Growth & Retention – Jennifer Cooke
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Tap Out Stress and Tap in Calm – Rhonda Spoelstra
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Mindset of a Successful Quartetter - Kristen Stevens & Vanessa Patterson
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How to Do Virtual PVIs – Peggy Gram
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Personal Breaths and How Do I Find My Note – Paula Allen & Nancy Watson
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Fall Music School – Erin Howden, Dale Syverson, Corinna Garriock, Caitlin Castelino
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Diversity & Inclusion - Thérèse Antonini
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Quartet Workshop – Caitlin Castelino
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Jumpstart Your Motivation – Sue Melvin
Yes, the magic of zoom may have faded a bit. We hoped this restriction was going to be temporary, however, we need to continue in this capacity for a little bit longer so that we all stay safe.
As challenging as this is, this is a great time to invest in connecting with each other and reflect on why we joined this organization, to begin with. I know some of the education sessions may be difficult to process or apply the instruction because we aren’t standing next to each other, singing and hearing the difference when we implement what we are being taught. The good thing is, we have recorded almost all these educational sessions for you to go back and review them now, or when we are together again.
Consider how lucky we are to have this time to educate ourselves with what we already have, but through a different perspective. With these educational sessions, we are getting to know more people throughout the region other than just at regional competitions or music schools. With weekly chorus zoom calls, we are learning more about our friends on the risers whom we wouldn’t normally have time to chat with. Some members are learning new video and vocal recording skills, and some are improving personal computer skills. Some have mastered a few DCP modules and even obtained an arranging certification!
I am proud of what we have accomplished this past year. I am so appreciative of the regional faculty who jumped in headfirst to help. Thank you to all who have supported and participated in these monthly educational sessions. I feel we have not only added value to our own knowledge bank but have built a stronger connection between each member in our region.
Education is key to our continued connection with each other, to our personal growth, and to working towards a common goal. We will get through this by challenging ourselves, and by taking part in what’s available to us the better we will be as singers on the other side.
Stay Safe and Stay Connected!
In Harmony,
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If you are interested in joining a youth quartet but don’t know where to begin, please drop me a line and I’d be happy to help.
Region 16 YWIH Coordinator
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Zoom Tips
VIRTUAL BACKGROUNDS
The Virtual Background feature allows you to display an image or video as your background during a Zoom Meeting. This is a fun change of scenery without going anywhere, or to hide the chaos and clutter.
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Most newer model computers should be able to manage this Zoom function, but check the specific hardware requirements: Click here.
- The virtual background works best with uniform lighting and a green screen. (Easy, inexpensive tech. hack: A Dollar Store green plastic table covering, or a few green poster boards affixed to the wall behind you work great!).
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You can use one of Zoom’s canned images or upload your own. Click here to follow the easy steps or view a How-To Video.
Have some fun with it and change your virtual background as often as you want!
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Membership Minute
It’s clear to all of us that adapting to COVID-19 has become a
marathon rather than a sprint. We continue to adjust as individuals, as singers, and as chorus and/or quartet members. My counterpart in Region 10, Sue Englebert, shared with me some resources related to resiliency that she developed. I’ll be sharing more with chorus leaders but there were some aspects that really resonated with me that I wanted to share with everyone.
Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. It isn’t about being unaffected by difficult situations, it’s about how we respond and recover. I am clear that Sweet Adelines are amazingly resilient. We have adjusted to Zoom rehearsals, learned
how to make virtual choir videos, and found ways to remain connected through cards, calls, and porch drops. As individuals we have adjusted to working virtually, have supported children and grandchildren in virtual classrooms, and found a way to keep moving forward during economic uncertainty. Our community has given us the strength and support that we have needed to get this far.
The pandemic has challenged our view of how things are done, has highlighted weaknesses in our systems, and created opportunities that didn’t exist before. Part of resilience is looking forward, creating a vision for the future, and then slowly taking steps towards that future. I believe that now is the time for us to create our vision for the future and begin taking those steps. What is your vision for future you? When you have your vision, check out the recent education class led by Sue Melvin to get ideas about how to maintain your motivation as you begin taking steps. The slide deck and a recording of the class are available in the Education section of the Regional website, click here for video, click here for PowerPoint presentation.
Keep making music, spreading joy, and supporting your sisters as only Sweet Adelines can.
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DON’T THROW IN THE TOWEL!
February and March can seem long and snowy. Maybe most of us are wanting to put away the shovels. Winter fatigue is real but heck, we have had so much more to be fatigued from in the past year than the weather! I am talking about Zoom fatigue. My heart goes out to so many of us who are at zoom meetings for work most of the day and have no energy left to attend a zoom rehearsal in the evening. Please hang in there. Don’t jump ship. Don’t throw in the towel.
Remind yourself of the joy you created when singing live with one another so you can keep hope alive until that day returns. Have you tried NO-CAM ZOOM? Maybe it is an option for you to consider for your next rehearsal. Here is how it works: You leave your camera off, you stay muted and you lie in a dark room with your eyes closed, listening to the rehearsal live or through earbuds. You can still be put into your section break-out room to hear what is being said or sung but you do not participate. (It is a good idea if possible to let someone know that is how you are attending this week.) It will keep you connected even when you can’t bear to look at the screen or participate. Alas, maybe even reading the Sixteenth Notes falls into the ‘skipped’ category this month, so you could suggest the NO-CAM ZOOM option to a member who has not shown up for a long time. We care. We don’t want to lose anybody. Go on, reach out.
Paula Allen
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Visit the Region 16 Website!
Have you checked out your quartet or chorus page on the Region 16 website?
On the navigation bar across the top of the website, click on Ensembles. You’ll see a drop-down that includes Choruses and Quartets. Is your information correct? Do you want to add a more current photo? Does it include the link to your website or Facebook page?
If there are updates you want to make to your chorus or quartet page on the Region 16 website, send them to Leila Brown, Webmaster.
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In January, Region 16 RMT decided to set aside a section in Sixteenth Notes to honor and acknowledge Region 16 chorus members who have passed. Beginning with this month’s issue, an In Loving Memory section has been introduced here listing chorus members who have recently passed, and their chorus name. (See the section below.)
To honor a member in your chorus, please send the name to me for inclusion in the Sixteenth Notes. In-Loving Memory announcements will be issued quarterly.
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In Loving Memory of those who are Forever in our Hearts
Shelley Houghton - The Heartland Singers
Marcia Godfrey - Northumberland Chorus
Rita Drake - North Metro Chorus
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Questions?
Do you have a burning question? Is there someone on our RMT who can offer you guidance or answer that burning question? So simple! Just click on the Ask Us square and we will direct your question to the appropriate RMT member, and voila your question will be answered. Not magic....just simple. We want to support you so go ahead and click the box.
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February is the shortest month of the year. What could one small chorus pack into just 28 days? Well … challenge accepted!
We are in the middle of our Back-2-Basics (B2B) program, as well as a New Members Program. We actually gained another potential member recently, so we now have four possible new members! The B2B program has been a great refresher for everyone and has also been very informative for our prospective members.
On Facebook, we have started to give back in shout-outs to those in our community who sponsored our show in 2019. During the lockdown we kept hearing and noticing all the businesses being impacted, so we thought it would be nice to thank those people in our community who gave so graciously to us when we asked for their support.
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To add to the fun of rehearsals, our Director, Janet Cadman, has been finding us silly, but very useful warm-ups – not the ‘oh that's cute’ vocal warm-ups, but ones that make you ‘crack up with laughter' which usually leave the entire chorus in stitches by the time we get to our main part of the night – like when we all had to snore as part of a warm-up, and when we all had to sing about having a head like a ‘ping pong ball’ to the theme to the Lone Ranger (the song was found on the TVO show Camp Caribou)! Now, not wanting to let the chance go by for a little light-hearted fun, after warming up to the Lone Ranger, the Trio of Trickster Tenors took a picture of our Director’s head and turned her into a Ping Pong Ball and then texted her the picture just before the end of rehearsal. Watching our Director react to the picture was the best!! Janet laughed so hard, she cried. It was the best way to end the night and it just proves how right Sue Melvin was in her presentation on “Jumpstarting Motivation” about the importance of doing things that make us happy … like laughing with our friends … and how motivating and uplifting it is.
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Please welcome Courtney to our Social Media team under our PR team. Courtney was a YWIH member and is looking forward to showing off her learned skills. Courtney's just celebrated her Birthday on February 25. Happy Birthday, Courtney.
Vanessa Echlin
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Musings in the Minds of our Members
Zoom Zoom Zoom Zoom
We continue to do it each week,
Please someone hit the Mute All,
Whose turn is it to speak?
I haven’t printed the Music,
Is it on the web, are you sure?
I’m so tired of this Co-Vid thing,
I wish they’d find a cure!!!
When is the recording due?
Is it only an audio file?
Or do I have to put on make- up,
And show a beautiful smile?
I love the new Tags we are learning,
I might even try a new part,
I think I got the pitch note right,
If I only knew when to start!
I’m longing to see my chorus friends,
More than just their faces,
And oh I wish I could harmonize,
With Lead, Tenor, Bari, Basses!
For now, I must be patient,
Wear my mask and stay apart,
Wait ‘till I am vaccinated,
Wait for a new start!
So preparing for the future,
There is no time to mope,
These photo memories sustain me,
And fill my soul with hope!!
Anne Richardson
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2017 Contest in Syracuse, |
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2018 Farmer’s Market, Orangeville |
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2019 Santa Claus Parade, Orangeville.
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North Metro mourns the loss of a beautiful, kind, and much-loved member. We were deeply saddened at the passing of our beloved Rita Drake (95) whose gentle, kind, gracious, and loving spirit inspired us all. A moving tribute was paid to Rita at our February 24 zoom rehearsal, where 18 members of Rita’s family joined us to honor her and to share the deep love we have for this special lady. Rita is remembered for her beautiful heart, kindness, love, and grace. She was pure goodness and the peace often elusive to many of us in life; she lived it, she manifested it, she indeed ‘Stood in the Light’. These poignant times when we are brought together to remember a loved one are also fortuitous moments, for we pause in gratitude and admiration for the women in his organization who give us hope, support, love, and camaraderie that strengthen our resolve, and bring us great joy.
We are most grateful to the Region for again waiving the Regional Assessment for 2021-2022. This financial relief and thoughtful consideration are so appreciated.
North Metro has gone through its first virtual nomination of BOD candidates with a slate of 7 applicants. All applicants were acclaimed. We know they will provide strong and purposeful leadership as we continue to navigate through the on-going developments and consequences of this pandemic.
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Thanks to Sandy MacDonald for running a most successful fund-raising campaign...just in time for Easter. Yes, chocolates.... bunnies, boxed gifts, survival kits, and self-indulgent Purdys Chocolatier succulents were ordered by the gazillions. Now to deliver....by the gazillions!
If chocolates are not special enough, NM is holding its second Special Interest evening where our talented members give workshops showcasing a wide range of their creative pursuits.
We look forward to seeing your beautiful faces and reuniting with you when we tune in to our virtual Convention, on May 1, 2021
Be safe be well.
Jacqui Barron
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This month we have been working on focusing our goals and motivation as individuals and as a chorus. We have had brainstorming sessions on how to keep up motivation and participation and discussed some of our personal struggles or concerns. A number of our members also participated in the online event about motivation, led by Sue Melvin.
We have increased our focus on keeping in touch and checking in with all of our members. Our chorus officers have made an effort to make phone calls and check in on people outside of rehearsal.
During rehearsals, our director has been trying out some new energetic physical and vocal warm-up videos with us, and we have continued work on the new song we are learning. We have also worked some more on Voice of Harmony.
Our chorus officers have continued research into the funding and supplies needed to be able to try out drive-in rehearsals, as well as how other choruses have done this. We are also looking into the possibility of putting together a recorded piece to be able to send out.
We are hanging in there and making the best of our new normal!
Laura Marie Kleist
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What have we been up to in February? Well… here we Zoom again! Like all of you, this has become our new normal way of chorus life the past year. For YHC, it’s worthy to note that we have consistently had approximately 90% attendance at our weekly virtual rehearsals! Thanks to our amazing Director, Music Team, and creative chorus members for keeping things engaging and keeping us coming back for more each week. We have new physical warm-ups each month, chosen and led by chorus members (from Zumba to Tai Chi!), interesting and challenging breathing and vocal exercises, and our new music theory sessions with our very own Jane Agosta. Then there’s some rhythm clapping with Martha and our new karaoke segment that keeps us singing and rockin’ on the other side of the screen!
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One night, after our warm-ups, we broke out into sections and worked with Meaghan on our facial expression, with the aid of our new singer’s masks. It was very enlightening, and forced us to learn how to emote “above the mask”!
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We, of course, celebrated Valentine’s Day with some dressing up and posing just to show how much we love all of you! |
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In March, we look forward to a coaching session with none other than Peggy Gram. Peggy was the recipient of SAI’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, as well as being a past SAI President, Master Director, and Certified Competition Judge. We can’t wait to work with her!
March also marks the one-year anniversary of our Zoom Rehearsals. Will we celebrate? You bet!
Stay tuned for a recap of the festivities. Stay safe and sane!
Kelly and Cindy
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Image City Sound Chorus is continuing, like all of you, to have regular virtual rehearsals. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since our last in-person rehearsal, on March 9, 2020, and to realize how crazy this year has been. We rehearse every other week on Zoom, and have had great attendance, along with several visitors during the year, including a chorus audition and new member process |
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Our director, Rhonda Spoelstra, works hard to keep it interesting – doing fun physical warm-ups, vocal warmups, singing tags, and even playing games (Kahoot! is a fun online game platform), all using videos from various websites and apps. We’re singing with all our hearts; we just can’t hear each other.
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We wanted to let you know about a big change in our Management Team. Carol Maynard has been our Team Leader for the past 10 years but has decided to step down and has resigned from the chorus. She is planning to remain as a member of Sweet Adelines, Chapter-At-Large, so you will still see her at regional events. We send a big thank you to Carol for everything she has done for our chorus and wish her well in her future endeavors At the same time, her co-Team Leader, Michelle Rafoth, also left the chorus.
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The joint leaders of the chorus (Music and Management teams) discussed how to keep things running for the remainder of this fiscal year, and appointed Ellen Rightmyer and Suzanne Heckman to the Management Team to complete the vacated terms. Ellen and Suzanne have agreed to act as co-Team Leaders for the remainder of this fiscal year. Both ladies have served multiple terms on the Management Team in years past, and both have served in the Leader role.
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There are plenty of things coming up for us this year. We’re developing a new website and plan to go live with that shortly. It’s also the 25th Anniversary of our chorus, so we’ll be planning some type of big party, hoping for in-person rather than virtual, but time will tell on that. We just started learning a new song and have been bringing out some of our older repertoire to brush up on. Since we have no idea when we’ll be able to start singing out in the community, we want to stay in ready mode.
Looking forward to being able to sing together again with all our friends in Region 16. Stay safe, well, and warm. We are ICS strong!
Ellen Rightmyer
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Thanks to Bay of Quinte Chorus for inviting us to join their rehearsal with their guest, Stuart Sides, from Harmony University in The Netherlands. He showed us how to think of our singing as a conversation to tell the story.
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Northumberland Chorus held a Social Night on Zoom. There was so much talent displayed as everyone shared their hobby with the rest of the chorus. Nancy did a great video presentation, using her own photographs as a backdrop for her singing and playing the keyboard. Diane Martin played a video from when she was a singer in a Country Band in the 80’s. Sheila, always the comedian, told us a couple of jokes, and Diane Hall had a winter game for us to play. Heather displayed some of her lovely knitting projects and Cheryl talked about her paintings, which are beautiful. Jackie’s smile and bright yellow sweater gave us joy. Joan gave a very interesting presentation on the history of pockets, going back to the 1700s. She told us how men’s and women’s pockets were different and why they changed over the years. Our director, Sharon Pelton, sang a song in her fabulous bass voice and I played a tune on my fiddle. After each presentation, there were questions, comments, conversation, and laughter. What a great night
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Our chorus continues to meet every Monday night on Zoom to catch up and keep our repertoire up-to-date.
Laura Heighway
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Another month has “zoomed” by and…shhhhh….can you hear that? The bird song seems to be getting just a little louder and brighter, and this songbird has also been hearing the steady drip drip drip of snow melting off the house! While there are still some lovely winter days to enjoy, the promise of Spring is most definitely in the air.
We have been enjoying the company of our 11 prospective new members very much over the past 6 weeks. They have been a bright ray of sunshine in our weekly rehearsals – there is nothing like the keenness of potential new members to rekindle the flames of excitement and passion for barbershop with existing members. We wish them all the best as they undertake their performance readiness assessments (PRA’s) in the coming week, one of the final steps towards becoming members of Canadian Showtime Chorus (CSC).
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And while we are on the topic of passion!! Existing and prospective members of CSC had the privilege to spend one of our Tuesday night rehearsals and a full Saturday with barbershop passion-ista Karen Briedert! She brought examples, exercises, ideas, and more to the table to help us work through the next steps in our CSC journey. What an amazing and motivating session she put on – we are all refreshed and rejuvenated! Thank you to our Awesome Director Joe for bringing Karen into our CSC family.
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Next month, we’ll look forward to sharing with you an exciting new virtual project we will be undertaking in partnership with Orkidstra and iGenOttawa.
Until we meet again, we wish our Region 16 sisters much love and many virtual hugs.
In harmony,
Nicole Wieczorek
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The month of February may be short, but there has been a lot going on with The Heartland Singers. Erin Howden spent an evening with us, talking about the new Visual Communication Category. It's going to be fun exploring and working our music with this category in mind. On February 12, one of our members welcomed a new baby boy to her family, which means to our family, as well. Congratulations to Rachel and her family! In a past Sixteenth Notes submission, we mentioned our Trivia Night, and that the winners of the evening would decide our next social night. Well, Bright Lights has their idea, and it is going to be fun! It's all hush hush for now, so as to not spoil the surprise. You can always join us at our next rehearsals. March 9 and 23, and at our Social Night on March 30. Send an email to our Membership Chair, Carol Sullivan, to let us know you're coming. We would love to see you!
Diane Martin
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KMC is happy to be back at it again in 2021 and raring to go! We start on a high note having recently celebrated our 50th Anniversary of being Sweet Adelines. The chorus has a rich history and all our current members are very proud of it. We carry on our tradition into this new year of 2021, even though our chorus world is very different than it has been for the past 50 years.
We had an excellent Christmas season. Leading up to our holiday break we joined our sisters at Rochester Rhapsody for a 2-weekly rehearsal virtual holiday celebration. We also had fun with our tacky Christmas sweater singalong party and held virtual presentations for charitable donations for our local "Community Care" and "Santa for Seniors".
Now that we’re back at it, our director, Cindy, has great plans for the year. We are working hard and having fun revisiting many repertoire songs and learning new music as well. Thanks to our amazing Assistant Directo,r Donna Haug, we have some excellent 4-part listening track/videos she has created with the a cappella app. This is helping us tremendously in reminding ourselves how to sing our “golden oldie” repertoire songs. Thanks so much, Donna!
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We are also using this time to learn and relearn our regional songs. We are using some past Mass Sing and various chorus and quartet performance video clips for our “Zoom singing”. Singing these past rep and regional songs is making us very nostalgic for Contest and has us wishing to see our regional sisters in person again. We sure hope that can happen soon.
At the same time, we are enjoying singing the Barbershop Harmony Society's winning songwriter's composition "I Might Just Hold You a Little Too Long". It was written for these COVID-19 times and has a very poignant message. It too makes us “homesick” to get together with everyone. We so love to hug each other!
In spite of these strange times, we are taking whatever opportunities we can using Zoom. One such opportunity is to learn more about each other through our new weekly rehearsal segment, “Getting to Know You”. Each week one member takes a turn choosing a song that has important meaning to us. At rehearsal, we explain what the song means and share it with everyone. We’ve found this to be a wonderful way to get to know more about our chorus sisters.
Another fun addition to our Zoom rehearsals is a “musical trip around the world”. We’ve shared music from various parts of the world including a Call and Response South African miners’ song and a 19th-century whaler’s sea shanty (we couldn’t resist the now popular sea shanties!).
As we move forward during these strange times, we really want to thank Region 16 management for all the support. We especially want to thank Sue Melvin for her recent wonderful session, “Jumpstart Your Motivation”. It was so inspiring.
We wish everyone a happy 2021 and hope we can get back together soon. Be safe and stay well, everyone.
Susan Boisonneault
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