Welcome


Welcome to Renate's Baton. This blog is mostly for and about my choir, The York Region Community Choir.

But, While I'm holding the baton, I'm in charge. So, if I want to talk about other parts of my life, I will. :)

The choir itself is a community and I'm discovering that we have a lot in common with one another besides our love of music and singing.

When I go off on a tangent, there is always a crowd coming along. Join us!

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

YRCC Rehearsal Review Monday, November 18th, 2019

I'm very pleased with this last rehearsal. I admit that I was worried about a couple things, but you all did an amazing job catching up and sprinting into the finish!

Small Groups In the Bleak Midwinter and We Need a Little Christmas were impressive!

1.We started with the 2 sing-alongs, Jingle Bells and Winter Wonderland. The thing to remember with this is to smile and enjoy these so that the Audience follows you and they enjoy themselves too. You can move a little and harmonize wherever you can and look like you're having fun. That's it.  We'll have lyrics printed in an insert in the program.

2. Somewhere a Child is Sleeping is going to be so good! At the beginning, Robyn will join the piano solo on the piano melody before Mary-Ellen starts singing. When we go back to the beginning at the repeat, Robyn will play the melody, and then she'll continue to play the melody throughout with the choir. It will be so pretty and such a wonderful change from the last time! Thank you, Robyn, for creating this new YRCC arrangement! I love it!

3. All I Want for Christmas is YOU! I love my choir! This has turned out so good! Some people are even suggesting we add some actions, choreography. Don't worry. We won't this time. (maybe next time a small group can do it with choreography?)
We reviewed a couple of key spots before we sang and it helped. Review them at home so you're ready:
The beginning- we took away the Ahhs! So you can now sigh with relief, aaaahhhhh.
Bar 43: the tenor/bass melody. soprano and alto are soft on the wah so we can hear the melody.
pages 8, 9, 10.

4. Your Song is also excellent! We reviewed the sections at 36 and 87 and going into the Coda, and it helped. It's now performance ready!

5. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow is also ready! We worked on dynamics again. Remember to sing soft and sweet except for the Let it Snow parts, and in the waltz time (3/4) sing soft, sweet, and sexy! We imagined ourselves in sparkly (yet comfortable) low-cut gowns reclining on pianos wearing high heels and possibly smoking (pretend, prop) cigarettes. Smoky, sultry jazz. It's going to be so much fun!

We have worked hard on all of these new pieces. We deserved our cookies and squares and crackers and cheese at breaktime. Thank you to Lynn and Liz and Chris and Debbie for arranging all that!

Thank you to Jane for doing the Poinsettia fundraiser again!
Thank you to Roxanne and Michele and Lauren and anyone else working on tickets to get us the early bird discount!
Harry will be there next week to sell last-minute $15 tickets from 6:00 to 7:15. After that, we'll be singing. After that, tickets will be $20 at the door.

Next week: November 25th, run-through rehearsal in the sanctuary.
Arrive on Monday with your binders in order. (go to the website, sign in, and under Members, click on Winter Concert Order. There's a link to a printable page if you need one.)
6:00 to 7:15 small groups and soloists will sing with microphones and working on staging.
7:15 START please come early so that we can get in position and warm up and start the program at  7:30.
We might go late so plan to be there until 10:00. If we finish closer to 9:30, then that will be a bonus.


6:00-7:15
I suggest Stanley and Mona and Blair and Marlene should go first. Then, Tab, Patricia, Randomnotes, Nothing More Trio, and finally the small groups. But, we'll see who's there and go with what makes sense when we get there.

No comments:

Post a Comment