YRCC Performance Review: 24-May-2022 (yes! performance!)

Wow! On May 24th, 2022, we performed, live, together, with a live audience!!!

The last time the YRCC performed was in December of 2019! It was a long, dark winter. 

The performance for the residents at Amica was wonderful. 

I felt euphoria, bliss and blessedness. I was giddy with joy.

The choir sounded excellent, small but mighty; the audience was excellent, big and lively. 

Donna, our pianist, was fantastic! We had silly and fun moments, and Donna fit right in, adding her own humour and embellishments with skill and charm. An experienced and kind accompanist, she was patient and nimble when we 'improvised' (intentionally and unintentionally- and no, I'm not using the royal 'we' but often it was me).

Our first time using a projector and screen to provide lyrics for sing-alongs went well. It wasn't perfect, but it was good, better than handing out the plastic things we used before. It'll get better too. 

I am so grateful to everyone who came out! We were a super team, setting up and taking down, carrying equipment around and plugging things in, managing the screening exercise, singing solos, carrying parts and leading parts, and following along flawlessly when things weren't always exactly as rehearsed. You each deserve an extra round of applause. Bravo! 

The roomful of residents at Amica were a fun bunch, and their spirited participation and exuberant applause warmed my heart. I hope you all felt how much you were appreciated. 

I'm so looking forward to next week!

Next week, we're scheduled to visit Mackenzie Place in Newmarket. I'm very hopeful that all will go as planned, but stay tuned just in case. 

YRCC Rehearsal Review 17-May-2022

 Tuesday, May 17th at ST ANDREWS in the sanctuary

Small Group: Tomorrow Duet and Good Morning, Starshine  (Awesome!)

Choir Warm-up: Short physical warm-up, short breathing (huh and tuh) and vocal stretch exercise with arpeggios

1.     Blue Skies is Excellent!

2.     Walking on Sunshine: Excellent! But, to gain more confidence, I encourage you to sing along with the parts' recordings.

3.     I Can See Clearly Now: Excellent, but I encourage you to sing along with the parts' recordings. 

4.     Sing-alongs: Screen and Projector didn't work. I need to work on that! We managed somehow, though. Wellerman and Nova Scotia were good. For balance, we won't have only one person on a verse.  Be prepared to sing your parts' verse, to pitch in when necessary.

5.    Why We Sing was wonderful

6.    This Little Light of Mine was so much fun!

We Talked About:

Video of 2004 concert- same place as concert recordings- It's a big file and it has to download to your computer to play. Soraya is working on finding more choir videos to digitize. 

Seniors’ Visits:  I expect you all to be there unless you let me know otherwise, or if the seniors cancel on us. We’ll find out maybe close to the performance date, so please keep your eyes on your emails, and the usual places you get choir info.

Next Week: Tuesday, May 24th at Amica Newmarket

Go to the Calendar for the address and information.

We don't have to have rapid tests! They will give us a screening to complete when we get there. Be sure to arrive by 6:30 so we can set up and get the screenings done before we start at 7:00. 

For the order, go to the Seniors' Performance Orders page on the Members section website. There is a link to the PowerPoint of sing-alongs there too in case you want to print it for yourself  (Just a warning: it's going to be sideways. Maybe copy and paste?). Hopefully, I'll get the projector working properly. 

Here's a snip. Maybe you can read this? 

YRCC Rehearsal Review 10-May-2022

 Sorry, I'm a bit late this week. 

Tuesday, May 10th at ST ANDREWS in the sanctuary

Small Group: Good Morning, Starshine and Carol and Debbie duet Tomorrow 

Choir Warm-up:

Short physical warm-up (we talked about having loose knees and good control of your body so that you can keep your balance), short breathing (huh and tuh) and vocal stretch exercise (up and down) with arpeggios. At the high and low edges of your range, be sure to keep your throat open, give yourself lots of air and avoid getting small, lowering your chin, to reach low notes. 

1. This Little Light of Mine is Excellent

2. Walking on Sunshine is Excellent: continue to work on page turns. Go to the website, sign in, and listen to your part. Tabatha has uploaded parts! You’re going to love this!

3. I Can See Clearly Now is Excellent: continue to work on page turns and go to the website, sign in, and listen to your part in the recordings!

4. Sing-alongs: Screen and Projector work well. Look at the verses of Wellerman and Nova Scotia. Be prepared to sing your parts' verse, to pitch in when necessary. Maybe try to memorize the words to make it easier to fit them all into the melody.

Wellerman: 

• Verse 1 is soprano, and Liz and Kit can solo or duet when they’re there, and other sopranos can support if required.  

• Verse 2 is alto, and all 3 altos can do it as a group

• Verse 3 is tenor/bass, and all can do it, or whoever is there

• Verse 4 is soprano, and Nadine and Marlene can solo or duet, and other sopranos can support if required. 

Nova Scotia: Verse 1, soprano, Verse 2 alto, Verse 3 tenor/bass

We Talked About:

Seniors’ Visits: You don’t have to sign up; you must come or let me know you can’t. We’ll find out details or cancellations maybe close to the performance date, so please keep your eyes on your emails, and the usual places you get choir info.

Summer Concerts: We hope to book a Sunday in June and a Sunday in July at parks for outdoor concerts. We hope that some folks who have been missing this season will come out and sing with us! Spread the word with any members you know. 

Next week: Tuesday, May 17th at St. Andrews

7:00 Small Group: Good Morning, Starshine and Tomorrow 

1. I Can See Clearly Now
2. Blue Skies
3. Walking on Sunshine
4. Sing-Alongs
5. requests

Tentative YRCC Summer Concert Order

 All members would be welcome to come and join us singing a summer concert at Fairy Lake and/or Aurora Town Park. Your binders are ready, but you could also use electronic copies which can be downloaded from the choir website. You don't have to sing all of the songs. It will be a casual thing. We might just wear anything black and/or white as a uniform. We're looking at Sundays in June and July.

If we manage to book a concert in the park, it would look like this:

highlighted songs are ones that everyone probably knows

1	Somewhere Out There
2	We Rise Again
3	Why We Sing
4	Blue Skies
5	I Can See Clearly Now (whoever can-recordings are up if you want to learn it on your own)
6	Good Morning, Starshine (Small group)
7	Tomorrow (Duet)
8	When you Wish Upon a Star (Blair)
9	Walkin’on Sunshine (whoever can)
10	This Little Light of Mine
11	Sing along (chorus) Wellerman Sea Shanty
12	Sing along (chorus) Farewell to Nova Scotia
13	Wonderful World (sing along)
14	You Raise Me Up with sing along
15	On Eagles Wings
16	You’ll Never Walk Alone
17	Hallelujah

My Name Renate Means We Rise Again

Renate comes from the Latin renatus/renata which means reborn.

Rebirth, resurrection, reincarnation, revival, reawakening, regeneration, renewal, even recovery and recuperation, are all my words. Spring is my season. 

We Rise Again: 

We rise again in the faces
Of our children
We rise again in the voices of our song
We rise again in the waves out on the ocean
And then we rise again

I'm so happy that the sun has been shining and it really feels like spring is finally here. It's not really spring for me until the choir sings though. Our big spring concert marks spring like our winter concert opens the Christmas season. We rise again in the voices of our song. I hope we manage to have an outdoor concert in June, and maybe another in July! Wouldn't that be awesome? It's being planned. 

I wrote a post about our spring season and my name on another blog (renatesmusicalempathy.blogspot.com). Check it out.

Here comes the sun!

YRCC Rehearsal Review 03-May-2022

 Tuesday, May 3rd at ST ANDREWS in the sanctuary

Small Group: Carol and Debbie duet Tomorrow is so sweet!

Choir Warm-up:

Short physical warm-up, short breathing (huh and tuh) and vocal stretch exercise with arpeggios

1. Somewhere Out There (this will be our opening song, it’s so good)

2. Walking on Sunshine

We are saying walkin’ throughout. We started at page 11, and went to the end. We did it! The page turning is something to work on.  At the bottom of page 10, we have to go back to page 5 to the Segno, and then on page 7 we have to jump to page 11 for the Coda.  Maybe add a tab or sticky note on page 5 and 11? Memorize the parts right after the page turn?

3. Why We Sing 

I sang along with Blair on tenor and then with Marlene and Anna on first soprano, and it felt wonderful to sing with you all. After break, we all stood together up at the front, as if we were performing. It was awesome!!! At first, I stood in front conducting and the sound was fantastic, so much better than when we’re spread out. I feel good about performing! We will be fine even now, but I’m happy we have a couple of weeks to work on our new songs to get them polished. 

4. You’ll Never Walk Alone (OMG, so good!)

5. You Raise Me Up (Big and lush, love!)

6. On Eagles Wings (Amazing arrangement- powerful)

7. I Can See Clearly Now

We reviewed the section at 16 again. It’s tricky, but we got it. The tricky section @38 was excellent! We had to review the notes @45. Coming in on the right note was a challenge especially for alto and tenor. We’ll look at that again next week. Page turning was still a problem. See if you can do something to help- add a tab, memorize the bit right after? 

We talked about:

Seniors’ Visits: I will not be setting up Events. You don’t have to sign up, just come or let me know you can’t. I expect you all to be there unless you let me know otherwise.

Using the washrooms at St. Andrews: we need to go outside and enter at the side door on Victoria to use the washroom. We must not go through the building. There is a group using the hall that needs privacy, and there are alarms set once they’re out. 

Planning a Sunday in June and a Sunday in July to sing outdoors, free concerts for friends and family. I'm hoping that some more members will come to these performances, some people we haven't seen much or at all yet. We'll just do the stuff we know well.

Next week: Tuesday, May 10th at St. Andrews (pssst: Carol's Birthday!)

7:00 Small Group: Good Morning, Starshine and Tomorrow 

1. Blue Skies
2. I Can See Clearly Now
3. This Little Light of Mine
4. Walking on Sunshine
5. We Rise Again
6. Sing-along songs

YRCC temporary home: St. Andrew's Presbyterian Mosley St. Aurora

YRCC is meeting at St. Andrew's, Enid's church, for our May rehearsals.

We've used this space many times over the years as a back-up rehearsal room.

Please use the Mosley St. entrance. 

We're in the Sanctuary, not in the hall.

See you there!