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!

Monday, July 4, 2022

YRCC Performance Review 28-JUN-2020: Last of the series

Last Tuesday, June 28th was our last seniors' performance for this season, Spring 2022. We went out with a bang!

It was a wonderful end to a fantastic season, fantastic despite the pandemic dragging on, despite having no big concert to prepare for, despite having to find a temporary home, despite starting without an accompanist! 

We have a superb new accompanist- Donna- whom we love, Jane and Lauren made sure we had a place to sing every week, and we had a small but mighty, brave, and talented group of choristers come out every week. It was so much fun!

We had an extraordinarily successful seniors tour.  The choir was excellent, with a surprisingly harmonious, delicious blending of voices and parts. There were only 12-15 of us. The rapid tests all went well, and the mask/no-mask thing was not an issue. I am extremely grateful to all the staff members at the residences who made these visits possible. The audiences were all beautifully entertained, and we all felt warmly welcomed and appreciated every time. We witnessed as the residents transformed into dancing, singing, clapping, laughing, giggling, engaged, happy participants. It was exhilarating. Twice, after performances, a group of us went out for drinks (and snacks), and, after our last performance, we were invited to have drinks and snacks on Melinda's huge backyard patio. So special!

I encourage everyone to come and sing with us on Sunday, July 24th at Fairy Lake in Newmarket.

Please come back and sing! We'll be outside, and you can be socially distanced if you want to, and you can wear a mask if you want to. You can bring a chair if you want, or a stool. Whatever you need to make you comfortable, just do it, or let me know and I'll help you. 

It was best when we sang without masks and stood shoulder-to-shoulder. We kept some distance between rows, but there were two rows at most. We all had done all the vaccinations we were able to, so we eventually felt safe and comfortable together. It felt heavenly to sing together again, and even more so when we had the audiences in the seniors' residences. Happy faces in the audience singing with us, clapping, wiggling in their seats, wow! It was truly heavenly.

Your binder is waiting for you. Peggy and Anne prepared all the binders and Carol has been carrying them around all season, hoping to be able to hand them out. 

We're trying to arrange another outdoor concert for August in Aurora. If you can't make it to the July concert, please try to come in August. 

Finally, cross your fingers and say your prayers that the fall and winter will be safe and open so that we can all start again in September. I'm planning a Winter Concert again. 





2 comments:

  1. Regarding the concert at Fairy Lake on July 24 ... is this a public concert, or is it more of a practice outside? Will it be advertised? Will all of the newer music be done in small groups so we don't look silly? I might have missed it, but please post a list of songs so we can prep :) Thanks a bunch! RT

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    Replies
    1. Fairy Lake will be a public concert, new music in small groups, old music by any and all, I'll repost the list. I think we can share with our friends and families and anyone we want, but I don't think there will be a formal "advertisement".

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