I'm very happy with everything! All the small groups are in good shape. All of our songs are in good shape, and we are ready for our show!
We started at 6:00 with the Rainbow Connection small group, and we did it! We got this together and I'm so grateful to Donna for making those rehearsal recordings! I love this song. Then, we rehearsed Anthem, and the sound of a men's group is a special treat. The song is pretty special too, and the soloists nailed their solos. Excellent. Night of Stars had a rocky start just because we hadn't reheared it in a while. We got it together again, and it was beautiful. I have to remember the slower tempo. Wishin' and Hopin' also took a moment to get back together again, to remember that the second sopranos carry the melody, that the melody is in the middle and not on top, and we added a couple of parts to second soprano. Such a fun, cute song, but I have to be sure to comment on how "old-fashioned" it is.
At break we heard Mona and Stanley's duet, I See the Light. Their performances almost always make me cry. Stanley sings: "Now she's here, shining in the starlight; Now she's here, suddenly I know." This song is about a moment when your dreams change. We talked about how the things we wish for blowing out candles, or on Santa's knee, change over the years. In this song, the lovers find each other and then see things in a new light. Many of us sang along with Marlene's Climb Every Mountain. So good! Some of us dream about reaching those high notes.
1. Somewhere Out There: Sweet. Remember the little mice, alone in a new country, but feeling the presence of their sibling looking at the same sky and "wishing on the same bright star". This song should have a sweetness and a lovely hopeful child-like positivity. Our show is about wishes and dreams, the things we wish for, and how our dreams come true, and how wishing, dreaming, praying for things helps us. As always, my big theme is that singing about these things is good for us.
2. Nella Fantasia: Gorgeous. I love this song, and yesterday, you nailed it. It was so good! This is the big wish, the dream: a peaceful, just world, where we feel- deep down in our souls- free and as light as floating clouds in the caress of a warm wind.
3. Rewrite the Stars: Solos nailed. Bass clef entries nailed. I love how this song moves. This song is not as positive as all the others. Hope is good, dreaming for a better world is good, and we can change the way we think and act but we can't change everyone and we can't change everything all at once. The ending is not a big happy one. In that movie, the people who are disrespected by the public, in the end they are not accepted by everyone, but they feel empowered, and the people around them understand their value, and we admire their courage, so it's a step in the right direction. We're moving in the right direction, becoming more inclusive, accepting diversity. Performance note: please get your first page set to where you come in, and don't follow along with the solo, so that we don't have distracting page turning going on during the solo. For the second solo, you can clip those pages together for one clean flip.
4. Power of the Dream: We got it! This was the most difficult thing we did this season, our only completley new song. I love how we all pulled together to get this one sounding great. The big ending is going to make us all proud. We are all making it up, creating it together, and I love that! This is the power of the choir. I described my vision to you, and with all your individual skills and talents, working togehter, you made my vision come to life.
5. Star Canon: Sweet! We're going to walk in up the aisle like celebrants in a wedding, to Canon in D, and once we're all settled on the stage, we'll start singing this. This is our first song, but not the beginning of the concert, as our first song usually is. I will enter first, with Tab, and we're going to start with a thoughtful, even prayerful, and inspiring musical treat for our audience, with Jane's inspiring and impressive decorations to help guide the audience to open their hearts to our offering of things worth dreaming about.
6. Hallelujah: Always a treat. The audience will love this as our ovation song. They will possibly have wished for us to sing this, and we will deliver.
7. You'll Never Walk Alone: Powerful! This is impressive and a pefect finale. Whatever the stars have in store for us, no matter how many of our dreams get blown away in storms, we have our friends and family, we have Love, God, hope in our hearts. Hope. We keep dreaming.
We talked about:
The bake sale: bring your baking in smallish, individual portions, but not individualy wrapped. You can bring a tin of cookies, a plate of squares, or a tray of tarts, or a loaf (or strudel, or whatever) cut up and ready for us to put on a platter. There will be a buffet of sweets for our audience. They will make a donation and fill up their plates. It's always a great success. Coffee and tea, water and juice will be there too. The intermission feels like a celebration.
The concert order is available on the website, and there's a printable version there and here that you can download if you like. Please have your binder in order for next week's run-through so we don't have to wait for anyone to find their music.
We talked about avoiding flipping pages while soloists are singing. We'll need to talk about avoiding other distracting behaviour during small groups and solos too.
Tickets are still available for you to buy, but only at breaktime next week, and by calling Carol with a credit card. Tickets will be sold at the door too, but we would love to sell as many tickets as possible in advance to help getting people in the door smoothly.
After the concert, seniors' tour and Citizens Band concert: Please sign up on the website, in Events, for all of the Tuesdays after the concert, and for our concert with the Newmarket Citizens Band on Saturday, March 25th.
Next week, Tuesday, April 30th- early start 7:00
Run-through rehearsal at Trinity Anglican Church in Aurora, like a dress rehearsal without the dress. Everyone will be in place by 7:00. We will walk through the whole show, figuring out where and when to walk, where and when to sit, and all the logistics of the concert, and test out the order of songs to make sure that works. We'll test the sound, working with microphones and the sound technician, Doug.
When I find out when we can get in, I'll post the start time for small groups and soloists, sometime between 6 and 6:30.
No dress for our dress rehearsal. Come in comfortable clothes because it will be a long night. We often go past 9:30. For the concerts, on May 4th and on May 25th, our concert uniform is simple: black on the bottom all the way to the floor (long pants or long skirt, black socks, hose, shoes), white on top all the way to the wrists (long sleeves). We have red scarves and ties. If you're new, you'll get one from Lauren next week.
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