YRCC Rehearsal Review May 21 for The Newmarket Citizens Band Concert Sat. May 25th, 2024

 

We're going to look great with this band!

They have the same colour scheme. I'm happy that we don't have to wear jackets over our white shirts or blouses, just a scarf or tie. But, they look pretty snazzy, don't they?

The rehearsal was good! The choir sounded great (18 people, but strong). The band sounded great too, and very loud! Wow. What an amazing experience we're going to have! 

After that rehearsal, we went to our room and went over Seal Lullaby and almost all of our songs, and we're in good shape. There were a good number of little issues, so we should be fine on Saturday.

Looking at this shot of them performing, it's clear that we are going to be in our "Formal Concert Uniform". Long sleeves, white to the wrists, and long pants or skirts, black to the floor. The band's uniform notes also included a reminder to wear black socks/hose and black shoes. 

We are scheduled to be on stage at 5:30 to start sound checks, blocking, how to get on and off stage gracefully, and for a warm-up. I'd say aim for 5:00 to get there, find parking, find the Green Room, and feel settled before we get up on stage. Calendar says 5:15, I think. Order of the show is there. I will talk twice: before we start and after Nella.

You'll want to have water and maybe a snack with you. We'll be there until about 10:00. I forgot to ask if there will be refreshments at the intermission. 

Here's a link again to the call sheet for Saturday. Break a leg!

YRCC 2024 First Seniors' Performance: Wow!

 We had so much fun with the residents at Delmanor in Aurora yesterday!

What a perfectly delighful evening! 

It's always good to sing for and with seniors in a seniors' residence. Delmanor was a beautiful building with pretty rooms and sweet staff and very very nice residents. It was really exceptionally nice there.

We had a good group of YRCC singers, a nice balance of parts, and Donna was in excellent form, even singing along to some of our songs, and adding embellishments to the sing-along songs which made us all sing with more enthusiasm. 

Something wonderful: we had a couple new folks sing with seniors for the first time and they loved it and said they're signing up for more now that they know how much fun it is. Yay! I love that. 

I had promised to put a link to the movie with the mice that I always talk about, the one we have Somewhere Out There from, An American Tail.

Here's a link to the song being sung in the movie. You can also watch the whole movie on YouTube. 

Watch this one too: Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram singing with clips from the movie. So nice, even nicer and more similar to what we do. 

YRCC 2024 Special Rehearsal Tues. May 7th for The Seal Lullaby

Thank you to everyone who worked so hard in that very warm room last night! 

The Seal Lullaby is beautiful, and it was sometimes surprising that the individual parts did indeed sound beautiful when combined with the others. It's a complex choral arrangement but we only have to learn the parts with lyrics. The band will take care of the rest. And, they will accompany us along with Donna. 

We got through the whole thing, but we all agree that we'll need to review our parts on our own for the next couple weeks too. There are videos of individual parts, and of the whole choir sheet music being performed, and of the band arrangement too. I've assembled them all on my YRCC Spring 2024 YouTube playlist. There's a link to that on our website already, but I'm going to provide links here for everything too.                                    

I suggest that you first work with the video of your part. Choose a device that easily moves back and forth along the timeline in a video, so that you can stop, go back, and review a short bit over and over again. 

Soprano Part

Alto Part

Tenor Part

Bass Part (bass 1)

Next, sing along with the recording of a choir with whole choir sheet music.  So, it's like choir rehearsals, where we learn your part and then you sing it with everyone. You can also go over small sections using your cursor to move back and forth in the recording.

Link to Choir recording

After that, sing along with a band recording. I've got a few. Before our rehearsal with the band, I recommend singing along with these band recordings, because there's a different feel to them and we only sing a short part. It would be good if you could be ready to fit yourself in not only by counting bars, but also by feeling how your part works in that context. 

Newmarket Citizens Band recording (from 2018, so the current band will have a slightly different assortment of instruments, and no melody where we will be singing the words.)

We have a half hour from 7-7:30 on Tuesday, March 21st with the band. After that, we'll go and rehearse on our own. We'll want to sing our songs too. I'm sorry we didn't have a chance to sing one of our songs last night. 

YRCC Spring Concert Wish Upon a Star- Resounding Success!

 I wish you all could have heard all of the wonderful praise I heard about our concert on Saturday. I'm so lucky to be the one to receive so many of the accolades! I have to share them with you. 

Wow! The choir sounded magnificent, and the song choices were great, a wonderful variety of songs, the theme was inspiring, the duet was charming, the soloists were impressive, the decorations were stunning, and on and on.

Thank you, my choir! 

We had a few little moments of stress, but the absolutely heavenly moments made up for them. 

You looked marvellous!

Stunning decorations, adorable duet. But, that water bottle-ugh.

YRCC 2024 Spring Concert Run-through Rehearsal Review

 It was perfect!

We had moments of utter perfection and moments where we knew we needed to work a bit harder. When not everything goes perfectly, it's the best. This way, our concert will be our best work, better than our last rehearsal.

On Saturday, everyone must be on stage, and all the baking should be put away by 6:00. Doors open at 6:30, so we will get ourselves in position, have a warm-up and file out down the centre aisle, so that we can file back in gracefully. Let me know if you have a request to review anything.

5:00 - 6:00 is for setting up the bake sale and ticket sales, decorating, and then soloists and small groups. Please let me know if you feel you need another go at your song. Don't forget to bake!

Be sure to get a good night's sleep Friday night so that you have lots of energy and staying power for Saturday night.  Put your feet up in the afternoon if you can.  Eat lightly, but well. Don't drink too much coffee, or alcohol. Maybe plan to have some friends over for drinks after. Hey, invite your friends and family to the concert and then out for drinks, or to your place for drinks, so you don't need a designated driver. 

Remember your uniform, scar or tie, black shoes, etc, and a water bottle that you will not be seen drinking from and that will not be in the way at all. 

Don't forget, Tuesday we meet at Trinity United in Newmarkst to learn the Seal Lullaby. It's such a cool song, and we're just doing the parts with words. The band is playing the oohs. Then, the following Tuesday is our first seniors' visit! There is an order up for all the seniors' performances. Always have all of your music just in case. You can download the sing-along lyrics if you like. There's a link on the same page. 

• Remember your baking for the bake sale.
• Remember to park farther away to give good spots to those who need it most.
• Remember to sign up for seniors' visits- we need a few more people for Bloomington Cove and the Eldon, in particular.
• Remember to hand in your binder before July, after your last performance with us, so that you get your Winter music in September. Peggy and Anne need to file away the music from this season, and will fill up your binders with new stuff. If your binder is missing, it messes them up and you won't have any music in September.

Break a leg, everyone!