YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review October 21st

Another big, beautiful choir rehearsal! What an amazing job you're doing learning this season's music! 

The Mele Kalikimaka small group is performance-ready. We cleaned up some of the phrasing: Please be sure to observe all rests, especially the ones that follow a note marked staccato. The note that's half as long makes the rest seem longer. There are a bunch of short and punchy words on the first beat of the bar. Make them fun. Here's an example of one:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once assembled, the choir did some warm-ups. One thing we did was to open and close our faces, and then open and close our whole bodies by bending down and then slowling getting back up. We did rollercoasters with lip trills just to see how much easier it is to do our Wow! and What?! exercise.

1. Peace on This Silent Night is also performance-ready (not perfect, but excellent)! It's soo good. The solos at the beginning are sweet (Lorraine/Lauren and Nadine/Cathy). We went over all the parts, and found a few tricky bits: 

-the word "turn" was hard for the sopranos-every time it comes you want to sing it too high. It's the same note as  in "celebrate". Here it is at bar 35, where you can see those two phrases are the same. At bar 75, they're also the same, and again at 99. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

everyone had some trouble coming in on beat one after a rest. Observe those rests and be sure to come in confidently on beat one. (listen to the recording below, and see how messy the first note is, "sing", and I yell "gaze" so you come in loud and clear. The first word of every phrase can be improved.)

-dynamics: learn your part well so that you can watch me, and I'll show you how to get louder and softer ;-)

Here's a recording that Jen made of us singing this last night. (cool! thanks, Jen!)

2.  For Unto Us a Child is Born: Altos and Tenors were on the spot with their melismas. They did great! We learned all the parts from the bottom of page 5 to the Wonderful part, and we sang from the beginning to the end to see what else we have to learn. I like the way shoulder is shorter in this section. The shoulders from the previous section were hard, and we had the world "older" on beats one and two at the end. Page 8 looks scary, but it's not that bad. We talked about how we're not singing them in the classical way, which is to kind of say ho-ho-ho-ho so that each note is clear. We don't really want each note to be clear, so we're slurring them, joining the notes together so that if we're off a little, it's not so noticeable. People will love hearing this piece, and will be grateful that we're doing it. If you're stressed about it, there are lots of videos to help you with your part.

3. Do You Hear What I Hear? No, you don't. I'm in front of all of you, but you're surrounded by people singing your part, and you might hear a little bit of the other parts. I hear it all. And, it's awesome. We started learning parts backwards, from the end. It's a big ending. It's really all big, and I'm thinking it will be our finale. We have recordings of parts. Log in to get the recording of your part. Listen and sing along while looking at your music. It's not too hard. There's only a few little tricky bits. Tenors and Basses have a lot of melody! Yay! It's cool. Listen to this recording that Jen did of us rehearsing it last night. Wow!!! Not bad for, like, the second time singing it, right?! This song builds from soft to medium to loud to very loud, verse by verse, picking up volume like a snowball. 

4. Why We Sing: This is going to be our encore song. Yes. We will have a standing ovation, and we will have an encore ready. This is it. And, it's so appropriate for our 30th Anniversary, that we end with this song.  It's true, all the things we sing in this song, really what singing can do, and does, and why we sing. We've done different things with the beginning to make sure it's soft, but it also sounded good with everyone soft from the beginning. I still haven't decided how we'll end up doing it this year. 

We talked about: 

November 11th: Our room is not available, so we would have to rent a space, but luckily we were asked to sing at an event for a Catholic Women's group. They want us to sing for 45 minutes to an hour and then we will have a space to complete our rehearsal for the evening. I expect we'll be there from 7-9, but you'll get details soon. It's in our calendar, and I'll updated it when we know more. We'll have a peace theme, which is perfect, and we'll also do a few sing-along songs. So, the Dona Nobis Pacem small group will have an excellent opportunity to rehearse their song with an audience. You don't have to sign up for this because everyone is expected to participate. It's a Tuesday evening rehearsal.

Let There Be Peace on Earth: We didn't sing it but we need to get it ready for November 11th. We have Robyn and Melodie on the descant/small group part at the beginning, and Linda and Kim are going to look at it too.  If you have some time, please review this piece.

Angels Among Us: Same with this one. I'd like us to sing it on November 11th. Sharon and Robyn are the soloists, but we need back-ups so Ellie and Cathy are looking at it and we'll hear them next time. We need to look at the ending, from 42 to the end, but it's just a little bit and the chorus, really. Tenors and Basses, please take a look at your part. We have recordings of parts. 

Next week, Tuesday, October 28th

Small Group at 6:30 Mary Did You Know/Breath of Heaven

• Angels Among Us
• Do You Hear What I Hear
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• In the Bleak Midwinter?
• Let There Be Peace on Earth 
• O Holy Night? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Encore Post from 2012 about Breaths, Rests, and Phrases

 I just copied and pasted this old post so new members can get some extra music theory and everyone can remember that breathing in choir is intentional and important, so it's often written into the music. 

There are a number of old posts that deal with music theory. I like seeing which songs we were doing, the songs I reference for examples.  

Breathing and Phrases in singing

Because we have so much music to learn and want to spend our time together singing as much as possible, the music reading and music theory lessons will have to be limited to quick mentions as needed and posts here on my blog.

Today, I am starting at the very beginning, and it's not Do Re Mi. Before we can sing notes, we need to be able to breathe.

You might be thinking I'm a nut because everyone just breathes naturally. It's just there, breathing. You're alive; you're breathing. You're not breathing; well, you're not.

Singers, like athletes, cannot take their breathing for granted. 

We need to breathe consciously and deliberately. Breathing properly gives us good sound and helps our body to sing so that it doesn't hurt our vocal apparatus. We have to be aware of our breathing and understand what a breath can do for us, how far it will take us. Then, we need to be in control of our breathing.

Fist of all, you have to be sure to breathe with your belly and not with your chest. We do that in our warm-ups most Mondays. Here's a cool video of a guy with a shoe on his chest and a shoe on his belly to show you what it looks like when you're breathing using your belly (and most people focus on the diaphragm, but it's more complicated). The shoe on his chest stays still while the one on his belly moves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmi6sNG9ttM&feature=related
There are lots of videos on how to breathe properly, posted for people who do Yoga, and run and do other sports, and specifically for singers.

If you're not accustomed to breathing consciously, you might feel a bit dizzy when your start. Lying down like the guy with the shoes is a good thing. And, don't exaggerate. It's more about paying attention to what your body is doing than making it do what you want. Don't fill your body up like a balloon about to burst. Allow it to fill up.

There are all kinds of articles on how we breathe and which muscles are used, and they'll basically tell you not to breathe too far down in your abdomen and not too far up in your chest, and to be aware of all the muscles that are used, not just the diaphragm. I won't go into detail, since most of you are not interesting in singing like an opera singer, or like Madonna (both of whom have strict daily physical work-outs and tons of exercises that focus on breathing) and if you do, you'll want to get a good vocal teacher who will go into detail.

In a choir, you have to breathe as a team.

We take breaths together sometimes and at other times we deliberately breathe at different times like a relay team: first me, then my neighbour, then another singer. Most of the time, we breathe together and the music tells us when to breathe and when not to breathe.

You need to pay attention to your body and to the music. There are lots of signs in the music that tell us when to breathe.

The most obvious musical breath is the apostrophe above the music.
Some music has breaths written in with an apostrophe ' When you see that, take a breath. Easy. (Go Now In Peace has one on page 5, and Let There Be Peace On Earth has lots.)

A lot of rests are there for you to take a breath. We had an example in our music yesterday: In One Voice, at the top of page 7, Sopranos need to hold ring for 7 beats and there's a big quarter note rest before shout it out and then a little eighth note rest before and let it ring. Use them to take breaths.

In fact, mark all the rests in your music. Make sure you take a breath there and then you won't be holding a note longer than your neighbours, and you won't run out of air.

For a review of rests and how long to hold them, click here.

Rests are about half-way down. Pay as much attention to the rests as you do to the notes! Silence is important, not just for giving you time to breathe, but to give another part prominence, to create contrast, provide drama, and more. The rest is as important as the note.

Generally speaking, you breathe before and after a phrase, but not in the middle of one. The phrase could be a sentence. Look at the words, and see where there's punctuation. Breathe if there's a period. Take a breath if there's a comma or another natural pause as in speech.

There's also a musical way of marking a phrase. When a phrase is marked with a curved line above it, you need to take your breath at the beginning of the phrase, because you  must not breathe in the middle of a phrase.

Last night, we learned our ahs in Hymn to Freedom in phrases. Curved lines divided the ahs into sections, phrases. We had an example of an unusual phrase in Chorus of The Hebrew Slaves, on page 5 at F, and again at the top of page 9. Here you have thronging, oh my homeland joined by a phrase mark, so you can't take that natural breath at the comma but must wait until after Oh. People often swoop there (another topic for another time). Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves has a few examples of phrase marks to show you not to take a breath at a comma in the words. Check it out. You see a comma in the words, but in the music there's a curved line above or below the notes. You must pay attention to the musical phrases.

If you find yourself short of air from time to time, unable to hold a note as long as you're supposed to- like most of us- then mark more breaths on your music. Put in apostrophes above the rests that you want to remember to use, and put them in at the beginnings of sentences and phrases. If you come across a note that you always have trouble holding, work your way back from it to a place where you can take a breath, and mark it in your music.

If there is a place in the music where everyone has trouble holding a note, or keeping the sound going through a long phrase, then we do what is called staggered breathing. Singers singing the same part take turns taking a breath during the long note or phrase so that there is no obvious break, so that the sound continues. You sneak a breath where nobody else is sneaking theirs. You have to mark these breaths on your music and do it consistently so the team can count on you.

Soloists: rehearse with deliberate breaths, mark them in and observe them every time. Don't breathe randomly, or you will find yourself nervous and unable to hold a breath properly when you perform. Likewise, don't stretch yourself in rehearsal, or else you put yourself in danger of running out of air in a performance because you didn't anticipate your ex being in the audience.

The conductor can also help you with when to take a breath. When I'm conducting, I often breathe with you. You'll see me open my mouth and I'll exaggerate a deep breath along with the arm movements when I'm leading you in. When I sing a hard bit for you, I often exaggerate a breath so that you notice where to breathe, to make sure you observe the rest, and to emphasize the role of the rest in the rhythm.

When you do breathing exercises, you want to increase your ability to take a good amount of air in with a breath and then to use it evenly throughout a phrase, or while holding a note. Evenly. You want to have the same quality of tone at the beginning of the note and at the end. You don't want your sound to peter out, even if you're supposed to get quieter.

There's a breathing exercise that we do where we go ts-ts-ts-ts... as we let out air. This is to train us to let it out gradually and evenly.

The best thing you can do to help you with singing and breathing is to keep your body in good shape. If your lungs and heart and all the other muscles that you need to sing are in good shape, your voice will have all the support it needs. Don't smoke. Limit your caffeine and alcohol consumption. Keep hydrated. Take care of yourself. And, singing will help to take care of you too. It's a good cycle.

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review October 14th

Wow! What a big, wonderful sound we had! Some moments took my breath away. 

6:30: the Small Group was Mele Kalikimaka, and they got through the whole thing, except the special little introduction part. Amazing. It sounds great. 

Our warm-up included movement, clapping, and harmonizing with the Beach Boys' Help Me, Rhonda. The sports teams disappointed us, but we still did some Wow! and What? rollercoasters. 

1. 12 Songs of Christmas. It's officially Christmas music season (mine, anyway. Mid-October) and we sang this medley of 12 Christmas songs to see how fun and easy it is. Sopranos especially have an easy and fun time with this medley. The harmonies are not difficult and the transitions are pretty easy too. We sang the whole way through and spent time on the intro and first two songs. Watch out! The intro is tricky: after "the twelve", "days of Christmas are" is unexpected and all equal quarter notes. Circle that, or make a note to yourself not to be tricked into singing the twelve days of Christ--mas. 

2. O Holy Night: Wow, wow, wow. I love this! We learned the chorus, and learned that we've been doing one part wrong for many years. The second ending of the chorus "e-ver mo-ore pro-claim" We've been singing e-ver-mor pro-claim. We have recordings if you want to go over your part. The oohs are not too difficult and the soloists are doing a great job. I would like someone to try singing those solos as a back-up. Let me know if you're interested. For now, we have Amy, Linda, and Sharon.

3. Angels Among Us: We tried it with soloists, and discovered that what I expected would be a challenge is a challenge, and that is getting us all in for the chorus. It's not too hard, but it's different after each verse, so watch me (and Donna will fix it if we/I mess up. Sharon and Robyn were the soloists today. I've got Ellie and Cathy interested too. We'll need back-ups so this is good news.

4. Song for a Winter's Night: It's so pretty! I love this one so much. I love that it's Canadian, and I love that it's wintery but doesn't mention Christmas. We reviewed page 9 to the ending. The part that was the most powerful was in the middle of page 11, where it's only 2 parts, but so beautiful "on this winter's night with you". The tenors and basses nailed their part and the sopranos and altos remembered not to go down too low, and it was perfection. 

5. In the Bleak Midwinter: Impressive. I love the way this song moves in the 4 parts. Very choral. It's quite difficult but you got it! We've now reviewed the two 4-part verses, and the other two verses will be solos. I've got a couple people interested in those solos. Let me know if you'd like to try one. We have recordings of this. Note that the solos are both in the Tenor recording, not in the Soprano recording.  

6. Do you hear what I hear? we ran out of time so I just let you know that it's big, it's going to be our finale, and you should watch the YouTube video of the choir singing it in 2012. We have recordings. There's lots of melody for the Tenors and Basses, which means there's stuff that the sopranos are going to need to pay attention to. 

We talked about: 

The website: make sure you can log in. Carol will have sent an email from the website for you to get in. Let her know if it didn't work. You can send me an email too, for help. There's so much there. Look around and make use of it. Check it every week to see if there's anything new in the announcements section on the  home page. There are links to the YRCC Calendar, this blog, and my YouTube channel too. Sign up for events on the website. Small groups are set up as events. 

Recordings and music are in folders. You'll mostly find something like this first one, where there's a recording of the accompaniment without parts, and then one for each part, played over the accompaniment, and then there's a pdf. You can print one as a "working copy" for you to mark up with more than pencil if you like. Never use anything but pencil on the one that we give you in your binder.  Sometimes, there are good YouTube videos for the parts, so we have links in a word document in the Music Library folder, as you can see in the second one below. 

Music Library Folder for Bleak Midwinter

Music Library Folder for Song for Winter's Night

November 11th rehearsal: We're singing, and we are going to be out. Our room isn't available, but we've been asked to sing for a women's group at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in Newmarket, so that's perfect. We'll have excellent rehearsal singing in front of an audience of kind women. Details will be added to the Calendar as they are determined. Our theme of peace is perfect for a gathering on Remembrance Day. 

Next Week, Tuesday, October 21st

6:30 Mele Kalikimaka

• Angels Among Us
• Do You Hear What I Hear
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• Let There Be Peace on Earth
• Peace on This Silent Night
• Why We Sing

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review October 7th

We made joyful noise with percussion instruments for our small group song African Noel! It's coming along nicely. We added Sharon and Lorraine to the noise, and it was cool! Of course the star of the show was Jenn's Djembe, a big beautiful drum with a big beautiful sound. 

Our warm-up when everone was assembled was done with the song Home by Phillip Phillips. Gentle movement, singing and clapping, and harmonizing were explored. When you're alone in the car or in the kitchen, listening to music, sing along. And, try to sing harmonies when you hear them, and try to make up harmonies when there aren't any. Sing above the melody if you're a soprano, like a descant maybe. Sing below the melody like altos. Play with your voice. 

We also worked on volume with our Wow! and What! rollercoasters. We also had funny wow moments when the Blue Jays scored. 

1. Let there be Peace: We did it! The whole thing. We learned parts on page 6, starting at the bottom of 5, and the ending! We're singing it as written. The one thing we're leaving out is the top note in the Tenor line at "begin". Second sopranos and tenors move on the word begin (3 syllables: be-gi-in). Please push that extra syllable, drop down strong on "in". Altos, you move like that in the ending too. Lots of drama there please. Something to note if you weren't there: At the top of page 6, there's a breath mark before "in peace" and you'll notice that the timing there is special: "in peace" is quick. At F on page 5, start soft, quiet, and gradually get louder. We'll work on the dynamics, but just remember to watch me and I'll let you know when to be soft and when to get louder. With so much drama here, it's important to watch and move together. 

2. For Unto Us: Wow! We started at the beginning but our focus was the soprano melisma. The big bunch of 16th notes on the word "born" at the bottom of the first page, which is followed by the bass melisma at the top of page 2. Something that helped was Donna playing the first of each set of 4 notes, so we had a good landing place. Michele pointed out to me afterwards that since there are pairs of these sets of 4, the same starting note twice, it's easy to count 7 of these pairs to keep track of them. We spent extra time on the last one that ends on the second page. Don't hold that last note more than one count. There's a rest before the altos come in. When the basses come in they get their 7 sets of 16th note things. Linda shared with me that she learned to think of them as ho-hos, like laughing ha-ha-ha-ha, but ho-ho-ho-ho, just not like Santa please, but light and bouncy. That might help us sound less like mosquitos and bees. We sang all the way to "prince of peace" on page 4. Remember that Peace is our theme. Whenever we sing "prince of peace", it's big. We should feel awe and gratitude for that gift of peace personified among us, for us, which is what we need to celebrate and remember at Christmas (not Santa, again). 

Soprano Melisma

3. Somewhere in My Memory: Yay! Lots of you remember this very well. We just sang it through once so that we can see how much or how little we need to re-learn/learn. Not much! This is so pretty and not very difficult. The tricky parts are the key changes at 38 and 46, and the ooh-la-la section at 30. There are recordings for parts on the website, in the Music Library. 

4. In the Bleak Midwinter: We started on the second page, page 4, where we all sing in 4 parts. Again, I was pleased to hear that a number of people remembered their parts from past years. For those of you who had never seen it: BRAVO! It's not easy, but you all did really really well. Look at where your part moves when the other parts don't, and emphasize those notes, lean in to them. The first page and third page are 2 solos. They're written as soprano and tenor, but we've had them both as soprano and both as tenor in the past. Let me know if you'd like to try one of those solos. We have recordings of all 4 parts in our music library. 

5. O Holy Night: We learned parts on page 9 where the verse is sung by the choir in 3 parts. This is a special moment. Up to now, soloists sang the verses, building up to the chorus, with one voice, two voices, three voices. Now we're all singing and the words are important. Here is where we get our message of peace. The message we're pushing is peace. It's a timely message. And at 101, we're spelling out what I think Christians should be hearing from the Prince of Peace. The 3 soloists come back at 110 to remind us that we've received the message with joy and gratitude and we need to sing it out. The holy name that I have in mind when I sing "praise his holy name" is Prince of Peace. 

What we talked about:

Angels Among Us: I'm looking for two soloists. These are big solos. Remember Song for a Winter's Night, when the choir didn't come in until page 9. It's like that, only we come in for the chorus in between. So, the first verse, all the way to the bottom of page 4 is one voice. It makes sense when you look at the words. We all come in on "Oh, " at bar 17 singing the chorus that is marked at bar 18 with a segno. Another soloists starts at bar 28. "When life held troubled times..." and sings until the top of page 9 "single ray of hope". We all come in on "Oo" and sing the chorus/at the segno on page 5 again. At the top of page 6, we continue at the Coda, with tenors and basses leading us to the last section and ending. Donna has recorded parts. Soloists, just ignore where she says there's a little duet. It's all you. I recommend listening to this video by Demi Lovato. I'm not crazy about her voice or style but it's sincere and clear. 

We talked about Home. I chose the song Home because I like it, I like the oohs and ahhs especially but also the drums, and I like the message. Know you're not alone, and people make a place a home. This time of year, in our town (In our town in October, friends and family...) people are celebrating the Jewish New Year and Sukkot, the Chinese Moon Festival/Mid-Autumn Festival, Thanksgiving coming up this weekend, and Diwali is coming up on Oct. 20. Lots of people going home, gathering for special meals and other traditions. 

When we sing Shine Hanukkah, African Noel, and Mele Kalikimaka, we will be reminded of In Our Town in December, and our diverse neighbours. Peace in every house and peace in the community, and radiating out into the world.

Next Week: Tuesday, October 14th

6:30 Small Group: Mele Kalikimaka

• 12 Songs of Christmas
• Angels Among Us
• Do You Hear What I Hear?
• In the Bleak Midwinter
• O Holy Night

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review September 30th

Wow! That was fun!

We started with a bang, and a boom-boom-boom. African Noel, the small group that met at 6:30 is going to be excellent. We're doing it differently this time (obviously) and it's going to have a roots/folk feel: call and response, and a cappella, with only percussion accompaniment. I am happy to report that we have a beautiful djembe to use! Jenn has lent me hers to use next week, as she's going to be away, but she'll be able to play it when we rehearse closer to the concert date. I've never played such a beautiful drum. And, I'd like to see a few more instruments used, so please come and join us next week if you'd like to play one of mine or have one of your own. 

When we were all assembled, including a few more new people trying us out, we did a brief warm-up with some stress-buster stretches and rhythm exercises. 

1. Shine Hanukkah: we did the whole song! It's fun and pretty easy. Watch for dynamics (loud and soft) and timing (there's a slow section). At the beginning, the tenors and basses sing verse 1 alone, the melody (so that's the first line, not theirs). Verse 2 is everone, as written (SAB). 

2. For Unto Us: You're going to love it, really. So far, we've just done the parts where we're all singing together, "and his name shall be called... prince of peace". We did all of them, page 3, 5, 7, and 9. If you've been absent, or if you feel a little nervous about this song, please do a little homework and sing with a YouTube recording of your part. So, we were told that you can go to settings on YouTube and slow down the speed of the recording (or speed it up, not). I tried it and it works! I took a picture of my screen, and you can see I've got my cursor on the settings symbol below the recording, not YouTube's main settings. You choose Playback Speed and you can go half as fast (.5) or slower (.75). It's a little distorted, but pretty cool! Remember to reset it to "normal" or you'll hear another video slow and its trippy. 

3. Angels Among Us: I re-imagined this to be an easier piece, and was inspired by the way we tackled Song for a Winter's Night last year. So, we're having 2 soloists do the bulk of the work, and we're eliminating the oohs. The choir comes in to sing the chorus twice and then the coda (the bridge and ending). We did all that. Now, please consider being a soloist. You can listen to a recording (not the original one, it's weird)  Try this: a solo version by Demi Lovato. One soloist will sing the whole first verse, then we all sing the chorus. Then another soloist will sing the second verse and we all come in at the chorus again, and go to the coda to the end. Easy-peasy. 

4. O Holy Night: Another one with soloists. Our arrangement is magnificent, outstanding, inspiring. We stood up and sang it all the way through. Lots of us have sung it before. Watch out for a few things. We do have oohs and ahhs in this and different timing from what you're used to. The soloists we tried out were Amy on the first solo at 30, Amy and Linda on the second one at 43, and Amy and Linda and Sharon at 52 and again at 110. We have all parts recorded. Find them here. (you have to log in to the website). 

5. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: We made it to the ending! It's so much fun, I love it. We have recordings! Again, you'll need to log in to the website, and the link is here. 

We talked about:

Orange Shirt Day. A number of us had our orange shirts on. It's good to wear the shirt, but then please also do some learning, some reading, listen to music, visit an art gallery, support indigenous artists. Let's work at being better neighbours and allies. 

I remembered the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and wished everyone a Happy New Year, but forgot that now it's the most important Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. I wish you a meaningful and easy fast and Shanah tovah. 

Next week: Tuesday, October 7th

6:30 African Noel with percussion

• Angels Among Us (if soloists are ready-if not, then In the Bleak Midwinter)
• For Unto Us A Child is Born
• Let There Be Peace on Earth
• O Holy Night
• Somewhere In My Memory

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review September 23rd

It was a grand night for singing, despite the rain. We got all the equipment and stuff inside, not too wet,  except for my ‘riser’ which I left dry in my trunk. We did just fine without it. 

6:30, we started the first small group, Dona Nobis Pacem. (dough-nah no! beesss/not beez paw 🐾 tshem) It was excellent how we worked together to make it sound best, and came up with a plan for its performance. Stellar teamwork. We lowered the key so that the bass clef singers could all sing together, and it’s not too low for the sopranos, and altos are comfy there. We’re starting on a D instead of an F. We will lead the audience in the second singing, with altos leading their side, sopranos the other, and tenors and basses will lead all who sing in that lower range.

Our physical warm-up was a recorded song with movement again. It’s good to gently stretch your neck and shoulders and sway and twist and wiggle to music anytime you’re feeling a little stress or anxiety. We responded to the rhythm with our dancing and also with snapping and clapping- on 2 and 4! The song was September by Campsite Dream. We also listened briefly to the version from the movie Trolls. We sang the ba-do-doos and ba-de-ahs. We raised our voices in loud Wows and Whats again. Love those.

1. Peace on This Silent Night: has lots of notes written on it. We’re going to make it simpler this time. Sopranos and Tenors on top, in Part l, all the way through, and Altos and Basses on the bottom, Part ll. I want two soloists for the beginning, please, an Alto and a Soprano? Little short solos that end with a duet. Everyone comes in not quite Forte at 27. We have rehearsal recordings of the parts for this on our website. Go to the Music Library and open the folder with the song's title.

2. For Unto Us a Child is Born: We started at the ending. Well, the last section, actually, from the words "and his name" at the bottom of page 8. We went over each part and we sounded so good together! If we nail the ending, then anything we might have fuddled in the middle will be forgotten. We get to sing this part again, with slight variations on pages 3, 5, and 7. I'm copying the links to some rehearsal videos. You can access these on our Music Library on the website, and they're on my YouTube playlist too. And, you might find your part in a different video that is more to your liking, because there are several on YouTube. 

• Händel: Messiah - 13. For unto us a child is born - Gardiner
• Handel - For Unto Us a Child is Born - Soprano Practice
• Handel - For Unto Us a Child is Born - Alto Practice
• 13 - Handel Messiah Part 1 - For Unto Us A Child Is Born - Tenor
• 13 - Handel Messiah Part 1 - For Unto Us A Child Is Born - Bass

3. Song for a Winter's Night: Wow! We got through the whole song and it was awesome. We did parts on page 9, went over all the oohs and ahhs up to there, and then did the top of page 10. It was cool and not too difficult. Note: the oohs turn to ahhs at bar 37. There are recordings on YouTube for this too, and you can access them from our Music Library. 

4. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: We're so good, we got ahead of what I expected. We are at bar 74. Some of us remember this very well from last time, and the melodies are so well-known that it's not difficult to follow and sing these fun classical themes. We should have fun with this piece, try to relax and smile and even laugh-the audience will laugh. We have recordings of all the parts on the website if you're feeling behind. 

Next week: Tuesday, September 30th We'll dip our toes further into Christmas, even though it will still be September! 

6:30 small group: African Noel Please sign up!

• Angels Among Us
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• O Holy Night
• Shine Hanukkah
• Various Themes on Fa-la-la

It was a Grand Night with YRCC at the Theatre

Friday's Theatre outing. 

This past Friday, a bunch of us went to Theatre Aurora on Henderson Drive just west of Yonge Street to see A Grand Night for Singing, (that's a link to the theatre's website- you can see the show next weekend too!) a Broadway revue of Rodgers & Hammerstein songs from their many musicals. It was fabulous! We all agreed that we need to do more of that, going out together to see a show. Live music, live theatre is something so special, and we have lots of opportunities in Newmarket and Aurora to see wonderful shows. 

This show featured a cast of 5 actor/singer/dancers and a 6-person orchestra. I kept calling them a band: "I want a band!". But, they were more like a tiny perfect orchestra. There was an amazing percussionist, a man who played flute, clarinet, and saxophone, a cellist, a bassist (standing double bass! love) and two (magical) keyboard players. I loved watching them all, and they sounded huge. 

The description on the poster says "with humour, heart, and irresistible charm" and that's what it was. Funny, loveable, charming. The actors were absolutely charming, funny, adorable. The singing was so, so good! And dancing too. Such a joy! Of course, the music was fantastic, and the lyrics incredible, iconic songwriting. I didn't know many of the songs but loved them all. 

The venue is smallish, humble, unassuming, but the sound was excellent, perfect, and the lighting/set absolutely professional. 

We're going to look at the rest of the season's offerings to make some plans for a future choir trip. Next time, we hope more people join us for dinner before too. 

Dinner was a good opportuinity to talk to each other and discover how much (very much) we have in common. There's not much time to get to know one another during rehearsals, so this was a real treat. We went to Symposium on Hollandview, and it was good, but we can consider trying different restaurants too. 

I'm looking forward to our next YRCC outing! What will it be?

Read the article in the Auroran

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review September 16th

Woo-hoo! We had a bunch of new people come to sing with us. It was great. I love sharing our wonderful thing, our choir (therapy) evening, this beautiful community of friends who love to sing. 

We danced a little to "shake the sillies out". We did the twist and the mashed potato (sort of) with the song Do You Love Me? I made a point of singing "work, work, work" because it was going to be a busy rehearsal with lots of work. We have lots of work to do before our concert in December, but we have lots of time, too. If you need to miss a rehearsal, be sure to read my blog post following the rehearsal so that you can get caught up. There are some recordings on the website and on my YouTube channel.

After a brief vocal warm-up, featuring very loud (double forte ff) "wow!" and "what!?", we got straight to work.

1. Angels Among Us: this one is not only new to almost everbody, but also a song that many people have never heard! That put us all on an even level for a change. We started learning this song by doing it part by part starting at the chorus, bar 18. Bar 18 marked as the segno. We talked about how the segno (which means sign) marks a spot that we will need to return to. It's ofen used in conjunction with a coda, a symbol to indicate a special ending. We found the place where we have to go back on page 9, also the page with the coda. I love the oh-oh-oh before the chorus. We get to sing the chorus 3 times. The third one is in the ending, and it's in a key change. It looks different but it sounds the same, just a little higher. We even did the ending! I'm thinking about having soloists sing the verses, maybe with a little bit of choir back-up? I'm not crazy about how the verse is divided up between parts. Just an idea now. Let me know what you think.  

2.Let There Be Peace on Earth: So special! We did really well. I've decided we're doing the "quiet ending" It's so much better than the loud one. It's bigger, and we don't have to sing it that quiet ;-) Don't forget to write in pencil the alternative words "With Earth as our mother, her children all are we. Let us walk with each other in perfect harmony." We're going to have 2 sopranos sing the extra top line, the descant-like echo part. I think that's all we can spare. I'll need a back-up for each part though, so 4 sopranos to learn those. I was happy to see the coda symbol on the endings of this piece to reinforce your learning. Notice also that the first bar of the coda is the same in both endings "me", after "let it begin with." In the same way, our coda in Angels Among Us starts with the same "love" as after the first "light of love".  

3. Song for a Winter's Night: We are all singing all the way through this time, and we learned the oohs under the first two verses! Last time we didn't start until page 9, having soloists only up until then. This is what gave me the idea to do that with Angels. It was excellent, and doing that made this year's version different, very easily. This Gordon Lightfoot song is super-Canadian, and I love it so much! 

4. For Unto Us a Child is Born: Wowza! Some strong feelings about this one. It's hard and we have to "yodel" (Colby's word for when we sing the wild melismas/runs/ornamentation on the word "born" for example.) We almost finished this piece last Christmas, but had to put it on hold. Now, we're going to finish it. There are videos for each part to help you learn your part. You will probably need to spend a little time outside of choir nights learning this piece. It's super cool, though, impressive, and we don't have to be perfect. Just listen to any recording of a choir singing it, and you'll have a hard time discerning whether or not they're singing it accurately. We're not judges and we're not going to be judged. Yay!

5. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: Wheeee! it's so much fun! Memories of Bugs Bunny, right?! We learned the parts of the Deck the Halls sections. Remember that the la-la-las are short and weird, and they will get weirder as we go from song to song in this medley. The audience will laugh and they'll love it. 

We talked about:

• Getting signed up on the website. Carol will send emails to the new folks who will complete their profiles on the website. Access to the website is very important. Please keep up to date by taking a look from time to time in addition to reading this blog weekly. 
• Small Groups are starting next week. Sign up in "Events" and come early, at 6:30, if you want to sing Dona Nobis Pacem. 
• Friday's Theatre outing. This Friday, a bunch of us are going to the Aurora Theatre to see A Grand Night for Singing, a Broadway revue of Rodgers & Hammerstien songs from their many musicals. Sign up online. We still have 2 tickets available. Sign up in "Events". We will have to pay Robyn for our tickets (only $22.50 if we get 10 people). 

Next week: Tuesday, September 23

Small Group: Dona Nobis Pacem at 6:30

• Peace on this Silent Night
• Song for a Winter's Night
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• Various Themes on Fa-la-la

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review September 9th

I'm so happy to be back at choir!!! 

It was wonderful to see so many of my choir friends again after a long hot summer. It was a good summer, but I'm really ready for this cooler weather and singing every Tuesday evening again! 

We're having another 30th Anniversary Celebration! Why Not? We do two very different concerts every year, and this is our 30th Winter Concert Season. We're going to sing winter songs and, naturally, Christmas music. Yay! I love Christmas music. 

This week, we had returning members registration. It went very smoothly and we got our binders and updated our phone numbers and email addresses, and we're set. Don't worry if you were away, we'll be sure not to give your music number away. 

Next week, we will have new members starting! Yay! New members are asked to come at 7:00 for registration. We'll try to start on time at 7:30. 

We started our rehearsal with a few stress-relieving exercises and some good breathing stuff. I'm trying out a few new things I've learned. I like the "dive" breathing exercise where you hold your hands together above your head while you breathe in, so you can't lift your shoulders and you have to fill your abdomen to get a good big breath. We did some short and gentle vocal exercises with the breathing. 

1. In Our Town in December: a simple and sweet opener. It talks about the different things that people do and celebrate in December, and the climax is "Singing Peace on Earth". Our secondary theme is Peace. All of the traditions in December are about family and community and peace on earth, and so is our choir. If everyone sang in a choir, we would have peace on earth. Please remember to mark your music with our special ending. We'll go over how to do that next time. (ad lib notes, and pencil!)

2. Let There Be Peace On Earth: our theme. This one has a lot of pencil marks on it because we've done it so many times, and probably never twice the same way. We have a solo/small group descant, and two possible endings. We have alternative lyrics. We have tenor and bass parts that we re-write. We reviewed  parts, up to section F. But, we'll do it again once the new folks are there. I'm not sure, but I think I might want the second, quiet, ending. I know; it doesn't sound like me. But, it's more dramatic, actually. We'll see.

3. Various Themes on Fa-la-la: OMG! This is so  much fun! It's such a good piece because we get a ton of classical music in one big medley and it's also pretty funny. Humour and Classical themes. Perfect. We just did a quick run-through, to remember that we have to work on the transitions but the parts are not too difficult. 

4. Song for a Winter's Night: This will be more fun this year because we're doing the oohs! But, not the oohs on the first page, we're skipping that intro and using the one Donna made for us last time, four bars only. And, we're not having solos, so we all get more melody too. The top of page 10 will be different this time; we're going to sing it as written, with the oohs. It will be so good!

5. Angels Among Us: New! We get a new song because it was a small group in the past, so technically, it's not new. A number of people had never heard of this song, so I'll put the YouTube video of the Alabama version below, but you can always go to my YouTube Channel and look up the YRCC playlist for the season to find the songs we're singing, often with old recordings of the YRCC! 

Renate's YouTube Playlist for YRCC 2025 Winter

6. Why We Sing: This is why. This is our ongoing theme: singing is good for so many reasons! It's mostly good for us, those singing, but also good for the ones we sing for. We are bringing back the descant this season! First sopranos will sing on top for the big ending. It's so big! 

Next week: 

• Angels Among Us
• For Unto Us a Child is Born
• Let There Be Peace On Earth
• Song for a Winter's Night
• Various Themes on Fa-la-la

Youth Community Choir for Newmarket Area Families

 

This is a fantastic opportunity for young people in Newmarket, Sharon, East Gwillimbury, Queensville, Aurora, Bradford,... Sharon-Hope Church is north of Mt. Albert Rd., South of Doane Rd. on Leslie St. 

YRCC Rehearsals Start September 9th, 2025

 Next week! We meet again starting next week. Yay!

I hope you all enjoyed the summer, and you're all ready and excited like I am, ready to get back to choir.

We're finally advertising openings for new members. It's been years since we did that. We had a waiting list for many, many years, with only a few spots coming available from time to time, and then we limited membership to returning members after COVID. Now, we're ready to invite new members again Although I thought that we were a good size last season, I believe that we should welcome more people since we have the space. Everyone deserves to sing with us. Our experience should be shared as much as possible, right? 

So, let Carol know if you've got a friend who's interested in joining. They can come on the second Tuesday to try us out, September 16th.

Have you looked at the website lately? The new redesign is not ready yet, but we've been working on the way the music and recordings are stored and accessed. The list of music for this coming season is up. You can take a look at all the music that will be in your binders. Peggy and Anne have got them ready for us. 

Remember that the yearly membership fee is now $100. You'll be able to pay by credit card, cheque (to York Region Community Choir) or cash. Don't forget to see Carol and Peggy first when you arrive. Come a little early so we can all get registered and start singing as soon as possible. I can't wait!

Summer Singing Opportunities 2025

While we’re not singing together in July and August, please find opportunities to sing in other places and with other people. 

You can always sing in your car and in your kitchen.

You can accept all invitations to cottages, camping, and beach days, and do some campfire singing. Or, sing while you paddle around in a lake. Sound carries over water, so have some buddies join you if you’re not comfortable with a solo performance. 

Orchestrate some backyard sing-alongs if you can. 

Singing outdoors in the summer is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

I’ve enjoyed the free concerts in Aurora and Newmarket in the past. They have ‘tribute bands’ who perform all the hits you know, and you’ll want to sing and dance along. I’ve added these concerts to our YRCC Calendar to encourage you to go. I’m definitely going to the first Newmarket one, on July 3rd, although I’m probably going to be late. I hope you find me there. I hope we run into one another during the summer, and this is my way of orchestrating some opportunities for us to casually get together to sing. 

Here’s a link to the calendar. Wednesdays are at Town Park in Aurora, and Thursdays are at Riverwalk Commons in Newmarket.

YRCC Annual General Meeting and Party tomorrow

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 10th will be the last meeting of the York Region Community Choir until September 9th, 2025. 

We're singing at Mackenzie Place from 6:30-7:30, and then we'll head over to our room at the Administrative Centre on Yonge Street for a short meeting, the once-a-year meeting of the choir membership to do a little necessary business, and then we eat and chat and hopefully do some fun singing.

 If you're not planning to sing at the care home, then go straight to our room. You can help set up and start socializing. 

Bring something sweet or savoury to snack on, party snacks. We'll have tea and coffee, and maybe cool beverages? 

You'll have an opportunity to influence the choice of music for the fall/winter season. You had an email with attachments, and one was a list of songs. Choose your top 3, and we'll create a 30th anniversary winter concert of our favourite winter and Christmas songs. 

Please bring your binder and all of our music to return it, if you haven't already done so. After tomorrow, you will have to deliver it to Peggy's or Anne's house. All music must be returned before the end of June. 

Peggy and Anne, and the music selection committee, and the executive will be working over the summer to prepare the next season. 

Don't stop singing. Every chance you get, sing. Sing at summer concerts. Sing at bonfires. Sing in the car on roadtrips. Sing in the kitchen. Sing, sing, sing. 

 

Thursday, June 5th Sing-along Café will be Outdoors

You might want to join my Sing-along Café this Thursday! 

We're going to be outside, singing along with a cover band, Telltale Sounds, at the 2025 Newmarket Music Series Lineup Launch Party! Then, we'll sing and dance to Glenn Marais and the Mojo Train! 

I think we'll want to bring lawn chairs, and maybe a snack and a beverage. There will be a food truck there if you want to get something fun. 

We are asked to bring a Food Bank Donation.

We'll meet at Trinity United Church. We'll head down together on foot from the Park Street entrance at 6:15. Hopefully that will be early enough to get parking behind the church or at the library and get a spot to sit at Riverwalk Commons. 

We'll walk across Main Street, down the stairs to the parking lot, and across towards the community centre- unless some of us have issues with stairs, then we'll go down the ramp at the next block that ends up just behind the community centre. 

Wear comfortable shoes and dress for the weather (should be perfect, not too warm, not too cool).

I'm a big fan of these free summer concerts. Can't wait to hear what bands are coming!

This sign will be on the Park St. Door

YRCC 30th Anniversary Spring Concert Video

Here's a link to the video of the whole concert.

It's huge, so it's not easy to save or share, but I've added it to my YouTube page. 

Hopefully, you'll be able to see it on YouTube. 

In the meantime, we're working on other ways to save and share it.

Enjoy!

YRCC 30th Anniversary Spring Concert Review

 I've been putting off reviewing the concert because we had someone create a video of the whole thing (yes!) and we're figuring out the best way to share it with everyone. 

I had hoped to be able to say something like: "That was one of our best concerts and you can see for yourself. Here's a link to our concert video." But, that's not happening yet. 

I'm looking forward to everyone seeing themselves and hearing how great we sounded and looked. I'm so proud of how professional you looked and moved, what excellent performers you are, especially considering that we're a non-auditioning community choir with many people who don't read music or have any vocal training. I'm so happy to see your hard work paying off. 

And, I want to send the video to people who have moved away or couldn't continue with choir for any other reason. "We're still strong and still singing and wish you all could have joined us. We did get a couple of people from the past to come back for the concert and it was so cool! You'll see Michael in the tenor section and Kevin singing bass and playing the guitar." This video will give us all lots of good memories. 

Some people had been saying that they thought we wouldn't sound as good as we did when we had 60 members and a waiting list. Well, you'll hear it. The smaller choir sounds fantastic, maybe even better. It's still a big choir, and the big choir sound is definitely there. 

We will have the sound recordings up on the website soon. So, look for that on the Concert Recordings Page, and the video will be put there at the bottom of that page when we can figure it out. Future videos can be there too, and maybe we'll decide to have a new YRCC YouTube page. What do you think?

I took a few screenshots while I watched the video. I put them on the Photo Gallery on the YRCC website, so everyone can see them. Here's one that I love:

Carol's solo in Song For The Mira

 

Newmarket Citizens Band Concert May 24th

 

 This concert sounds amazing! There will be dancers. Our experience performing with the Newmarkst Citizen's Band was so cool, and we loved the band. They're excellent.

Spend a lovely evening at the Old Town Hall on Saturday, May 24th. 

YRCC Spring 2025 Seniors Tour has begun

We had our first seniors' performance last night. 

It was wonderful, such a joy!

Here's a bit of my concert script, from our May 3rd  30th Anniversary Spring Concert, where I spoke about our seniors tour:

The concert is exciting, ... thrilling. (But)
We also sing at seniors homes and care homes.
We sing a short program of our stuff and then a good number of sing-along songs from eras past, songs that the seniors can sing too.
Those are always fun and rewarding times.
It always makes my heart sing when I arrive at one of those places, whether it’s more like a hotel or more like a hospital, when I see those black pants white shirts and red ties, it makes me so happy! 
There they are: My Team! 

Well, the team that assembled last night was a winning one. We got ourselves together, managed to have the equipment there (thanks to Melodie and her husband John) and all plugged in and ready, and we gave them a spirited and inspiring performance. The audience of residents was full of vim and vitality. They clapped and sang and showed great appreciation for our efforts. Cedarvale Lodge in Keswick is one of those "more like a hotel" places, a fancy resort hotel. Such a pleasure to sing there. We ended up starting a little late because we each had to register/sign in electronically on one device. It was good to see that they protect their residents and all of us there, but we should have been warned to arrive earlier to get all of us entered into the system. Luckily, our team captain, Lauren, stood by and helped us quickly manage the machine. Even the drive there was nice. 

My heart sang. I love my choir! (thank you, Carol, for the pictures)

I love my choir!

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review April 22nd

Our last rehearsal was fantastic. You sound beautiful. 

Wasn't the flute amazing?! There will also be a song with guitars, so our concert will have quite a bit of variety for our audience.  The addition of different instruments is always appealing. Our songs are already quite varied in style and tempo, and we'll have a duet, and three small groups in addition to our songs which feature soloists and lots of good harmony in 2, 3, and 4 parts. Our voices in all of those different configurations will rreally be awesome. Donna's mastery of those amazing accompaniments is going to be impressive too.  I'm sure it's going to be an excellent and enjoyable concert for everyone. 

1. Blue Skies: Excellent, snappy, fun! (microphones)

2. Song for the Mira: Beautiful and powerful. Watch for the slow down of the bar before verse 5. on page 9. The flute slows down to milk that pretty run. Watch me for when to come in on the word "Out"(microphones for soloists and flute, logistics)

3. All the Little Rivers: Impressive and lovely. Watch that you don't slow down at the top of page 7 ff very loud but in tempo. Watch me. 

4. Hallelujah: Super! One of our favourites and an audience favourite too. Love the soloists. (microphones, logisics)

5. Musical Medley: Yay! It's working. Donna nailed those transitions. Solos were beautiful. (microphones, logistics)

6. We Rise Again: Electrifying! First sopranos nailed their parts. We reviewed the oohs and aahs under the second solo. Melinda nailed the solos. Well done, everyone. 

7. Monday, Monday: Fun! Groovy. Nailed it. 

Next Tuesday, April 29th: EARLY START FOR EVERYONE 7:00

Small groups and soloists starting at 6:00 (Anthem is first)

Next week, we're at Trinity Anglican Church in Aurora, where our concerts are always held. We will go through the whole concert from start to finish to hear how my order sounds and to see how it works. Logistics include where everyone stands on stage, how to get on stage and off stage and where to sit when you're offstage. Plus, we will use microphones for solos and small groups, so using those and how to get them where they need to be is something to work on. Your music will be in concert order in your binder so that we don't have to worry about looking for music. Be prepared to stay a little late. We often go overtime, past 9:30. 

Lauren will be selling tickets at breaktime only. Carol can sell tickets by phone too. Those will be your only chance to get tickets with a credit card. Tickets can be bought at the door, but cash-only. 

I'm going to send an email with the concert order and timing as well as timing for the concert Saturday evening. 

Some people who are coming to sing with us on Sunday at Bill's celebration of life were asking about joining in on Anthem. We can add you to the rehearsal for Anthem Tuesday at 6:00. Peggy will have extra sheet music for you. If you want to have a look at it in advance, it's on the website. Also on the website is a link to my YouTube playlist, where you'll find your part to rehearse with. Here's the Alto part, a direct link. 

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review April 15th

We're almost there! It was not perfect being in that space, but we did good work.

1. Canon of Joy: remember to bounce the long notes, especially the “joy” ones. Smile as you end the word, so your mouth makes the o, then smile as you end on the y, big mouth. 

2. Monday, Monday: if you’re still having difficulty with the “every other day” section, try speaking the words, then singing them. Same smile and bounce thing with the ba-das. 

3. Imagine: Observing rests: watch for cut-offs, especially words ending in s.

4. Wonderful World: big ending. We’ll sing this on May 4th as well. 

5. Thank You for the Musicals: big ending; adding soprano notes and the words “to me”.

6. We Rise Again: back-up Nadine did an excellent job. The timing in the second solo is hard, and I will do my best to help Melinda. The oohs are also challenging there. Just do your best, and remember that nobody in the audience has the sheet music and they’re listening to the words Melinda is singing.

7. All the Little Rivers of Canada: we determined that we need a little more time to get this one. It’s very common to get out of tune in an a cappella section. Often when the piano returns, the choir is shown to have gone off. This happened to us last night. We can add Donna in if necessary, but we’ll work on it next week. 

Continue to buy and sell tickets. Email friends and family. Send them our pretty poster. 

Next week, Tuesday, April 22nd:

6:30 Lean on Me Small group first, then For Good, then first sopranos. If there’s time, Nadine and Todd’s duet in the medley (if not, at break). 

• All the Little Rivers
• Blue Skies
• Hallelujah
• Song for the Mira
• Musical Medley

In two weeks: Tuesday, April 29th, Run-through rehearsal. 

We'll be at Trinity Anglican in Aurora, our concert venue. We will walk through the whole concert from start to finish (we don't have to sing every bit of every song), with a focus on where we're standing, sitting, and walking, and using microphones (solos and small groups). 

The concert order is on the website under Members\Concert Order. 

Have your binders in order. You might want to use flags or dividers with labels to help you find your place after the small group sections in the middle of each half, and at the second half after intermission.

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review April 8th

I'm feeling very good after last night's rehearsal. Lots of gold stars would have been handed out. 

The small groups, Anthem, and Together Wherever We Go, were both excellent. We heard Melinda and Lauren's duet and that was also fantastic. 

1. Hallelujah: Soloists were Winston and Jane, back-ups will be Stanley and Melinds and Lauren. Such an excellent arrangement of a beloved song by a Canadian!

2. Blue Skies: Soloists will be Lauren and Debbie. Jane is a back-up. The snaps were super! Remember to snap across from beat one to beat two, then three to four. I will count first, then you snap, then Donna joins us. At the solos, turn page 5 first, then start snapping. You won't have to worry about how to get in at page 6 and you can enjoy the solos. 

3. O Canada/Hockey Song: We sing O Canada and then go straight into Hockey Song. What a lovely surprise it will be for our audience! At the end of O Canada, Donna will play the fanfare from the beginning of Hockey Song, and then she'll give us the same chord we get before the chorus, so the sopranos and altos will have their starting note for "Hello". Don't worry about precision with notes on this song. The chorus will be big and fun. The audience might join in, and will probably clap. Fun chaos; no worries.

4. You Raise Me Up: Stanley will sing the first verse and chorus as a solo. We will join him on verse 2, holding back, and then letting loose at the key change. Remember to observe all rests on pages 4 & 5, but sing pages 6&7 loudly broadly, holding notes over the rests, especially on "mountains" and on up. In the middle of page 7, the word "up" is short, leading into the ending. 

5. Musical Medley: Soloists will be Todd and Nadine on "There's Something Sweet". Stanely and Miral will be back-ups. Soloist on "I've been so lucky" will be Miral with Cathy as back-up. The star on this piece is Donna, who has created transitions between the songs that help us get to the next song. 

6. On Eagle's Wings: Outstanding!

7. Shenandoah: Gorgeous!

Lauren had tickets for sale and the machine for tapping. Buy tickets for friends and family in advance to make concert day easier, smoother. 

Next week, Tuesday, April 15th We all start at 7:30 (no small groups)

Our room in the Admin. Building is not available, and our usual back-up isn't avialable either. So, we are meeting at my church, Trinity United Church in Newmarket. We have the sanctuary, all the way upstairs. There are stairs, one flight up from the Main St. entrance that have a stairlift, and two sets of stairs up if you enter by Park Ave. There is a lift at the Park Ave. entrance that takes you all the way up to the sanctuary. Parking can be a challenge but there is a lot of parking downtown Newmarket, including street parking for up to 3 hours. Here's a link to a map of parking possibilites. The church is the big stone building across from the library and the new boutique hotel. 

• Canon of Joy
• Imagine
• Monday, Monday
• Musical Medley
• We Rise Again
• Wonderful World

Tickets bough in advance would help :-)

Piano Recital Sunday April 27, 2025 at 3:00

 Support Trinity United Church: Tickets $25.00

10-year-old Angel's playing is astounding.

YRCC 2025 Rehearsal Review April 1st

 Oh, how I love my choir! What a beautiful evening we had, what a joy to hear our songs coming together so wonderfully! 

First, at 6:30, Melinda and Lauren met with Donna to rehearse their duet. Then the Tenors and Basses gathered for a sectional rehearsal. I arrived toward the end of that and took over for a bit, and it was evident that they had made good progress. Go, Bass Clef Team! Thank you to Donna and Lauren for leading these early rehearsals! Thank you to Melinda for having the equipment ready so early too!

1. We had a brief warm-up, physical and vocal, and sang What a Wonderful World to get started. It's so good, I love it. We might be performing this at Bill's Celebration of Life. 

2. Song for the Mira: Our flute accompanist came today for the first time (Robyn will be busy at her eldest child's wedding during our concert). Carolyn plays flute in the Aurora Community Band with Nadine. How lovely it was! Our soloists have obviously been practising. I love how you all sound together on the first chorus. When the choir comes in, it's really very beautiful and powerful. The flute adds a special brilliance. Carolyn suggested a couple of moments of drama- a woman after my own heart- where we will slow down and you need to watch me and listen to the flute to keep us together. The first spot is in the middle of the whole-choir section on page 9, the bar before verse 5. Watch for the entry of "Out on the Mira" there. The second is at the end, just before you all come in with your ooh (not hmm), the last note. You always watch at the end anyway, so that will be easy. Thank you, Carolyn!

3. You'll Never Walk Alone: I wanted Carolyn to hear this because you sound magnificent singing it. It's a really extraordinary arrangement, the best I've ever heard. You're the best. I could hear the improvement after Lauren's teaching. Thank you, Lauren! I never have to worry about having to miss choir when I'm not feeling well. We did spend a moment on page 7, because I need to hear very strong "never"s from the Tenors and Basses, and not the octave down, the high note is so powerful. We tried out the basses on the alto note an octave down, because that's not as low, but it's not much better and a little confusing. 

4. Monday, Monday: We slowed down the "every other day" section and went over everyone's parts. It's so much better now. The altos get most of the melody, and a lot of the time, everyone else is just singing the same ba-das. Make sure you bounce on all of those to keep them from dragging and sounding boring. It's the same problem as the Canon parts of Canon of Joy, where you sing the same joy, joy, joys again and again. Bounce off of the consonant and smile in the vowels (easier to do with ba than with joy).

5. Musical Medley: Dancing Queen and Thank You for the Music: I recruited Nadine to sing with the first sopranos on Dancing Queen. That top row is special and needs to be big. Second sopranos will need to be strong on the soprano line to make up for the loss of the firsts, but I have faith in you. We went over parts a bit, but you're all good. For Thank You for the Music, we have a new soloist. Cathy will be the back-up, since she's done it before, and Miral will sing the "girl with golden hair" solo. How lovely to have a new voice for solos! (If you're wondering why it's always the same people, it's because it's rare for a person to be willing to sing alone in front of an audience. Like public speaking, it's a special gift. Choir is perfect for people who don't want to stand out, like most of you and most people everywhere. I'm very pleased with the growing number of choristers who are willing and able to sing solos.) We sang the whole thing through, and it was awesome. Todd and Nadine's duet was super-charming. Stanley and Miral have agreed to be back-ups. We'll have to hear that next time. The transitions between the songs are getting better (so hard to do, but Donna's brilliant) and you just have to always watch for the timing of those, as you do with all beginnings and endings. 

6. All the Little Rivers of Canada is amazing! Again, I could hear the improvements made with Lauren last week. You all sounded so good! I love this piece. 

We have posters ready- pretty posters prepared by Jane- for you to share wherever you can. Jane had hard copies there last night, and I'm going to attach a png(picture) here for you to copy and share in emails. You should be able to capture it with click.

I forgot to mention that Robin has booked 5 Seniors Visits for us on Tuesdays after our concert up to June 10th. I've added them to our Calendar and I've set up Events for you to sign up to go and sing. Please do sign up. We need a good number for each one, around 15, with a few people from each section, but usually not more than 20 total, sometimes fewer depending on space. There's also a sign-up for Bill's Celebration of Life. I hope we have a good turn-out for that. 

Next week, Tuesday, April 8th

6:30 Anthem, 7:00 Together Wherever We Go

• Blue Skies
• Hockey Song
• On Eagle's Wings
• Shenandoah
• Musical Medley
• Hallelujah/You Raise Me Up