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!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Still working on choir stuff

Hi Everyone!
Are you having a good summer?
We're really having great summer weather, aren't we? It would be really hot singing in seniors' homes now!
The choir season is over, but some of us are still dedicating Monday nights and countless hours to the choir.
Filing and inventory
Trix, Sandra, Michele and I worked hard last night emptying the binders and filing the music. It was good getting together and getting it done. Trix and I will be working on the inventory. We’ve got quite a bit done already, but there are the new pieces to add and we want to count all the copies we own. That work will continue during the week. And, next Monday night some of the executive are getting together at Trix’s again to work on that as a team.
New Music
Some of us are busy looking at music to decide what to sing next season, and even further ahead to next spring. We’re hoping to buy a few new pieces for our winter season.  We need some music from other cultures to make our Christmas season more inclusive.  I’m looking for wintery music too.
My family thought I was strange listening to Christmas music and songs about winter a couple of nights ago. But, we’ve got to plan what we’re going to sing, get a binder made up for Sapphire and then set her up to do the recordings of the accompaniments and parts. I’ve got to get my hands on all the new pieces to learn them before I stand in front of the choir in September.
Preparing to teach
Sapphire and I work hard to learn the music before teaching it to everyone else. Supporting us, we have Trix who makes sure we have the music and there’s a copy for everyone in the choir. There is the music committee who seek out and buy new music and top up our sets of old music. There’s Steve with the recording equipment.
Booking and advertising
Other jobs are Sandra’s work to contact venues to book our shows and later our seniors’ home visits. We’ve been in contact with Trinity Anglican already and have our booking for May 5th, 2012! We’re having a problem with our winter date, so Sandra has her hands full with that. She’s also planning to have a table at the registration fair at the mall in August. She’ll be advertising the start of our season in papers and online all over the place. Carol and Steve are working on a brochure to advertise the choir, with a new logo.
Sing-along project
Trix and I have taken on the job of cleaning up the sing-along music. We’ll tackle the Christmas stuff first. Steve will be helping us out with that. He’s going to source new accompaniments and we’ll make up a new booklet to hand out.
Steve has also offered to work on creating a new spring sing-along booklet for all of us and our audiences.
Labour of love
There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to make sure our choir is the fun and successful organization we are. We love our choir. We have a good time together whatever we’re doing. We’d rather be singing, but we’re happy to do what needs to be done.
It’s a labour of love.
I'll give you a taste of Christmas in the heat of July. Check out this fun piece, called Minka. Check out the whole website for Alfred Music. You can hear samples. Very cool ;)
Keep singing!
Yours in harmony,
Renate

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