Thursday Thoughts

In spite of loosing some time to our AGM last night, you all did wonderful work. The rep is coming closer to performance standard and now we have time to practice preforming the pieces. The goal now is to get as much of the scores in our heads as possible so that singing out of the score is not an uncomfortasble process. There are a few "joins" which need to be checked - know how to get from one movement of the Howells to the next.  Other than that, really know each score on this program.

Here are some reminders for the next week:

• let's all try to support the Camerara Xara concert this weekend. For tickets or details email Tenille.
• plug our concert with your church/community choirs, friends & family, address contact list, etc. Please sell your tickets. Remember the Antigonish concert has been cancelled and we are trying to make up the lost revenue.
• don't forget your Facebook pages and other social media sites. Talk it up...a lot!
• for those making travel claims remember your claims due next week. 
• thinking ahead, please note the time of the December 3 dress rehearsal on the blog calendar. 

Concert week rehearsal reminders:

• Tuesday's rehearsal will be with Jeff Reilly. He will arrive around 8 pm and we will spend time on all the rep he will play with us. 
• the dress rehearsal (as per the choir calendar) is Friday, November 4th from 7-10 pm.
• the choir call the night of the concert is 6:15 pm.

 Thanks again for the energy and heart you are putting into this concert. It showed Tuesday night!

Thursday Thoughts

Thank you again for fine work on Tuesday.  I think we made huge strides on the Howells and the music is now coming off the page. We have an hour and 45 minutes next Tuesday to get through most of the program and my thought is to run the Howells front to back to have a sense of pacing and see what we need to tweak. Please have all scores prepared and work at all the little places which need special attention.

Also please remember that this coming Tuesday is the organization's AGM - a necessary function for all non profit organizations. We will rehearse from 7:00 - 8:45 pm, take a 5 minute break  and then proceed directly to the AGM, chaired by our President, Marsha Curry. We will be on our way home by 9:30pm.

Finally, I will be emailing you a Travel Claim form. This is being offered to those who travel to rehearsals and/or concerts to subit a mileage claim in order to get a tax receipt. This will be processed earlier than in the past as December will be so busy for us all. Please do not leave it until the last minute to submit.

See you all next Tuesday. Have a good rest of the week. Stay dry!

From the Artistic Director

From the Artistic Director:  

Welcome to the opening concert of the 25^th Anniversary season of the Halifax Camerata Singers.  Twenty-five years is a significant achievement for any arts organization and we welcome you tonight and thank you for joining in helping us celebrate.

The Camerata remembrance concerts have been one of our most popular events over the past decade or so. I deliberately used the word “event” as this concert is unlike any other I program each season. The purpose of the evening is to give each of you the space and opportunity to “remember”  whomever you choose.  Some of the names listed In Memoriam are familiar while others are known only to the person who submitted the name. All are important. The exquisite beauty of the music, solemnity of this lovely sanctuary, and the selected readings will help create the space for you to reflect, to think and to remember.

The concert is in three different sections. We begin by remembering those who have been killed in armed conflict through the ages. Book-ended by two powerful poems by First World War poets, the choir opens the program with the evocative Herbert Howell’s Requiem. Written by Howells in 1936 (but not released for performance until 1980) some say that the death of Howell’s only son in 1935 was the catalyst for his writing of the piece. Howells uses a fragmented portion of the traditional text for the Requiem Mass but intersperses them with settings of Psalms 23 and 121 thus creating a unique but powerful work.

We reflect next on the loss of those who we have known – those who have been our friends, relatives and comrades.  Those who have passed from us but are still vivid in our memories.  Jeff Enns’ “Lord’s Prayer” is one of the most beautiful settings of this well known text I know and we are very happy to bring you the world premiere of this piece. Peter-Anthony Togni’s skilful attention to his ethereal, chord-coloured texts combined with Jeff Reilly’s bass clarinet improvisations over the choir all create a mystical atmosphere so serene you can almost smell the incense!

The final section of the program celebrates life and the influences of those lives who remain vividly in our memories.  Beginning with the David Roberts poem, “There Will Be Peace”  and followed by contemporary settings of the “Ubi Caritas” and “In Paradisium” we now celebrate lives well lived and hope for future generations. As in all of our remembrance concerts, we end by inviting you to stand and join with the choir to sing The Kontakion.

Thank you for your support over the last 25 years, both by attending our concerts and by your financial donations.  We are excited by the music we sing and we hope that you leave today refreshed and renewed at what you have experienced. Please take a rack card and allow us to add your email address to our e concert list. We really do want to see you again!  

Thursday Thoughts

We continue to make progress on this program and in that light, I have asked the basses to come a little early next Tuesday. They will do sectional work at 6:45 pm and the rest of the choir should be there at 7:15pm. We will forgo the warmup (please look after that in the car on the way!) and tackle the Howell's Requiem straight off.  The Truro crowd is sometimes pressing it to get there and get the chairs set up so if anyone can arrive a little earlier to help set up, on a perfect night we need 24 chairs from the Boardroom.

A few reminders:

- our annual AGM (necessary to fulfil our obligations with the Registry of Joint Stocks) takes place on Tuesday, October 25. Rehearsal will begin at the usual time of 7pm however we will stop at 8:45pm and turn things over to the Camerata Board led by President Marsha Curry. We will finish by the usual 9:30 pm.

- sometimes we work so hard singing in a choir like Camerata that we sometimes believe that this can be our only contribution. Please don't forget that even if the music is sublime, if there is no one there to hear it, the organization's bottom line is seriously affected - let alone our own morale. With so many arts events competing for our time and dollars, it is up to each one of us to do whatever possible to publicize our concerts. With less than three weeks to go, here are a few simple things which take little time :

• please forward Tenille's recent press release to the choral music lovers in your contact list the info re season's tickets. At $50 for all three concerts it is a steal. 
• send our concert info on to your social networking contacts (Facebook, Twitter, etc and include the thumbnail of the concert poster as your profile picture. This is the  way our younger concert audience members exchange information. They rarely use email. 
• make sure our concert announcement is in your church bulletins. Encourage your choir members to come. 
• we are trying to encourage youth choirs to come to Camerata concerts. Last season an entire youth choir from Pictou came to our May concert and went away Camerata fans.   Help us identify youth choirs who might like discounted tickets and an invitation to attend a Camerata concert. 

• talk up our concerts with everyone!  The little time you spend is well worth it. You, the singers who travel week to week to rehearsals and give so much of your time and energy to create this choral art, you are our best ambassadors. Let's all take ownership of our concerts and help sell them out! 

For this week be prepared with all works on the program, especially the entire Howell's Requiem. As part of your rehearsal prep it is time to go back and listen to a recording of this piece, if only to get it in your ears. Among others, there is a good reference recording in the Choir Only section of the Camerata website. Pay attention to the joins between the movements and write pitch cues in your score. The last two movements still are not jelling, specifically: P. 20 m. 17 - m. 33 and the entire last movement.  If you are still struggling with tuning notes and vowels, the music has no hope of coming off the page. Don't forget to review the movements we haven't rehearsed in a while.  Thank you to the soloists - great work  last Tuesday.

I love this music and am so looking forward to presenting this program with you to our audiences in Halifax and Antigonish on November 6 & 7. Have a great week!

Thursday Thoughts

It has been quite a week!  Everyone seemed rejuvenated after last weekend and much of what was learned from the Elise Bradley workshop carried over into Tuesday's rehearsal. Thanks to everyone who helped to make both Camerata's and Xara's PD workshop such a success. I would be remiss not to mention Bethany United and Ann Bradley for helping to make things go so smoothly on Saturday and to Tenille, Christina, plus a number of Camerata and Xara volunteers who all contributed in many ways to the overall success of the weekend.

Looking ahead: we are 4 Tuesdays until the Friday dress rehearsal! Lots need to be accomplished in the next 4 weeks but we have time to really make this concert special. I will be emailing you three readings in a couple of days. I am looking for three persons who have some experience either in theatre or public speaking, reading in public, etc to be the readers for the three poems in the concert. Not everyone's gifts lie in this area as to make words come to life off a printed page requires a certain self confidence and sense of drama.  But we have many talented people in Camerata so if you think you would like to give it a try, please let me know.

For next Tuesday:

Howells Requiem: all soloists who have expressed an interest please be ready as I will make time for everyone. The choir will concentrate on mvts 5, 6, 1 & 3

 Ubi Caritas (Gjeilo) - fix. m 28-32; m. 40-end; be able to perform complete
Lord's Prayer (Enns) - run through
In Paradisium (Corlis) - review
The Kontakion (Lang) - I have decided to add this to the program; I'll bring copies for everyone and run it through.  New singers will find it easy.

One of the things I am so thankful for is the wonderful, eclectic mix of talented friends I get to work with every Tuesday night.  To each of you: have a happy Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends!