Thursday Thoughts

It is Wednesday night, the snow is falling down and I am home in hibernating mode but thinking now is the time to jot down my Thursday Thoughts.

First of all, welcome to soprano, Elisabeth Kleven who is replacing Ariane for this concert. We wish Ariane well as she prepares for her board exams in the coming months. Elisabeth is a very talented soprano and will fit in well with the rest of the line up. Please introduce yourselver to her and make her feel at home.

Great rehearsal last night. The music is coming along well (after two rehearsals!) and you have gone from getting the notes off the page to making music in a very short order. The challenge will be to feel so comfortable with the texts that the music sings itself, but that will come with work.

Christina and Sean are working to get the Finnish and Russian texts on the choir only page of the website so stay tuned. It is important for you to spend time with the score in front of you listening to the texts so that you can equate the visual look of words with the sound and accent of the language. That way the next piece we sing in Finnish (or Russian) will be easier from the beginning.

Our annual operation grant application to the Canada Council is finally complete (whew, as he breaths a huge sigh of relief!) and will be in the mail in a couple of days. The workload for this grant app is huge and a number of people with various areas of expertise are involved. It seems that as the choir improves and its level of activity increases, the grant app becomes more complex. Thankfully it is complete for another year!

For next week please spend time with the following scores:
Ave Verum - Raminsh
Benedicto - Sisask
Psalm of Invocation - Rautavara
O Sacrum Convivium - Minisisk
Slavic Folksongs - Raminsh
First Snow - Holten
(I will conduct this in a slow 4 so the women who begin the piece need to have a really secure grasp of the rhythm. Feel the eighth note - sometimes in 3/8 and be aware of the symcops. Spend extra time on this)
Aamulla varhain - arr. Jaako Hulkkonen

Have a great week. See you on Tuesday.