In the middle of this heatwave it is difficult to believe that summer is once again coming to an end and fall schedules are ramping up. Camerata rehearsals begin next week: Tuesday, September 5, 7-9:30 pm at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts (MCPA) 6199 Chebucto Rd., near Windsor St. I am asking that everyone arrive at least 10 minutes early to meet the new singers, renew old friendships and collect your scores.
This is going to be a jammed packed season - schedule-wise you will be busy and musically you will be challenged. Everyone will be needing to work on scores in between rehearsals. We will be giving no less than three world premieres of new works this year and the repertoire will range from the Renaissance to music composed within the last month! This season, I want to welcome my new Assistant, Tristan Cleveland-Thompson and once again look forward to collaborating with our accompanist extraordinare, Cynthia Davies. I have also asked Christina Murray to continue her work as Diction/Language Coach. Each of these people will bring their own special gifts to help make Camerata a better choir and I am fortunate to have such a team of such capable musicians .
I recently read an article which interviewed some of the leading conductors of choirs from across the United States. The question posed to each conductor was "how can your singers be better prepared for their first rehearsal challenges? " In a number of the responses, the first suggestion was that the singers carefully review the choir's year long calendar and compare it to their personal calendar so that conflicts are avoided. Most importantly we eliminate the situation where a month before the proverbial May concert, where I get a call that something has suddenly "popped up" and prevents the singer from attending the dress rehearsal or (worse) - the concert. I thought "how obvious" however it occurred to me that not all singers do/have done this. Please make it your responsibility to check the year's calendar here on the blog.
The purpose of the blog is to be more effective in our communication, but in order for that to happen, you will have to check it each week. For the month of September I will email you reminders after rehearsal each week to let you know when the blog has been updated. After September, it will be your responsibility to check. For those of you who still are not able to access the blog, I have asked Christina to email you a set of simple instructions to let you to sign on and become a member - thus allowing you to see what has been posted each week. There will also be room to add your own comments - but remember, always be nice!
As you can see on your schedules, there has been an addition on Saturday, September 25. The Association of Canadian Choral Communities (ACCC) is holding its quarterly meeting in Halifax and part of its mandate to reach the broader choral community, ACCC is holding conducting workshops on Saturday morning and afternoon. Camerata has been asked to be the lab choir for conducting students for Saturday morning from 9 am to noon. Xara has been asked to be the SSA lab choir on Saturday afternoon. Both choirs will receive honariums which will go into general revenue. On the choir calendar, Camerata already has a scheduled Mozart Requiem rehearsal, however I would ask that you plan to be at the conducting workshop (led by the fabulous I Choristi's conductor, Debra Carins) so that the conducting students have a good workshop choir to hone their skills. (I know that a couple of you already have committments which you have already spoken to me about.) The three repertoire selections for the workshop will be taken from last season's repertoire and will be easy pieces for the new singers to learn quickly. I will bring the copies for our first rehearsal. Please see this as an opportunity for Camerata to give back to a community which has been overwhelming in its support of us this past year.
So welcome to the new season! Welcome new singers and returning old friends! Everyone - get ready for an exciting, challenging, demanding year of extraordinary music making. I can't wait to begin!
