Hello Everyone,
Two people have reported receiving weird texts from me…but they are not from me. My legit phone number IS 336-263-7754 (the scammer is using my real number). When questioned, the scammers texted that I am not using that number anymore but rather using a new number. Definitely scammers. Please disregard and block.
Thanks for another wonderful rehearsal. We are making great progress (past the fold!) and are on track to have covered all of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of our repertoire on schedule.
Deb will be away on a fun adventure so won’t be at our rehearsal next week – hope she is not reading email but if so…Deb, please know we will miss you and look forward to your return!
Try to carve out a few minutes in your busy lives to review your music and work with the practice files on the places that are a challenge for you. Two weeks is too long to go in between working on a piece – we can only cover about half of our repertoire in one rehearsal and need to review individually.
Virginia sent me an interesting podcast from BBC Outlook – Radioactive: my great-grandad’s chemical confession.
This article popped up in my newsfeed from Popular Science: The Radioactive ‘miracle water’ that killed its believers
Women’s Suffrage Museum, Set to Open in 2028 (we should go and sing – time for a road trip!)
Richer for Her mm. 34-55
– This piece really gives us a chance to dig into what legato means to choral musicians. We need to, of course, connect the notes…but more importantly create long lines that move to the high points of the poetic phrase. But, the text can get lost in the ‘sound’ if we don’t attend to clarity in our consonants so that will also be part of our focus.
– We sing the word ‘for’ many times in this piece – let’s start each one with a strong F. It should be sounded ahead of the note so that the vowel opens up on the beat.
– Nice work on this – it is lovely to hear this beautiful piece sung so expressively.
No Fairy Tale Here mm. 35-55
– great job on the pitches and rhythms…and this piece definitely has lots of challenges.
– the alliteration in the text is very, very important in communicating the meaning, especially the consonant F. Find all of those words in your score and mark those. Luckily, it is an easy sound to sing (furious, frustrated, fiery, fought, finds, fiction, frigid, facts, found, flags)
The Radium Girl mm. 53-92
– all the way to the double bar line – hooray!
– breaths are an eighth note long throughout
– note the minor second in m. 80 on the syllable ‘un.’ The sopranos are on an Ab and the altos are on a G.
– think of an IH vowel (as in the word ‘sit’) when you sing ‘bm’ rather than thinking ‘bum,’ which I think has a tendency to lack the vibrance that will keep us in the center of the pitches.
– remember that B is a voiced consonant (with pitch) and that if we sing it under pitch we will sing the vowel under pitch.
– take a breath after the word ‘bed’ – hopefully this will give us the chance to sound a strong D at the end of ‘bed.’
Hands Upon the Plow mm. 41-89
– great work on this – progress!
– page 6, as we sing the oh vowel, we need to change pitches like a school of fish moving. Everyone moves simultaneously so we don’t have a mushy sound.
– Remember to swing the 8th note.
Rise Up mm. 54-68
– good work! We will spend more time on this next time.
Malala mm. 23-46
– solid work on pitches and rhythms
– we will work on singing in the center of the pitch so that this piece stays energetic, vibrant, and in tune!
Be Like Jane mm. 66-78
– we will need to pick up the tempo, but we sang a respectable 115 bpm last night, so good for us.
– We have several more musical themes to accomplish in this piece before we reach the finish line but we have made great progress.
– go through your part slowly and make sure you know when you are singing ‘n’ or ‘nah.’ That’s tricky.
Woohoo! I’m so excited about our repertoire and the progress we are making. See you next week!
XXOO,
Laura
| Repertoire | 10/6/25 | 10/13/25 |
| *What Happens When a Woman? (SV) (M) | mm. 39-46 | |
| *Wild Embers (SV) | mm. 40-66 | |
| *The Girl With the Numbers (SV) | mm. 98-114 | |
| No Fairy Tale Here | mm. 56-68 | |
| The Radium Girl | all | |
| *Hands Upon the Plow | mm. 98-125 | |
| Rise Up | mm. 69-81 | |
| Malala | mm. 47-61 | |
| Be Like Jane | mm. 79-100 | mm. 100-112 |
| *Richer for Her (SV) | mm. 57-80 | |
| *Like a Mountain (SV) (M) | mm. 30-48 | |
| *Still I Rise (SV) (M) | mm. 52-84 | |
| Water Women (Chamber Choir) | mm. 44-79 | mm. 80-104 |