Hello Everyone,
Thank you for your attentive work and good humor last night. We had a lot of ground to cover for our last rehearsal of 2025 and I deeply appreciate how diligently and enthusiastically everyone participated.
We had many lovely musical moments and also some challenges. I am going to give my ears a rest and re-listen to the recordings I made and then send some specific notes in the coming days. I am sure that many of you are especially busy during the holidays but I would encourage you to not be away from your music for too long so that we don’t lose the ground we have gained. Hopefully, you marked your music with individual challenges so that you can work on those places.
The biggest ensemble challenges remain avoiding pitch drift (throughout but especially in Wild Embers), and tempo inconsistencies. I think the best way to work on both challenges is to sing with our practice files – I reference them often! They will definitely help in practicing consistent tempos and give you pitch reference to help avoid pitch drift. Then, listening to the reference performance recordings will help you to remember the expressive elements on which we have worked – dynamics, phrasing, articulation, etc.
If you have not already, please memorize What Happens When a Woman?, Like a Mountain, and Still I Rise. We will sing these pieces without music when we rehearse on January 5th,
January 5th is our last remaining rehearsal before we perform at Carolina Meadows on January 12th (tech rehearsal wearing our choral outfits).
I wish you all a joyous holiday season and hope that you enjoy the final days of 2025!
Laura