AD Music Notes

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for a lovely rehearsal last night!

We will continue to work on finding our optimum seating arrangement so that everyone can hear, see, and enjoy the rehearsal. Just look for your seat by finding the card with the part that you sing. I hope that you can hear the other parts well enough to tune while still hearing your own part as needed while we learn pitches and rhythms. I think I discovered the source of our sound system issue (short in the mic cord) and we are working on solutions.

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Hello Everyone,

This email will be longer than usual – thanks in advance for reading to the end! Subsequent AD emails following rehearsals will not be this lengthy – but there is a fair amount to cover at the beginning. So I recommend that you pour a beverage and read on!

Thanks for a wonderful rehearsal last night! It was so much fun to dig into our music and wow – what a gorgeous sound we have to work with as our starting off point!!! I am so looking forward to the musical journey we will experience together this season and am beyond grateful to be a part of our music-making!

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Hello Everyone,

It was wonderful to see you at our first rehearsal. I am only sorry that I have to wait two weeks to see you and hear you sing again!

I really enjoyed singing through our Songs of Celestial Spheres repertoire and look forward to digging into each one of these wonderful pieces with all of you. There were already moments of beauty even though we have just begun!

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Hello Everyone,

I did not want to turn in tonight before telling you all how very much I loved making music with you this afternoon. I cherished every single second of our concert and hope that you did, too.

I also hope that you feel accomplished and fulfilled by our shared experience. I think it was a grand re-entry into in-person performances! It was truly a lovely concert and the people who spoke to me felt very moved and connected to what we were sharing.

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Hello Everyone,

Happy Spring Concert Eve!

I had a fabulous two days in Charlotte at NC All State Chorus – I learned so much and had a wonderful time listening to and being inspired by the music-making of over 500 high school singers and their super smart/talented clinicians. I was choir manager for the SATB chorus led by Dr. Andrew Minear from Orlando, Florida with Gwen Hall accompanying – I absorbed all of it like a sponge…(a masked and distanced sponge!)

Preparing for our concert tomorrow, when I got home this evening I listened to the recording of our Thursday night rehearsal. I felt really great on my drive home on Thursday but after listening carefully I feel even better about tomorrow. I might be too excited to sleep tonight!

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Hello Everyone,

Wow! We sure did work hard tonight – I had a fabulous time with you all. We have wonderful music to share on Sunday and I am so looking forward to our concert.

Thanks to everyone for all you have contributed to help us get where we are.

I’m headed out to Charlotte in the wee hours tomorrow morning for NC High School All State Chorus so probably won’t have time to listen to our rehearsal recording before i get home on Saturday night. But, don’t expect extensive notes. There will be a few things we can turn our attention to when we meet on Sunday at 1:30 but we are ready for our concert (and I am VERY happy and hope that you are, too)!

Hugs all around,
Laura

P.S.  Sorry I caused confusion! Our call is 2:30 not 1:30 on Sunday. Clearly, I just wanted to hang out with you for an extra hour! I will look forward to seeing you at 2:30.
Thanks again for a beautiful rehearsal last night.
Thanks also to those who alerted me to my mistake…takes a village!

🙂 Laura

Hello Everyone,

Thanks for all of your wonderful work at our rehearsal tonight. 3 hours is a loooooooong rehearsal and I appreciate all of your effort. I know your arms got a workout holding your folders.

We have just a few polishing details to go – guest musicians will join us on Thursday – looking forward to hearing them! After rehearsal, we decided that the guest musicians will be on the same side as Deb…so soloists and body percussionists, you will have all of the space to my right.

Please thank Karla for our beautiful program layout and printing and Amy for her proofreading.The program looks gorgeous – THANK YOU! Feels fabulous to hold it in my hand! Karla also posted the color version on our website. 🙂

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Hello Everyone,

Such an exciting time for WVC with 2 more rehearsals to work out performance logistics and polish before we have our Concert. I look forward to seeing everyone at First Presbyterian Church in Durham for our rehearsals on Monday 4/25 and Thursday 4/28.

Regarding our May 9th picnic:
Information from Wendy:
Here is the sign up genius link for the picnic:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4EAFAB2EA2F9C07-listening

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Hello Everyone,

We accomplished a lot of really good work last night – it is a pleasure to make music with you all. I left rehearsal very happy and I hope that you did, too. Yay us!

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Hello Everyone,

Great work tonight! We really made a lot of progress (and gave Deb goose bumps!) Woo hoo!

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Hello Everyone,

What a wonderful time I had with you last night at rehearsal – everything felt so solid and strong (despite my wanky music stand!). I was so happy that we were in the ‘green’ and could move to 3′ spacing – what a joy to hear everyone so clearly.

Please consider auditioning this week for The Imaginary Garden solo – deadline for solo recording submission is Saturday, 3/19/22. Here are the instructions:

• Give yourself the correct starting pitch – you need to sing the solo in the key that it is written (E Major).
• Please sing at the tempo marked: eighth note=120
• Please breathe at the breath marks and on the rest.
• Record yourself singing – you can use your phone’s voice memo app, or record a video using your phone if you are not sure how to access your voice app.
• Email the file to me…or if the file is too large to send and you need to text it, that is fine, too (336-263-7754). You can also upload your file to a Google folder and send me the link – whatever works for you. Normally Laura D. would organize this, but since she is on LoA please send your recording directly to me.

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Hello Everyone,

This past week I had time to dig a bit deeper in looking at Prayer for Ukraine and wanted to share this update with you.

Attached is an updated score, please discard the ones you had previously. I will bring new copies to rehearsal. If you are joining from Zoom, you can print yourself a copy.

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Hello Everyone,

Thanks for a lovely rehearsal last night. I came home to a dark house (and neighborhood)…we finally had power restored this afternoon. I sure am spoiled…really appreciate having electricity!

Thank you for the chocolate chip cookies, Janet – they were delish!

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Hello Everyone,

At the beginning of rehearsal, I plan to include the Prayer for Ukraine. I have copies for in-person, but if you are joining via Zoom, you can open the file and sing along.
We will not sing on text tonight.

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Hello Everyone,

I had such a fun time with everyone on Saturday and am very happy with all that we accomplished. We are in a great place to dig deeper on each of our pieces. Lots of detail work ahead.

I echo Kay’s thanks to all and also thank her for her presentation. Since we had such a short time to spend on her material, I have invited Kay to spend 5-7 minutes during our upcoming warm ups to give us the opportunity to apply the concepts that she shared with us. Looking forward to it!

What a treat to hear Deb play. Thank you, Deb!

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Hello Everyone,

Bonus email this week! Several of you asked for additional practice tools for Storm Comin’, so I created the following options for you – should be something to fit everyone’s needs. Thanks for working so hard on this piece.

I created videos with the music scrolling and me performing the body percussion. I am stepping on my RIGHT foot first, but YOU step on your LEFT foot first. I should be your mirror. Don’t mind me if I sing the wrong word – you sing the right one!

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Hello Everyone,

It was wonderful to hear you sing last night – thank you for the fun and productive rehearsal.

Thank you, Shelia, for the ah-mazing ‘cheese biscuits’ (not sure what to call those morsels of savory deliciousness).

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Hello Everyone,

Happy 2/22/22 Twos-day!

Lots of progress on our repertoire  – thanks to everyone for your great effort! I sure do have fun making music with such wonderful musicians (and humans!).

Thanks for the fun rhythm activity, Kay, and for the treats, Wendy. We all appreciate you both!

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Hello Everyone,

What a fun Valentine’s Day rehearsal! I so enjoyed sharing my love of choral music and WVC with you all. Thanks for bringing the treats, Jackie! I have attached our Valentine’s messages – be prepared to feel the LOVE when you read them. Hope I didn’t miss your message – if I did, let me know and I will add it to the document.

We made great progress on our music, especially working on expressive elements of dynamics, articulation, and phrasing. The chorus sounds full and vibrant – such a joy!

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Hello Everyone,

Thanks for a very fun rehearsal last night! It was great to work on some musical details as we took a deep dive into some of our music.

Thanks, Rachel for leading our JOY activity – always wonderful to laugh and share our hidden talents with one another (Beep Beep).
When you have a chance (no deadline or pressure), please complete a survey about yourself – the link is below. This is not required but will be used as a JOY activity.

Getting to know the VOICES of WVC Survey

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