AD Music Notes
This is where you’ll find notes from Laura Sam about the pieces we’re singing each semester.
November 9, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was wonderful to see so many of you at Elisabeth’s lovely service yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful time to remember Elisabeth and to support one another and Elisabeth’s family in a time of both celebration and loss – it was comforting to be surrounded by WVC sisters.
I have not forgotten our November birthdays – we will celebrate this coming rehearsal. 🙂
October 26, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed our rehearsal last night. I am hopeful that everyone got home safely in that downpour. Thank you for leading the All Hands Meeting, Kay. It is wonderful to think about how many members are working and have worked in the past on behalf of WVC. Yay us!
A reminder that the Sibelius practice files on our website are currently not working – Karla will see what’s up when she is back in town. In the meantime, you can use the MP3 and YouTube links.
October 24, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
After input from WVC members and much reflection, I am making a change in our repertoire – removing Unsung Saint and adding How Can I Keep From Singing arr. Gwyneth Walker.
In choosing Unsung Saint, I focused on the phases that resonated with me regarding some of the challenges brought on by the pandemic ‘pressing forward with unswerving courage,’ ‘met each untried situation with resourcefulness,’ ‘she illumined the dullness of routine and the loneliness of isolation with beauty and with life abundant.’
I did not, however, adequately consider other phrases and the overall effect that in celebrating the pioneer woman the text ignores the destruction brought upon the indigenous peoples of America by colonization and westward expansion.
How Can I Keep From Singing has become somewhat of a theme song of choral musicians during the pandemic and will complement our other repertoire very nicely. This arrangement is already in our library but has not been performed since 2007 (the Neil Ginsberg arrangement was more recently performed). It is joyful and interesting and I am confident we will enjoy working on it together (and it has a great piano part for Deb!).
We will not keep Unsung Saint in our library so feel free to discard it. Nancy will distribute How Can I Keep From Singing at an upcoming rehearsal (thank you, Nancy).
Thank you for making your concerns known. I am very proud and grateful to be in the company of thoughtful musicians with whom I can make wonderful music.
Very sincerely yours,
Laura
October 19, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Lovely to see and hear you last night at rehearsal! I enjoyed our rehearsal immensely.
PSA – if you have not already had yours, it’s a great time to consider getting your flu vaccine. I had both my flu and shingles vaccine a few weeks ago and was very glad to have the opportunity to do so. I hope that we can all be COVID, flu, and everything else contagious FREE this year.
October 13, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed hearing you sing last night at rehearsal – such fun! I hope you feel good about the work we are accomplishing on our repertoire – we are making great progress.
October 4, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I sure did enjoy our rehearsal last night and am already looking forward to next week.
Deb – we missed you! But we were all glad that you were enjoying time with your friends. Kathleen did a great job filling in as our accompanist – thank you, Kathleen!
September 20, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Laura D. said you all had a very successful and fun rehearsal – thank you for leading, Laura! I was thinking about you all the whole time and missing being with you.
September 13, 2021, Music Notes
Hello,
I had a lovely time with you at rehearsal last night. It is so wonderful to hear us sing and to dig into our repertoire together.
Happy birthday to all of our September and July birthdays!
August 31, 2021, Music Notes
Hello All,
I can’t tell you how much fun I had HEARING us sing together as we sight read through our repertoire. Yay us! I did sweat a river under my mask but am grateful for it (the mask, not the sweat). I heard my breathing was LOUD into the microphone – SORRY about that! I will try a lower mic placement and see if that will lessen the Darth Vader effect. 🙂
I shared wonderful news last night – Women’s Voices Chorus will be featured as a virtual choir at the NC American Choral Directors Association conference in October. I submitted our What the Heart Cannot Forget video and it was enthusiastically received. Yay us!
April 27, 2021, Music Notes
What a lovely visit we had from Jayne (Swank) Borras this evening! It was wonderful to hear her speak about My River Runs to Thee, sharing her insights and creative process. Thanks for the thoughtful questions you asked. Definitely a highlight!
After Jayne’s visit, we sang through all of our music with the mixes I created from our recordings. It is not the same as singing in person, but it is fun to hear our voices and to sing into the sound of us. Yay us!
April 13, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was so nice to see you all last night! It is hard to come inside and sit in front of a computer on a beautiful spring evening but you all make it worth it. 🙂
We spent the majority of our rehearsal working out details of What the Heart Cannot Forget and ended with a sing-through of The Bird’s Lullaby – such a cheerful song!
April 6, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was so nice to see your lovely faces last night – thanks to all who were able to attend rehearsal.
Project updates:
I Started Out Singing – If you recorded for this project, please check the list at the end of this email to be sure that your name is included. If you recorded and I don’t have your name listed, please let me know ASAP. If all is correct, no need to email me.
March 30, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
So nice to see your lovely faces at rehearsal!
Please check the list at the end of this email to make sure that your name is on it if you recorded My River Runs to Thee and/or O Ignee Spiritus. Let me know if I have inadvertently omitted your name or if there are any other issues. I will consider ‘no news is good news’ so you don’t need to email if everything is as it should be. Thank you!
March 24, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Always great to see your beautiful faces at rehearsal – and as always, I look forward to when I can hear your voices in rehearsal, as well.
March 16, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed seeing you at rehearsal last night! This past week as I edited your files, I also enjoyed hearing those of you who submitted recordings for My River Runs to Thee. One day, I will be able to both see and hear you at the same time – that will be wonderful. Until then, I am grateful for our continued pandemic-style music-making and appreciate the bond of friendship that sustains us through joys and sorrows.
March 10, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
What a lovely evening, presenting our commissioned piece, What the Heart Cannot Forget in honor of Elisabeth Curtis. Janet organized and led our presentation – thank you. We were joined by many members of Elisabeth’s family as well as Joyce Sutphen – poet, and Grace Brigham – composer. I thought it was a wonderful celebration of music, poetry, friendship and love – the perfect way to honor Elisabeth and mark International Women’s Day.
March 3, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed our rehearsal despite the many technical challenges – thank you for your patience. I am still in discussion with the senior Apple support team (and the engineers) about my computer that continues to be plagued with issues (the one I bought this past fall for 5K so that I would be able to do all of my virtual work). I mean, 5K is a lot for a computer – I do expect for it to work. I figure I will have it all straightened out when the pandemic is over and we are not longer so dependent on computers to make our music. Sigh.
February 23, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I missed you at rehearsal but had a wonderful time celebrating (virtually!) Andrew’s 60th birthday with family and friends. Laura D. filled me in with what you covered in my absence (see below). Thank you, Laura D.!
If you would like to record for our spring virtual concert, we need to get going on those projects. I will have guide tracks ready to post in the next few days.
Monday, 3/8 My River Runs to Thee recordings are due.
February 17, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
So good to see your beautiful, friendly faces at rehearsal. Welcome back, everyone, and welcome to our guest members joining us for the spring. We have a grand music-making adventure in front of us.
I continue to hear very positive feedback regarding our virtual concert, Angels Among Us. To date we have had 720 views of our Angels Among Us concert and 260 additional views of Snow Angel (WVC YouTube channel and my YouTube channel) – Yay us! Angels Among Us and Snow Angel are on the WVC YouTube channel so please feel free to share the links. For me, it feels good to share art and beauty right now.
I’m looking forward to the music we will create together for the next few months.
February 9, 2021, Music Notes
Hello All,
I received a lovely email from Sarah Quartel (Snow Angel composer) that I wanted to share with you. I sent the Snow Angel link to her a few weeks ago and it was great to hear from her today in such a positive way. I have heard many compliments from all of my family and friends regarding our concert – I loved it, too! I’m busy working on our spring repertoire and will look forward to seeing you all on Monday evening for our next musical adventure.
Yay us!
LJ