AD Music Notes
This is where you’ll find notes from Laura Sam about the pieces we’re singing each semester.
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
January 15, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I received an email this morning regarding recording ‘From Now On.’ The submission deadline has been extended if you would like to record but didn’t have time to record by today. The new deadline is Monday 5PM (Ireland time).
Also, Virginia pointed out that there is a discrepancy in the score that I didn’t alert you to at our last rehearsal: in addition to the corrections you shared, there is an additional measure at the end, (before the repeat and the end is also held out).
Now you know everything that I know about ‘From Now On’!
I will look forward to seeing you on Monday.
Laura
January 13, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was so nice to see you on Monday at rehearsal. It was a wonderful 90 minutes of music in the midst of the turmoil our last couple of weeks…and oh yeah, the pandemic.
We spent the bulk of our rehearsal working on The Angel and Izar ederrack, focusing on the Russian and Basque pronunciation. We then sang as Deb played voice parts – Yay Deb! – and with The Angel recording.
We also reviewed the details for the collaborative piece for the Choirs for Cancer – ‘From Now On.’ If you want to participate in that project, review my last email for details. There are two corrections in the score: delete m. 42 and add a measure after m. 69 so that there are 3 measures of whole notes. Don’t send me your recording – follow the instructions from the festival organizers (check my last email).
January 7, 2021, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
Happy New Year, although we are certainly off to a rough start today in our country and world, I am so very sorry to say. I am looking forward to brighter days ahead.
I look forward to each Monday evening when I can see your faces (wish I could hear your sing!) and we can immerse ourselves in music for a time. This past week I had the good fortune of being assigned to Brenda Edward’s break out room – it ended up just being the two of use. Brenda spoke so eloquently of her feelings for WVC and how it has sustained her mind and spirit, especially during the pandemic. Listening to Brenda’s beautiful and heartfelt words, I felt a sense of deep gratitude for Brenda and for being part of such an amazing and wonderful organization. I can’t imagine the pandemic without having music to look forward to, and having the company of the lovely human beings in WVC makes it beyond special. This afternoon I recorded several pieces for virtual projects and it felt good to sing beautiful music with meaningful texts while chaos was happening beyond my doors. For me, making music with WVC is a way to stay grounded with an artistic purpose while being part of something bigger than myself.
December 9, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed seeing you all Monday night. It was nice to have a visit from Ginger Wyrick (UNCC) who hosted our collaborative concert and hear her kind words. I have received several emails from folks who tuned into our concert and happily pass along their compliments as they thoroughly enjoyed our wonderful evening of shared music.
I’ll try to post the rehearsal link soon…it has to be pieced together from when I zoomed out.
December 1, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed seeing you all Monday night. Yay us!
PLEASE CHECK THE PARTICIPANT LIST at the end of this email to make sure that I have included everyone who submitted recordings for Snow Angel 4. Sweet Child. Please email me immediately if you don’t see your name where you expect it because once I put our lovely faces in a grid I will be past the point of no return and I am working on the project now and hope to have it ready for Saturday. Thank you!
Our concert is Saturday, December 5th!
Here is a link to the program order https://gingerwyrick.com/program.pdf (it will last around 1 hour).
Register on our website under the Concert tab and feel free to share this information with your friends and family. There is no admission charge but everyone needs to register. Our collaborative Rise and Stand (110 singers!) will be the finale of the concert.
November 23, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed seeing you all Monday night. Yay us!
If you missed rehearsal, the link is below if you would like to see what we were up to in your absence.
November 17, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed seeing you all Monday night. Yay us!
If you missed rehearsal, I am sorry to say that I recorded exactly 8 seconds of me staring blankly into my computer screen…not helpful to anyone. I paused the recording during our Happy Half Hour and when I THOUGHT I restarted it at 7:30ish I apparently was not successful. Ah well, apologies.
Karla has updated our website with all of the project information and guide tracks that you will need to record movements 3 and 4 of Snow Angel. Movements 3 and 4 due 11/23/20 (deadline extended to 11/25) Thank you, Karla!