AD Music Notes
This is where you’ll find notes from Laura Sam about the pieces we’re singing each semester.
November 11, 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. I would direct your attention to the end of the rehearsal – Kay shared with us all a wonderful breakdown of our leadership structure as a reminder of who we go to when we have suggestions or concerns regarding the various facets of WVC. It’s easy to find if you scroll over – blue and white PowerPoint. This is also going to be on the website, I do believe, so you can check it out there.
WVC Rehearsal 11/9/20
October 27, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone!
I enjoyed our rehearsal last night – thanks to all who were able to be there.
If you missed our rehearsal, I am sorry to say that I did not record it so there is no rehearsal link to share. I left Zoom to restart my computer during the happy half hour and when I came back my Zoom didn’t automatically record since I was no longer the host….and so there you go. Sorry about that!
October 20, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone!
Thank you so very much for your congratulatory signs (and cheerful noise). You made me feel celebrated and loved. I had all the feels. THANK YOU!
If you missed our rehearsal, here is the YouTube link.
October 17, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope you are doing well! I have a correction for rehearsal 10/19/20:
Looking forward to our next rehearsal – Oct. 19th – we will have an All Hands Meeting from 9-9:30 PM after we finish singing. Important information will be shared regarding WVC goals and logistics.
We will work on our Angel Gallery the last half hour of our 10/26/20 rehearsal.
Looking ahead to 11/2, our very own superstar, Kathleen J., is going to teach us techniques to extend our higher ranges. Can’t wait!
Cheers!
Laura
October 13, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed our rehearsal last night and was grateful for BOTH Internet and electricity for the entire rehearsal (electrician is coming out to check our breaker box – until then, fingers crossed!).
If you missed us, please know that we missed you! Here is the link to the rehearsal.
I most definitely recommend that you watch Deb’s Dishin’ segment and her helpful advice of score mapping (thank you, Deb!) and the final 1/2 hour to hear Jacke Walter’s Red Cross presentation. It was so inspiring to hear of Jackie and her mother’s work as well as all of the wonderful people who work and volunteer for the Red Cross. THANK YOU Jackie for enriching our rehearsal and for your inspiration…and most of all for your lifetime of dedicated service with the Red Cross.
October 7, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone, Once again, I enjoyed our rehearsal! If you missed (we missed you!). Here is the YouTube link of our rehearsal: https://youtu.be/mQFl6v4PM9Y. Because I was with the A2s for sectional rehearsal, that is what is recorded. If you don’t have time for anything else, I encourage you to watch the second half of rehearsal when we had Sarah Quartel as our guest artist. Hearing from Sarah was such a lovely treat as she gave us many insights to her creative process and information specifically about her composition, Snow Angel – and all from her home in Canada. Thank you to Deb, Laura D. and Lara for your contributions in leading our sectional rehearsals and thanks to all who participated in our music-making. Our next recording project is Angel of Mercy. Recordings are due on Monday, October 19th. For this project, wear either red or black, please. We won’t need images from members (unless you have some of yourself involved in the work of the Red Cross). 10/12 Rehearsal Focus: All: Angels of Mercy Sectionals: (S, M, A): Rise and Stand (I will have part specific recordings ready by next week) All: Snow Angel (sing through all 5 movements – mark your scores regarding any challenges with which you would like some help) Jackie Walters will lead the second half of our rehearsal with her Red Cross presentation (can’t wait!) 10/19 Rehearsal Focus All: Rise and Stand Sectionals: (S1, S2, A1, A2): Snow Angel (answer any remaining questions) Our second half of rehearsal isn’t confirmed so stay tuned! I look forward to seeing you at our next rehearsal! Cheers! LJ Hello Everyone, Me again! I forgot to include the link to the virtual project that Sarah Quartel mentioned – a virtual premier of a commissioned project she worked on earlier this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpZcWwOEwqY Cheers! LJ
September 30, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I enjoyed our rehearsal – I’m so glad that you were able to join us for an evening of music (and Deb’s pie!). If you missed (we missed you!), here is the YouTube link of our rehearsal: https://youtu.be/hkDcq7_13cQ. This email is delayed because it took multiple attempts since Monday night to successfully upload our Zoom rehearsal to YouTube (struggles – it’s a large file!) but finally, success. Because I was the person recording the meeting, the sectional portion of the rehearsal is A2 and the small discussion group is the one to which I was assigned.
Thank you Deb. Kay, and Laura for your contributions in leading our sectional rehearsals and thanks to all who participated in our music-making.
September 22, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I had a lot of fun at last night’s rehearsal and I hope that you did, too! It was great to see everyone. Once again I was sad to not hear you sing but exceptionally happy that we are keeping our chorus as strong as we can during these challenging times. We will one day again sing in the same room together, and I think we will be stronger than ever because of the effort we are making now. I celebrate us – Yay us
Whoops! I inadvertently recorded our Happy Half Hour last night but not our rehearsal. Sigh. Therefore, there won’t be a zoom rehearsal link. The good news is there was only one view of last week’s rehearsal and that was me checking to be sure that the video was playing properly so this is most likely not an inconvenience to many. I’ll provide links to Kathleen’s videos below so that you can catch up with the substance of her presentation if you like.
Four things are most on my mind this morning:
September 15, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
It was wonderful to see you at rehearsal! Wish I could have heard you sing, too! It was lovely to hear some of the favorite and legendary stories of WVC’s early days that have been passed down over the years. We had our technical challenges but when you consider that no one had to have their forehead stitched up with green thread, I say, “Yay us!”.
September 2, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
What a thrill to have our first virtual rehearsal of our season last night! Although I certainly missed the sound of our voices I loved watching you sing and loved seeing your smiles and engaged faces.
It is very inspiring to know that Women’s Voices Chorus is strong in spirit even these challenging times.
There are so many wonderful and exciting plans for the months ahead – I am so looking forward to our virtual musical journey.
August 25, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I am so looking forward to our first rehearsal! Welcome back to all of our returning WVC members and welcome to our guests who are joining us for our virtual season. A very special welcome to Mary Lycan – WVC Founder and Artistic Director (1993-2006) who will be joining us along with founding and current members, Elisabeth Curtis, Patty Daniel, and Jaqueline Little. Such fun!
We will most definitely sing on 8/31 but first we will need to build a solid understanding of how we will best use our technology during the season ahead. Some of our first rehearsal time, therefore, will be spent on important logistical matters, led by our president, Kay (thank you, Kay!).
August 7, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are doing well. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our sample rehearsal on 8/3/20.
Attached is a PDF with rehearsal links – it’s self explanatory – you can click through the links and/or watch the Zoom rehearsal video. There is a “bonus link” at the bottom of the page to one of Roger Hale’s warm up sequences. He does a nice job and I think you will enjoy “dusting off your voice” if you have taken a rest from singing these past months. Also, working on Cheryl Porter’s “niiiiiiiiiiiiineteeeeeeen” a few times a day will get your voice moving!
May 4, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are and your families are all doing well. I continue to miss you all and our music.
I didn’t think to sing to our April birthday sisters last month so here are both April and May birthday songs with the list of names so that you can sing along (click the links). I apologize to the sopranos, but I couldn’t sing your glorious A3 in the key of A so I took the liberty of moving it down a 3rd to the key of F, especially since I know most of our A2s have beautiful C3s. And this will give you coloratura sopranos the perfect opportunity to pop out your F2s!
April 27, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are and your families are all doing well.
I am sorry that we were not able to share our music with the community yesterday. I do look forward to the day when we are singing all of our amazing music again. One day we will! I spent the day with “I Started Out Singing” running through my mind. Luckily, it wasn’t “Joy” or I probably would have had to run up and down the street a zillion times yelling “I am wild, I am wild!” That might have caused a neighborhood stir!
April 20, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I have missed us (again) this week! I hope that you all are as well as can be in these challenging times.
I admit that I am sad that this is our tech week for our canceled concert on Saturday and that we are not together. But, then I remind myself that on that happy day when we are singing together again, our connection will be powerful, our music beautiful, our laughter sweet, and our sisterhood strong.
April 14, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I forgot to include in yesterday’s email this virtual choir opportunity so here it is, if you are interested – Musical Solidarity Project/Covid-19.
https://www.nofaryacobi.com/virtualverdichoir-covid-19
I plan to submit a recording. I had the good fortune of singing Va Pensiero in the Verona Arena as part of the mass choir sing at the closing of the Verona International Days of Choral Music Festival….a glorious experience. On the closing day of the festival, choir singers from all over the world gathered and paraded through town and then sang Va Pensiero together once we were inside the arena. Magical!
The deadline for video submissions is April 30th.
Hope today is a good one for you.
Hugs (from afar),
Laura
April 13, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I have missed us (again) this week! I hope that you all are as well as can be in these challenging times.
Hooray for our slate of newly elected board members – Kay, Marsha, Brenda, and Jasmine I know that we will all benefit greatly from their leadership and dedication and that we are all looking forward to everything that they will offer WVC. Yay us!
April 6, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I have missed us this week!
Thank you, Kay for our announcements last night. What a wonderful slate of board candidates! Thank you for all of the work you continue to do, even as we face these challenging times.
March 29, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I have missed us this week!
Thank you, Kay for our announcements last night. We are planning for the future and that is a great feeling.
March 23, 2020, Music Notes
Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are all weathering this storm and the challenges that face us daily. I think about WVC and miss you all so much. I have been using my time at home to research repertoire and plan our future concerts so your voices have been in my ears all this past week – a very pleasant sound!
I do want to let you know that I made the decision to delay the repertoire I had planned for our January 2021 concert and have pushed it to January 2022. I know that personally I will need to fill my soul with music that will lift my spirits – and the same might be true for you, as well. The multi-movement anchor piece I had planned for that concert, Anne Frank: A Living Voice, is emotionally challenging in even the easiest of times. It is undoubtedly an extraordinary piece but, at least for me, I would like some distance from our present circumstances before undertaking it. The other pieces I have planned for that concert are also uniquely compelling and I look forward to working on them with you. Several weeks ago I had a long phone conversation Linda Tutas Haugen (composer of the Anne Frank piece) and she is excited and ready to meet with us (probably via Skype or Zoom) when the time comes. If you haven’t already met Linda, she is really interesting and fun and it will be a treat for us to hear from her.
So then what are we going to sing in the fall? I have chosen a delightful program (at least I think so!) of angel music. It will challenge, uplift, and engage us…and I can’t wait for us to sing together again! When I am closer to finalizing the program, I will share it with you so that we will all have something musical to look forward to in the fall. Finalizing repertoire takes time – but I did enough work already so that we could reword/update our grant proposals with the new concert theme in mind (thanks to Rah for leading the grant writing and to Amy G. for her editing work, along with insightful advice and help from Kay and Karla).
I guess all of this is to say that while we are regretfully on hold for now in regard to our music rehearsals, WVC continues to move forward with the anticipation of better times ahead. We continue to work and to plan so that we will be ready to sing when the time comes.
Meanwhile, have you been singing with Jodie O’Regen? Let’s keep our voices moving! http://www.songaweekbyjodie.com
The most fun I have had singing this week has been with Cheryl Porter. She is one of my absolute favorite vocal coaches. If you have not already, please, please, please, learn this exercise and sing it, and then sing it some more. It is so much fun! I can’t help but smile the whole time I am singing. And please don’t sit/stand still! Throw in some choreography! https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1432019343647482
I will continue to send weekly emails but please know that I think of us everyday.
Love and Hugs (from afar),
Laura